Why Angelina Jolie fell in love with Cambodia

We now understand why Angelina Jolie fell in love with Cambodia. While our friend John was visiting us in BKK for two weeks, we took an excursion over a 3-day weekend to Siem Reap, Cambodia. This is where Laura Croft Tomb Raider was filmed - I still have yet to see the movie! I believe this is when Angelina fell in love with Cambodia and made the decision to adopt her son there. While we understand her love for Cambodia - no worries, we did not adopt any babies from there. We arranged a tour thru the embassy and it was phenomenal. The three of us had our own driver and our own guide for three days. They picked us up early in the morning and dropped us off in the afternoon at our hotel to freshen up and then picked us up for dinner/entertainment and then dropped us off at our hotel once we were done. Our guide and driver were absolutely the best. The driver especially was very kind. One day it was raining and he hiked a good ways into the site where we were to bring us all umbrellas. Another day he was waiting at the van with 4 fresh coconuts for us to drink the juice from - particularly refreshing after being in the heat and blazing sun all day. The heat was worse than anything I have felt in Bangkok so far - and that is no exaggeration. The city itself is very quaint and the people there were all very kind.

There were more hotels there than I have ever seen in any city and they were all very nice. Our guide advised us that Cambodia received a lot of money from the UN to maintain the temples as a World Heritage sight. Many Hotels were built as a result. One would think that perhaps they would improve the roads too while at it - but nope! The roads definitely reminded you that you were in third world as there were no paved roads anywhere. They were all dirt roads and most were muddy and filed with terrible potholes and mud puddles as a result of rain. It definitely added to the charm of the city! One day we asked the guide if we could have a traditional Cambodian breakfast so he took us to a stand where we had cold noodle soup, fried chicken, sweet papaya salad (my favorite) and coffee. Another day we had a snack that was delicious - they take a banana and cover it all around with sticky rice and then wrap a banana leaf all around it and bind it with string and then cook it on a grill. He called it a Cambodian Burrito and it was quite tasty! One thing you do not see in Cambodia is old people as this is due to all the deaths from the Khmer Rouge Regime. There are plenty of little ones floating around though and they are all working at the sites trying to get you to buy anything and everything. The minute our van stopped there would be at least 10-15 children around it waiting for us to get out so they could sell us stuff. One little girl nearly followed John all the way up a mountain - he eventually gave in to buy some magnets and then another herd of them hit him up. While annoying as can be, the children are adorable and know English very well. You would have no idea they were Cambodian if you had your eyes closed and heard them speak. They spoke with little to no accent whatsoever and per our guide they have learned English from all the tourists. They tell jokes too. One little girl asked Joe where he was born and Joe said New York City and then she asked me where I was born and I told her Maryland and she said no you were not lady, you were born in a hospital. They know the capital of every country in the world and they will recite them all to you. It was quite impressive for such young kids. Cambodia uses the US Dollar even though they have their own currency. Even the locals prefer to use the US Dollar as our guide said that he only has US Dollars on him and does not use the Cambodia Riel at all. After using Thai Baht for almost 6 months, it really felt weird to have US Dollars in my hands again – it almost seemed like monopoly money!

We had excitement on our first day there within our first hour. Joe sprained his ankle pretty bad so he was hobbling around the entire time. Spraining ones ankle would be easy to do here if you are not careful, as it is an uneven terrain and lots of steep steps etc. And because of this it is also not a good place to sprain your ankle! But Joe did - twice! Yes, twice. He also sprained it again on our last day here. There were lots of stairs and they were all very steep and go straight up - some where almost at a 90-degree angle. By the time we returned home, we were all three very exhausted and Joe and I were wishing we had taken an extra day off work to recuperate from our travels. Here is our itinerary of the site's we visited:

Day 1 Arrive Siem Reap. Visit South Gate of Angkor Thom, Bayon, Elephant and Leper King Terrace. Lunch. Afternoon, visit to Angkor Wat and Phnom Bakeng till sunset. Dinner.

Day 2 Breakfast at hotel, visit Preah Khan, Neak Pean, Ta Som, Mebon and Pre Rup. Lunch. Afternoon, visit Prasat Kravan with unique brick sculptures, Srah Srong Pool (The Pool of Ablutions), Banteay Kdei and Ta Prohm. Dinner.

Day 3 Early morning, see sunrise from Angkor Wat. Return to hotel for breakfast. Then visit Banteay Srei and Banteay Samre . Lunch.Afternoon Visit Angkor National Museum.Transfer to airport.

Attached are some photos - we took probably 500 and it was very difficult to select which ones to use since we cannot post them all. I think the three of us loved Bayon (faces) and Ta Phrom (trees) sites the best. Ta Phrom is where Tomb Raider was filmed. If you are ever in Asia, we highly recommend this excursion – one of the best we have taken so far. The pictures do not do it justice! Enjoy the pics (attached in the next posting)!