Cambodia, Kingdom of Wonder!

~~ " ...There's no such things as time. IT'S OUR TIME." ~~

Jack Johnson

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Our first stop in Cambodia was to participate in an Ultimate Frisbee Hat Tourney in the capital city of about a million and a half people, Phnom Penh. If you remember from November or so, a hat tourney is one where you register as an individual and are later broken up into teams 'randomly' but also as evenly as possible according to your reported skill level. We wouldn't know anyone on our squad and that's kind of the beauty of the event – watching a rag-tag group of strangers from all over the world's Ulti communities to come together and become a TEAM within the time frame of their first day together.
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Not surprisingly, Muc and I ended up on separate teams and scheduled to face-off against each other at the end of the first day. Before we had even met our teams, we made a bet that I would whoop his little behind – the loser to perform a full-fledged Buddah bow and smootch the other's cleats at midfield after our game!!
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Muc and I in good spirits despite being a few minutes from the end of our game against each other. I think the score was TIED at this point if I remember correctly!

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The tourney was light-hearted – serving free beer all day, blasting music and then throwing a party every night after the action. The only downfalls might have been serious dehydration, smashing my head off of our low ceiling exit to our hostel bathroom (twice) making it even more lumpy than it already was, losing to Muc's team by exactly one point and making a spectacle of myself in paying off our little bet. We met a ton of great people, spread some hug-fives around, caught a few scores each and won a handful of games. The event was ultra well-organized from start to finish and absolutely a riot through and through!
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Thanks in no small part to a perfect huck (long frisbee toss) from 'Peach', I haul in a long score during the semi's.

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After getting knocked out in the semi's by the only undefeated team, we decided to settle our final score for 3rd place by dominating the gray team in an old fashioned beer chug-off! A fitting end to the day since there was basically NO ONE left physically able to play another game at that point. :)
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Boat race to determine 3rd place in the Phnom Penh Hat tourney 2011. Note how the green team DOMINATES the grey guys!

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After a packed weekend of out-of-shape Ulti in the steaming hot jungle, it was time for some serious relaxation. We headed south for the dumpy tourist port city of Sihanoukville. Luckily that was not our final destination. We found a place to crash, and the next morning set out on a 2+ hour boat ride not really knowing what we should expect from the private island resort of Lazy Beach, Koh Rong Saloem. It had been briefly recommended months ago by a South African friend in Korea, but if the stay was to be anything like the boat ride out there, we were in big trouble! We were in a tiny, rickety, homemade looking piece of wood in the middle of the ocean. The waves were ridiculous and almost half of the 10 or 12 other people on our boat ended up sending the contents of their stomachs over the side rail. Water poured on board every few minutes when the boat would rock from left to right, bags were falling and sliding arond the deck. It seemed endless and for some reason the theme to Gilligan's Island kept playing through my head.

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This had better be one hell of an incredible stay to make up for this, I remember thinking to myself; and IT WAS!! Finally we landed in heaven on Earth. This resort, it's 10 villas and bar/restaurant were literally the ONLY structures on this entire island! We had no reason to look at our watches for the four days to come and couldn't have been more stoked.

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We learned a new game from the bar-tenders there which occupied plenty of our four days - Monopoly DEAL (if you're at Kilworry this year, you WILL learn this game!) We also dedicated time to some volleyball, floating, beach-bumming, good eats and cheap drinks. I was SO impressed that, despite having the ability to literally charge any prices they want for food and drink (as they had the ONLY source on the island) things were very reasonably priced. Thanks for not price gouging, Asia!! :)

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Private beach resort on an undeveloped private island for $6 a night each!

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There's me - well, about one fifth of me - enjoying my paradise!!

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Our canadian buddy, Jason, who we picked up along the way in the frisbee tourney. He was traveling alone and didn't have much of an agenda so we invited him along to the beach!

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One of the days found Sarah feeling really sick with a 24-hour bug. She was barely able to move the entire day, but luckily, she had no reason to do so anyways. I used the day to plan out the final execution of my secret plot I had been brewing for months before. It was to be her Chirstmas, 1 year dating anniversary and birthday presents all rolled into one, so it needed to be good!

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Broey and I scouting out the perfect spot and plotting the secret plan for my sick girlfriend whenever she would start feeling better.

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The following day, she was feeling much better and up to a short 'sunset hike' as suggested by me. We made our way slowly up the steep train I had discovered the day before. After about 15 minutes, the trail ended at a flat rock platform that overlooked the entire island. The sunset was beautiful, we'd taken a couple of pics and soaked it in. Then, perfectly, the only other guy that had been there decided to take off. It was time.

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I told her we should take a self-timer pic and showed her where to stand. I arranged the camera and pushed the button. When I came back to take my place, she mentioned that the timer wasn't blinking on the camera. She started to realize that I was shooting a video – not a picture – when she looked over and I was down on a knee at her side. I took her hand and said, “Baby, I've loved you as long as I've known you. I promise to always do everything in my power to make you happy. Will you marry me?” I tried to look her in the eye but she was staring at the ring and trying to wrap her brain around what was happening. She smiled and nodded excitedly so I put the ring on her finger and we shared the moment.

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Muc shot about 5 mintes of footage to add to the video that I took of the proposal itself and a couple dozen pictures. Armed with just that, he put together a really touching and incredible engagement video for us within a couple of hours! Most people reading this would have surely already seen it, but for the sake of commiting it to the record: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wx2FzDPZvl4

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After gathering ourselves, it was time to head back down to our friends who were waiting for us with a table, bottle of champagne and their congratulations. We were ENGAGED TO BE MARRIED!! Everything went as smoothly as I could have hoped and we have truly enjoyed and appreciated all the online support of our decision from our friends and family though most of them have never met one or the other of us! Thank you all, we love you!! :) No date or even time frame picked yet, but we'll be sure to let everyone know as soon as we know. If we had to make a ballpark guess for now, we'd say summer 2012.

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The next day we woke up early and settled our long tab with Lazy Beach; all food, drinks and accommodation for 3 nights and 4 days on a private island came to less than $90 per person!!

As you can tell, dollars go along way in Cambodia since unfortunately, the average wage for a working person seems to be less than $5 per day. That means that whenever they see tourists, they literally NEED your business - even if it's only for a dollar worth of bracelets or post-cards. This makes for VERY aggressive sales tactics and even being just plain bothersome to tourists anytime they see one.

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Another tactic is for disabled parents to beg in nightlife areas with their small children. It puts you in a kind of a guilt-ridden predicament. It's tragic to see the unhealthy and dirty children, but I also always fear that any money tourists give them may very well not be going to the child, but to support parent's booze, drug-habit or who knows what else.

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One night, Sarah and I found a way around this when we bought some milk and tiny little 'Pooh' stuffed animals for a couple of such little girls. I have litterally never seen such a simple and small gift be so massively appreciated and it made us both feel really deeply good about what we'd done. If only there were a way to start doing this on a much larger scale; these situations are far too common in our world as people in the western world complain about their mocha espresso not having the correct sweetener. Sarah and I did NOT put an end to world hunger or poverty that night, but we certainly did put a smile on a couple of kids' faces!

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The cutest little girl ever posing with Sarah and her new gifts. She would smile enormous and wave at Sarah from across the bar for the rest of evening! SO adorable!! :)

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So anyways, it was time to head out of our island paradise. The boat ride was certainly not enjoyable, but nor was it the disaster that the original had been. We waited in Sihanoukville for our long over-night bus and arrived before dawn the next morning in Siem Reap; home of Angkor Wat! Angkor is an old and impressive temple complex that dates back more than 1500 years when it was built as a Hindu worship site. The Buddhists would later take it over and change it's purpose. Maybe a century after that, it was abandoned and forgotten there for a long period of time before being rediscovered, refurbished and converted into a major attraction for travelers from around the world. It is massive and in some places overgrown by jungle and trees.

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Angkor Wat. Seim Reap, Cambodia.

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Most historic sites are more like museums where you have a set path that you're asked to walk, being pushed along by other tourists directly behind you. I've always felt kind of uneasy in those places – like you're being slighted a bit and not able to get the full experience. That was NOT the case at Angkor Wat. There were essentially no rules! Run, jump, climb up, go wherever you think you can safely go with no one bothering you! Of course, there were tons of other tourists there, but the place was so massive – a number of miles – that you could almost always get the picture you wanted and take as little or as much time as you wish at a given site. The whole complex was one of the most impressive awe-inspiring places I've ever seen – far blowing away Athens' Acropolis or even Rome's Coliseum!

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The most impressive and awe-inspring day of the trip.... maybe EVER??

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Other than that, we did only very little in Siem Reap. There is a tourist trap called 'Pub Street' with lots of bars, restaurants and quirky little things to do where we entertained ourselves with Dr. Fish and a few beers. My main complaint of the stay there was clearly the overly pushy up-salesman at our hostel who literally thought that we OWED him more business because he had picked us up from the bus station as their guest house had promised. It actually got ugly when he came into our room and kept at it as Muc and I basically told him to take a walk. It came to shouting and cussing by the end of it and made the rest of our stay there really uncomfortable.
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We stayed only 2 nights and that was enough. Overall, the beauty of old Angkor Wat prevailed and we really enjoyed our time in Siem Reap for that reason.
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Our time in Cambodia came to an end that day as we boarded a bus due for Bangkok, Thailand. From frisbee with the foreigners, the serenity of Lazy Beach and the wonder of Angkor Wat all at incredibly cheap and welcoming prices, I think it's safe to say that Cambodia proved to be one of the most UNDER-RATED tourists destinations in Asia. If I had to guess, I would say that 20 years from now, it will be rivaling Thailand in popularity! We were very lucky to get to visit now before the crazy development and price inflation takes place.

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