I think Cambodia was my favorite place I’ve been so far on SAS. It wasn’t a port (obviously) that SAS stopped at, I was on a separate trip though SAS and we flew to Cambodia. And as some of my group members (there were about 60 of us total) said, the pictures and videos seriously don’t do any of it any justice. You have to travel there for yourself to be able to take in everything that I was able to. The people are SO friendly, the sights are so beautiful, and the memories are priceless. I was there for 3 days and two nights, and SAS definitely hooked it up along the lines of food and where we stayed.
Here it goes:
We flew to Phnom Penh at like 2:00 and once we arrived we took a bus to their National Museum. They didn’t allow photography in the museum area but I got lots of pictures of the garden area they had and the outside of the building. The building was red (a lucky color) with an Asian design-it was really pretty. The museum wasn’t indoor but not outdoor. It had a roof but no walls, if that makes sense. It was so neat and the things we saw were ancient artifacts which of course now I can’t remember the names cause we couldn’t take pictures of it. Google it maybe?
Also, this means there is NO ac in the museum. If you are born in raised in dry-heat-Colorado this place is some kind of intense you cannot even begin to imagine. I don’t know if you’ve been to Florida in July or not but Cambodia in general feels like that..times 5 or 10. Seriously, it was 33ish degrees Celsius, which means it was about 95 Fahrenheit plus the humidity makes it feel around 105/110. It’s SO miserable but I managed to put that aside because uh hello I was in Cambodia!
Anyways after we were done there we headed to the Mekong River to take an hour long sunset cruise. To get onto the boat (yes, it is a boat, not ship [ships carry boats]), we had to climb up this piece of, I’m pretty sure, petrified wood that was propped up from the ground and rested onto the boat. So, getting on to the boat was a potential bad accident waiting to happen, but it turned out to be quite sturdy-well it held up for all of us SASsholes- so it worked.
The cruise was great; you could either sit upstairs or down stairs. We all decided to sit upstairs and enjoy the view (and breeze) to its fullest. We sailed along the river as the sun began to set and it was gorgeous. I got some great pictures and got some great views of the river and “floating houses” that are located literally on the river. You also see people rowing those long boats while wearing the cone shaped hats and steering with some sort of bamboo stick. It’s like something you’d see at Disney, but this is seriously the real deal. This keeps happening to me, I’ll see a temple in China or a Shrine in Japan or this example too and I’m so used to seeing the model version in Vegas or Disney that it’s so unreal to me that I am actually seeing the real thing. Anyways the cruise was great and it gave us a chance to meet a few new people too. (There were 60 of us but we were divided into two groups for the whole trip, and yes my bus, Bus2, was better).
After our cruise we went up to the main street area where we waited for the bus to take us to our next stop. Though, we were interrupted. As we went up to the main street we heard this loud techno music and I kid you not like 45-50 people are all in unison doing aerobics outside on this street all imitating this guy in spandex with a mic. attached to his face. It was so hilarious and some of our SAS kids decided to join in for a few minutes too. Don’t even worry I got a video and it’s hilarious.
So anyway next we went off to the Palm Tree Orphanage. This is a big deal to SAS because one of our own onboard psychologists/counselors had a major part in starting this organization and ever since many SAS alums have donated their time by volunteering at this orphanage. Also apparently this is where Angelina Jolie adopted her kid-which I don’t really care about because I don’t like her but at least he has a good life now. So anyway we had to cross a busy busy street go get to the street this orphanage was on and it was dark out so it was pretty sketch but all 60 of us white kids made it across and managed no damage but about a million stares. So were walking up to the orphanage which is partially outside and all of these little kids are excitedly waiting for us even outside of the gates to the Palm Tree.
These kids were SO cute. I guess there are 90 in total (or around that number) and for how much poverty they had come from and such a limited lifestyle compared to what we live in the United States they were so grateful for every minute they had, or so it seemed. As we walked into the entrance a little girl immediately latched on to my arm and proceeded to show me pretty much every square inch of the orphanage. From what I understood she was around 9 years old and her name was something along the lines of Perrier. She was the cutest little girl and we both had on pink and one of my fellow sasers gave her one of the many pink scarves we had brought for the kids. Her brother Odum latched on to my friend Stacy and showed her and Lindsay around the place. All the sas kids seemed to have their “own” kid that was showing them around. There was an outdoor courtyard and this little girl brought me to the swing where we did that for a while and then she taught me this hand game that would be similar to down by the banks in the US. It was so funny seeing her trying to teach me how to do it. After we started playing there were a ton of others playing too and we got in a big circle and played. You do the patty cake patty cake motion and sing this song and then make a funny face and then everyone freezes and whoever moves first loses and goes to the inside of the circle and becomes the judge. And you play this over and over. It was so fun and after a while they told us to sing so as we were all sweating out any sort of liquid we had consumed so brilliant mind decided we should sing jingle bells- how appropriate. But they loved it none the less.
We only got to spend like 30minutes at the orphanage but it was definitely life changing. It was so hard to say goodbye to the kids. This has made me want to come back to Cambodia and especially the orphanage. I have made it a promise to myself that I will travel back there someday to help. It’s these kind of things that make me realize that when I get back to the US I’m going to be so much different from my peers, especially down in Durango. I’m not going to be able to stand when someone starts complaining that their steak is cooked medium rather than well done or that it’s too hot out. Pretty crazy that 30minutes can change someone so much.
After the orphanage we took the bus to such a nice restaurant call Khmer Surin (you can look it up if you want. Im sure my dad has already pulled it up in a separate tab). Anyways the food was awesome and I met some new people at dinner and it was semi outdoor with a hut overhead. Totally something you’d picture in a foreign country like Cambodia (but way nicer).
After that we checked into our hotel and went to bed. We got paired with a roommate alphabetically which worked out for me cause Lindsay (who im already friends with) ended up being my roommate. Also something to note: this hotel was absurdly nice and the beds were queen size which was such a nice change cause my bed on the ship is like a extra small twin.
Okay so this is day one. I’m just going to upload this now and type day 2 and 3 later.
I’ve been so busy cause I’ve had papers due and a midterm and most importantly tomorrow is SEA OLYMPICS! I’m part of the yellow sea which means I will be decked out in all yellow tomorrow and my “sea” will be competing in various events such as: nail the sailor, dress your LLC, the salty whistle pirates pull, sea fued, world cup of crab soccer and much more! I’d say wish us luck but I know we don’t need it J. Whichever sea wins will get the privilege of getting off the ship first in Florida, which I, by the way, find bitter sweet. I have no desire to get off the ship, but I know I’ll be excited to see my family and show them and tell them all about my experiences.
I can’t believe this is already half over.
I don’t ever want to leave this place.
I could seriously stay here forever.
Also we got tacos for lunch today-such a major deal! And yes they were delicious.
xx
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