Cambodia. This country is captivating and is by far the most riveting to explore. I’m for sure coming back to explore further. The drive from Saigon to Phnom Penh was one of the most scenic drives I’ve encountered thus far. The sun was starting to set close to the capital and everything, making the landscape vibrant in color. We passed lush rice fields and ponds filled with water lilies and pink lotus flowers in full bloom. Children were chasing each other down dirt roads, and many people were working in the fields. White cows grazed by the roadsides and chickens surrounded every home we passed. The houses are often raised off the ground in the countryside, painted in many colors with shutters or plastic awnings covered the windows.

In the capital I’m staying at Okay Guesthouse, off a quiet little side street called Ph 258. There is no rhyme or reason to the way the streets are ordered here and today I went on a walking adventure, trying to make sense of the map the guesthouse owners handed me on my way out. I’m relatively close to center, near the Royal Palace and Independence Monument. A wonderful family runs my guesthouse; they have many shrines and temples in the restaurant and reception area, one to Ganesh and another one to Buddha. I’ve been spending my days with some people I’ve met along my travels lately, two were on my bus to Laos a few weeks back and then I ran into them again in Hoi An, Saigon and again here. The other two are a German couple from Frankfort that were staying at my hostel in Ho Chi Min and took the same bus with me over the border. Yesterday I went with Dan and Fran to the Killing Fields and S21 Prison, both memorials and actual sites of the atrocities from the Khmer Rouge. It was a humbling and chilling experience, and hard to get through. That time was so dark for the Cambodian people and they are just now on the road to recovery, but I imagine it’s a slow process to forget something that horrific. At sunset I walked around the main boulevard, in the center is walking paths around Independence Monument and everyone is out once the sun is down. They are doing exercises to jazz or upbeat music in large groups, children are rollerblading, families gather on plastic chairs and talk and laugh and eat ice cream. Tomorrow I take a bus after lunch to Siem Reap to see the magical temples of Angkor Wat!