Row, Row, Row Your Boat

After two weeks in Cambodia, I am sitting in the airport (our plane is obviously delayed) waiting for my return to Vietnam. As I sit here, super, super excited to go back to Vietnam, I have to tell you all the amazing things we did in the last week of Cambodia. It was really hectic, hot, sun-burny, and FANTASTIC. We saw a ton of stuff that most tourists only dream about seeing. 

We spent two days in floating villages on the Tonle Sap trying to understand the conflicts of the fishing lots there. Basically, private owners have possession of much of the main fishing parts of the lake and the families in the floating villages are subsistence farmers, meaning they have to pay for entry. This causes problems, because many hardly make enough money to support their families, and the only way they make money is through fishing. However, while we were in the floating village, I re-scraped my already scraped knee, making it look nasty, nasty, nasty. But, luckily, we just happened to be visiting the local Khmer medicine man. I asked if he could help me with my knee and he agreed if I sent him a picture. He started by lighting an incense for me, then he got some lotus balm and began rubbing it on my knee while saying some prayers. All of sudden, out of no where, he started spitting Betel Nut onto my leg. He repeated this process three times in all. Although it shocked me, that betel nut worked MAGIC. My re-scraped knee healed up within a week, faster than any of my other scraped knees have ever healed. 

We also took a four-day river excursion down the Mekong River. The stretch of the river that we traveled is actually pretty dangerous, so it is very difficult for tourists to find someone who will take them on these stretches of the river. On this trip, we saw a really cool waterfall (see below), Mekong River Dolphins, and a cultural exchange. The cultural exchange was the most fun I have had in so long. There was dinner, and we sang, and there was a band from Phnom Penh and the whole village (or so it seemed, at least 200 people) turned up to watch the traditional Cambodian dancing that was being performed. Oh, I think they also came to see the goofy white people make fools of themselves. We learned how to do some Cambodian dances, which consisted of just doing very simple steps around a round table (dancing for some was really touch and go at first, especially for the poor injured Julia, who had 3 stitches put into her knee the night before). I picked it up pretty quickly, and soon added my own American flair to it. I felt sooo popular that night. I got so many compliments on my dancing AND it was probably the first dance EVER that I have ever been to where I was asked to dance during every song. I may have also had a boyfriend, one of the river guards always asked me to dance. Look at me go, belle of the ball!

There was tons more stuff that we did, but unfortunately, I don't think you want to read about 32000 pages of my stories. But tune in next time for stories from Northern Vietnam.

He may think its creepy (but secretly he loves it), but I thought you would like to see more of Erik's fashion sense. Now you all know what I have to live with. But to be fair, we all got the orange hats and I wore mine everyday on the boat.

The hike to one of the Mekong waterfalls.

The floating village on the Tonle Sap where we stayed for one night. 

The Khmer medicine man worked some magic on my twice scraped knee. But for real, it healed up within a week. Lets see western medicine do that.

The medicine man in front of his shrine to his ancestors. When he heals his patients, he lights incense and waits for his ancestor to come and whisper the treatments in his ear. 

A close up of the Mekong waterfall. It was really moving fast since the rainfall had significantly increased in the last week. In the dry season, apparently the water is calm enough to swim and the waterfall only has trickles of water coming down. That wasn't the case this time.