I've Arrived!

I'm in Cambodia!  I left the US on June 3rd and flew to Seattle, Seoul, and then to Siem Reap.  The flights were fairly uneventful.  There were some great views of Seattle and all of the mountains on the descent into that particular airport that I tried to capture (see below).  But other than that, I did a lot of sleeping, a lot of movie-watching, and a lot of eating.  I tried some new Korean dishes and made friends with a Korean women sitting beside me on my long flight, despite the fact that I know no Korean and she knew no English...

Approaching Seattle

Seattle Skyline

Airport in Seoul

Over 24 hours of traveling and many on-flight movies later I arrived to the small Siem Reap airport in my new home.  Lori, who is the director of the Ponheary Ly Foundation (PLF), greeted me at the airport.  She herself had just returned to Cambodia after two months of traveling both home to the US and around the world.  She drove me to the Seven Candles Guesthouse where I will be staying for the summer and where the PLF office is located.  As it was about midnight once I got set up in my room, I headed to bed to try to tackle the jet lag...

My first full day in Cambodia was full of exploration.  Lori took me to breakfast in the city center on Pub Street and gave me a brief orientation of the city, cultural taboos, and living life in Cambodia.  Siem Reap has a population of around 140,000 people but has between 1 and 1.5 million tourist who visit each year.  There are also a large number of ex-pats working and living in the city.  While Khmer is the official language of Cambodia, you can get by only speaking English.  Most people know enough of it for visitors to easily go to restaurants, go shopping, and find transportation.

After breakfast we headed to the grocery store (one of my favorite things to do in foreign countries...my host family in Argentina never understood why I liked to walk around Carrfore, their version of a Super-Walmart so much...) to prepare for an overnight trip to Koh Ker to visit one of the schools that PLF supports.  Lori walked me around the city center and showed me some of the highlights and important points of reference.  After a morning of exploring I headed to an internet cafe to touch base with my family and the returned to the guesthouse to pack and nap.  While we lost electricity for most of the afternoon (apparently it has been happening once a day or so), I am excited that we have it.  My room is pretty nice (pictures to come soon).  I have electricity, air conditioning, access to the internet, and hot water.

I'm looking forward to a great summer in Cambodia!