The Travel Diaries.

I know it's only been four days, but I am seriously in love with Southeast Asia. Not only does it have some of most beautiful structures, pagodas, temples, and beaches (everything, really) it's history is amazing. Its amazing that I'm constantly learning.

Summery: First I took a bus to Chau Doc, which is on the border of Vietnam. I hired a motorbke (probably too much money, but he spoke English well and I liked him) and saw a few of the pagodas, and drove up Sam Mountain (really more of a hill) and watched the sunset over the mountains in the distance: to the left, Vietnam, to the right, Cambodia. It was beauitful. It poured rain on the way back to my hotel, so I ended up just relaxing there for the night and doing some reading / trip planning.

The next morning I took a speed boat to Phnom Penh, Cambodia! I've been here since. Through a friend of a friend I met up with some expats and celebrated Thanksgiving with them! The night before I went to their house and helped with the chopping/cutting while drinking wine and listening to Frank Sinatra. They have a really nice house, and it was great to talk to them. Then on Thanksgiving I went over early to help, and there ended up being about 20 people there. It was nice because I was not the only new face, everyone seemed to be a friend of a friend, which is part of what I love about the expat community in general. Thanksgiving dinner was delicious, everything homemade. I've never particularly been a fan of the holiday but it was so great! I piled food on my plate, mixed things together and everything tasted amazing. I had great conversations with everyone (almost!) about what they are doing here and how they like it, it's so great, everyone has a different story and a different experience. They also have the cutest puppy in the world, and I think it may have been one of my favorite Thanksgivings to date. We ended the night (a 1:30am decsion) going out dancing, which was a fun night cap.

Today I did/am doing all of the touristy things, and I have learned an incredible amount about the history of Cambodia. I have a LOT to write about this, and other side stories but my time here is up! I hope everyone had a good holiday. I have so much to tell you I wish I had the time but the Royal Palace and the Silver Pagoda is calling me...

Ps. I'm terrible at buying gifts/souveniers, even for myself. If you want something, you're going to have to be specific.

Pps. If you leave a comment on my blog, you might want to mention who you are, because there are a ton of Anonymus postings and well I just can't read minds.

Miss you, love you, but generally don't want to come home :)