Temples and Tuk-Tuks

We've been back home for a handful of days at this point, but Cambodia is sticking with us and hopefully will forever. It was an incredible trip to an incredible country. But it was also sad. I can't shake this melancholy feeling. Here's what I wrote in my Word It Out newsletter about the experience: I just got back from Cambodia with my family, and the trip hasn’t left me. Cambodia is a country of breathtaking beauty — the temples in Siem Reap, the islands in the Gulf of Thailand — and also one carrying deep wounds. Visiting  Tuol Sleng  broke me; the genocide wasn’t all that long ago… And even traveling around now, you see widespread poverty, corruption, and people working so hard just to move forward. Since returning home, I’ve been sitting with the contrast: how a place can hold so much wonder and so much sorrow at the same time. You can adore a country (or any place, really) and still ache for it. I think it’s hard to hold both beauty and struggle, but I’d venture a g...

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...