Wonders of Cambodia

We arrived in Battambang 4 hours later after a flat tire and some fresh palm drinks! Eric/Sam/Kosal also had homemade Vodka. We're currently staying at Vy Chhe Hotel. I would give this hotel a 4 star. Its pretty nice. The whole setting is just like hotel in America where people would pay $200 for whereas we only paid $20!! It just need a pool. We're staying along the waterside. The night we arrived, we went to eat at Asean Restaurant/Karoake club. It was okay and freakin pricey. Came back to the hotel and chilled. Eric/Sam/Kosal went on scooters to my brother's (brother been in Cambodia since October 2011-he's here with this wife) wife village. Not sure what its called but from what I hear, they were served beer/rats on sticks and asked by doods to dance at a Karaoke club. LOL.

Saturday morning, left our hotel by 8am and on our way to my mom's village-Thmorkol. We went to the temple where my mom is doing the ceremony at for my grandma. Got to see all of my mom's relatives and Mary's dad who is now going to be a resident of ThmorKol!! His brick house is being built right now behind the temple-really nice!! Its 2 bedrooms with upstairs and downstairs. Got to see my uncle's house...just from looking at his house, it basically brought tears to everyone's eyes. Lets say, its smaller than the smallest storage that people have in America and imagine a total of 6 people living in it. My mom called it a chicken shack. At the temple, we risked it and ate the food at the temple like everyone else, passed out sarong and scarves to all the people and Kosal/Chumnan/Eric/Samnang/Sam passed out $1000 riel=$.25 cent to all of the little kiddos. Kosal gave couple of the little kids $1 and he told them not to tell others..but they walked away and told their friends who the nice man was. hahaha...he was then swarmed by all of the villager kids.

Anyways, Leighton and I are back at the hotel now. The rest went to Bong Ran's parent's house in another village near by. I'm waiting for my brother to bring me some cup ol' noodles. LOL. I will try to post up pics soon...just too lazy right now. Peace out people-for now.

Wednesday night, we went out with Kosal's relative to this fancy club in this 5 star hotel (Cambodiana). A Filipino band singing american songs. I requested Adele. LOL...we then went to some club..OMGGEee, it drained Eric/Sam/Kosal and my pocket. We underestimated Cambodia club and brought less than $250 all together. Lets just say, we couldn't afford the tuk-tuk ride back home. hahha.

Thursday was the day for site seeing for myself/Eric & Leighton. Kosal and his family went to visit his aunt in the countryside of Phnom Penh. We didn't want to go, so we stayed in Phnom Penh. We went and had breakfast at Thormda (it was okay...haven't found a place where its sooo good yet). Grabbed a tuk-tuk after breakfast and we were on our way to explore the Phnom Penh some more. We went to the New Market first, had to do some bargaining. I think they still ripped me off, but it was better than the price they gave Eric. Of course, I did majority of the bargaining. We wanted to buy these paintings for our friends back home, so I thought I let Eric do the talking. The lady said $7 for this small fabric art. Eric bargained $6!!! WTHHHH...I looked at him and just walked away. Come on....it was probably worth $2!! Anyways, we decided not to get it and will attempted at bargaining there again the last week. Next stop, Soriya Shopping Center..we were going to walk inside, but we saw this french ice cream shop across the street. It was pretty yummy!! I treated myself to a banana split. It was owned by a white dood (at least I think he's the owner...him and his Cambodian girlfriend was there and he kept on walking into the staff room..then he went to make ice cream). After we ate our ice cream, made a stop at Soriya, and guess what I got?? Jipped!! Thai Soap's and a bunch of kid movies, Eric got season 1/2 of the walking dead. One of it was a blue-ray. Went back to the hotel and waited for the others to get back. We rested for an hour and on our way to Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. Learned a lot of Pol Pot history. Eric walked around and listened more than I did. It was too hot for Leighton, so we sat outside hanging out under the mango tree. Back to the hotel we go to pack up as the next morning, 4 hour road trip to Battambang!!

Tuesday:

We got here March 6 at 11:40am. My mom's brother, my grandma's sister and daughter in-law, and my brother and his wife was there at the airport waiting for us outside. It was pretty smooth. A man on the plane who happened to be from Tacoma nephew is this topnotch police guy was there waiting for him, so we tagged along. My mom and I, he charged $10 and as for Eric, he charged $20..Leighton was FREE. We rush to the baggage claim to make sure people there wasn't trying to steal our luggage. Our group, we had total of 21 big luggage's..so we had to make sure that we got all of it!!

Gosh dannng, the heat was a killer. Leighton was on my back in the Boba 3G and she kept on saying" Mommy, I'm very hot!!" We rented two van. One for us and 1 for our luggage's. Okay..so we didn't pick the hotel..it was reserved by a relative of Kosal's. OMGGEEE, it is the ghettoiest place I have ever stayed at. The air conditioner doesn't work. We got 2 beds so they only gave us 2 pillows. The fridge didn't work so of course, our leftover food spoiled..the list goes on...

We got settled and hung out at the hotel for a bit, then we got on the tuk-tuk to this supposively nice restaurant. UGGGH, okay..looked decent, but the food was total opposite. Me and Srous both got food poisening! She threw up the moment she stopped eating and I threw up the next morning at 4am). Food portion was small..and guess what??! Our bill came up to $100!! WTH..$100 in Cambodia??! Yeah, we got jipped!!

Wednesday:

Woke up, (room was still hot, AC still not running great, going to post this info on Trip Advisor..DO NOT STAY HERE!), went and had breakfast across the street at this hotel (food was okay). I ordered Pho-beef and meatball. Meatball was still FROZEN. I ate the noodles and that was it. Came back to the hotel, sat around a bit..then went to the New Market (too hot), so took the tuk-tuk to Sorya Shopping Center. We ate at BB Burger. The nuggets was WEIRD looking. Meat looked yellow. I got the spicey chicken burger and gosh dangit, it was gross.

We also went to this Chinese restaurant, its okay...brought leftovers back to the hotel and Chumnan ate it .

As of right now, waiting for everyone to wake up so we can hit up the nightclub!!

Tomorrow, heading on a VAN or BUS to Battambang (my mom's hometown)-The Country Side! We'll see...being in Phnom Penh is quite overwhelming. Phnom Penh to Eric..."still trying to take it in.

I guess I should go and get dressed for clubbing in the city of Phnom Penh..wonder how that would be like. I will have to say Peace Out and SEE you tomorrow!!

P.S. I still can't upload pictures.!! Will accomplish this before the trip is over.

My whole family and a few close friends will be in the motherland of my Mother, Cambodia...whoop whoop!! So we bought our tickets a couple of days ago. We came across a few issues at first such as booking the wrong return date, not being able to get the same price for everyone, not having the passport number and worst of all...arguing with the sales guy who did not want to help me. After hanging up on him a few more times until I got someone who was super nice (& was probably sitting right next to the douchebag that didnt help me) to help with my return date. At the end, all 11 people who are going finally got their tickets! Yes, 11 people total are going, kids including. I was even able to book my seatings(aisle seating please?).

This would be Eric's first time leaving the United States and I don't think he even knows what 3rd world is?! At dinner today, my friend Teri was saying that we should buy chocolates to pass out to the kids. Of course, Eric responded with a "why can't we just buy it from Cambodia? I'm sure they have chocolate there!". He then went onto the topic of Cambodia not having cocoa to make chocolate LOL! Hellooooo...I dont think Cambodia have snickers!!

Anyways, thought I start a blog (first time) so my friends can follow my trip. I'll be sure to update it as much as I can while I'm on the trip. If I haven't updated for a week or so, please feel free to alert the emergency missing person...I think it's travelstate.gov! I was smart enough to enroll myself on there in case anything does happen (you never know...remember that movie with Claire Dane and her friends who ended up in jail in Thailand and OMGEee, nobody knew where she was at!).