Temples and Tuk-Tuks

Sunday morning, I headed out for one more run along the riverside trail. I am not going to miss this heat... We enjoyed one last breakfast at the hotel. I am going to miss the coffee... After breakfast, we headed toward the river. We passed Kasol along the way (he seems to hang out and hope for rides at the same street corner) and said our goodbyes to him. And then we made it to the river and walked around a bit. Anything to stretch our legs before a long travel day! Goodbye, Kasol! Goodbye, Tonle Sap and Mekong Rivers. If only we could've taken a ride in this one... About 11:30am, we left for the brand-new Phnom Penh airport. It's literally the most beautiful airport I've ever seen (it opened in October) and it was absolutely empty. Like -- no airplanes, no people (practically speaking).  We grabbed a Cambodian lunch (well, Taylor got Starbucks) and moved along to our gate. We fly first to Singapore and then on to LA. It's going to be a loooooooong day. She found the o...

After visiting Tuol Sleng, we made it back to the hotel and took a deep breath. I was thankful for the beautiful flowers and lush trees at the hotel -- somehow all that greenery helped to distance the horrors from Tuol Sleng. We walked down the street and found a spot for lunch. It felt good to sit and eat and decompress. Lunch on a rooftop deck. Pretty sure the smoothies here all have ice cream... Following lunch, Taylor needed to return to bed. She and Tim headed for the hotel and Wyatt and I jumped in Kasol's tuk-tuk. We had Kasol take us to the Central Market, a market and art deco landmark in Phnom Penh. We spent about 30 minutes there, looking at lots of jewelry, clothing, shoes, bags, insects and more, but not buying anything. At the Central Market. Insects for sale...to eat! That evening, Tim and Wyatt enjoyed a kickboxing match thanks to Kasol. Taylor and I stayed back at the hotel. Check out Wyatt's "Happy and Gross" blog for the full recap of the match. ;) ...

Our tuk-tuk driver/guide for the day, Kasol, said that if me and Timmy wanted to go to a kickboxing match, he could get us VIP seats. We said yes, and he picked us up around 5pm to go to the kickboxing match in Phnom Penh.  It was really cool and we got to see guys get knocked out by elbows to the skull and knees to the face. In the second to last match, an Iranian guy was fighting a Cambodian guy. They were bare-knuckle boxing and the Iranian guy was huge. The Iranian knocked the Cambodian down once, but he got up. The Cambodian was obviously not 100% and me and Timmy knew what was coming. In the next 10 seconds, the Iranian guy knocked out the Cambodian guy like it was time for a nap. The next round was the last round and it was the championship match. It was a Cambodian versus a Cambodian. The guy that ended up winning got a huge gold trophy. Since we were VIP, Kasol said that I could go into the ring and get a picture with the champion. It was really cool that I got to meet a k...

I started my Saturday run around 6am. At that hour, I had to dodge some cars, tuk-tuks, and motos to get across a major city street over to the riverside trail, but it was do-able. I passed people sweeping sidewalks and streets, vendors setting up for the day, outdoor exercise classes, and others running, walking, and biking.  Closer to 7am, I had a much tougher time crossing the street on my way back to the hotel. I waited until I saw a guy on a bike (how do people bike here?!) crossing from the other side, and then I went, too. I still got honked at. I joined Tim and Wyatt at breakfast. I know you're wondering...yes, the coffee is amazing here! We let Taylor sleep; she still wasn't feeling well, unfortunately.  At 8am, my good friend Liz's former housekeeper, Saven, met us at our hotel. Saven lives in Phnom Penh and Liz had connected us. We sat and chatted with Saven for a while, learned a bit about her life, took some photos together, and said our goodbyes.  At 9am, Ka...

Three of us woke up early on Friday. I headed out for a run, and Tim and Wyatt headed to the beach for a sunrise swim. I decided to run left down the beach sidewalk...and I found a hidden path that hugged the coastline. I followed it and followed it some more, until I rounded a corner and found myself at the DG Royal Resort, which sported Chinese lettering on signage and appeared to be empty. It felt a little odd and kind of spooky to be in the middle of this resort; I ran down to the water and then opted to turn around and head back. Good timing on that -- because a dog was soon chasing me and barking. Now, if you read our Andean Adventure blog from our 2022 South America travels, then you might recall I was bitten by a dog while running on a beach in Ecuador. That was a whole ordeal, and while I was delighted that my Ecuadorian hospital visit, tetanus shot, and accompanying meds cost me just $10 a few years back, I had no desire to go through the experience again. I (mostly) kept cal...

Seen on my morning run.  Happy Thanksgiving from Cambodia! We spent our Thursday on a snorkeling adventure. And if you read Wyatt's blog below, then you have a sense for how it went (well, kind of).  Once again, we started our day with a leisurely breakfast. But then one of the front desk staff approached us about 8:30am and said our driver was here -- the driver who would take us to the boat captain who would then take us snorkeling. Ah, ok. Little misunderstanding there. We were supposed to go snorkeling the day before, but weather conditions weren't good. We thought we had left it with the hotel staff that we'd touch base on Thursday morning and see about going snorkeling in the afternoon. But the hotel staff must have thought we had booked snorkeling for Thursday morning. No problemo -- we quickly got ready, packed a bag, grabbed some towels, and headed for the truck that would take us to the other side of the island. In the back of the truck, about to drive across the ...