Sam-pling the world

After promising myself and the right side of my brain that each week I’d find the time to write a little bit of this or a little bit of that for my blog, I now find myself teetering awfully close to the Friday mark and yet nothing to show for my weeks efforts. So to keep myself happy (don’t need left brain right brain conflict again) I flicked through some pictures from my most recent travels for inspiration. I would have to say my favourite, from the most recent travel-bug-spell was Cambodia and it would be a travesty for me not to tell you about it.

I now know why Angelina has one – a Cambodian I mean. Their kids are I-wanna-eat-you-all-up, Im taking them all home with me type of children. I can’t explain it (Brad gets me though), but these kids touch your soul with just a smile and an echoing  ‘Hellllllloooooo’ that you can hear from the back of their small homes before you even see this little guy or girl running as fast as he or she can to give you a wave at the drive way.

I must say, I felt a bit like the queen (a sexier, younger, more up beat version obviously – wow blow my own horn why don’t I, but to leave you with an image of the queen as someone who resembles me…not good PR) but after a week in Cambodia I can out-wave the hell outta her. I felt guilty when I didn’t wave back and there are over 14 million people in Cambodia (no, that’s not just general knowledge, I Googled it), I even tried to change the way I said ‘hello’ as I was getting bored of my own voice. We raced the kids that ran along side us, ok so I should probably mention we were cycling and not in a car – fast Cambodian kids, no wonder ‘Brangelina’ got one – Olympic-parent-pushers, and Go the queen cycling.

Yip, we decided that to have a six-month holiday of beaching-it would be rather boring (I don’t stand by that statement but a bit of adventure never hurt anyone hey). So we investigated biking around the temples, the rural villages, the whole damn thing really. And it was AWE-SAM, I mean it, every bit of it was truly amazing, even the scorching heat that we had to cycle up to 65km’s every day (um 65km’s…impressed much?) to the bugs flying around the place (luckily I’m a quick cycler) to the gorgeous cheap markets, to the amazing, unique (still worried if it’s a cat and not chicken) cuisine, ominous looking but never the less great food. The people are so unbelievably friendly you end up just chatting to everyone, and their friendliness has even rubbed off onto the other tourists. Oh and FYI, it’s a fab spiritual gay destination, a bizarre fun fact but I was amazed at how many gay couples we met and then Google clarified that it is in fact in the top 10 Gay destinations (Broadening my target audience …check)

I even loved the cycling. Encouraged by my mom’s passed down words of wisdom “Its like riding a bike”, and its true, you never really forget do you. I’ll admit I had one or two tumbles when I was surprised by my braking strength and went, to put it elegantly, Ass-Over-Tit. Once I got stuck in a high gear on an uphill and had a minor side tumble. But we gave it our all, even after the first days mammoth trip around and first day on a bicycle for about five to ten years (I kid you not) my behind was less impressed with Cambodia than I was. I haven’t felt that kind of pain probably since the first time I rode a bike, its not a muscle pain – oh no, its not necessarily a bone pain, but MY WORD it’s a huge pain. I even attempted cycling standing for day two, I assumed my legs were tougher than the butt but I was sorely mistaken.

Needless to say I have great action photos of me cycling through the rugged terrain of Cambodia through the harsh dry summer heat (liar, it wasn’t even mid-season). Oh and temples, temples, temples, I have photo’s of them too. They were great too, I mean I really enjoyed them and that sort of stuff doesn’t interest me but Ankgor Wat…blew me away.  Just blew me away.

How could it not blow you away.

So my little tip for someone who wants adventure and a full moon party with 20 000 drunks isn’t up your alley, then Cambodia is it! Its got everything a non-beach holiday should have, and it has a beach I just haven’t been there yet (add to To Do List).  So stray from the regular ‘holidays’ and let yourself (like Brangelina) fall in love with Cambodia.

So I guess its bye for now.

Love Sore Butt Stu