We arrived in Cambodia and caught a taxi ride from the airport. The ride from the airport to the town of Siem Riep was fascinating. We saw people living in bamboo and hay homes alongside rivers. Everyone was hard at work, from kids as young as 5 years of age, to grandparents. We saw kids helping to dig ditches and haul cement. Even monks were outside doing heavy labor. Most people live off the land, either fishing or farming. There is very little other work, other than the limited tourist industry -- working in small hotels, roadside diners, or driving taxis.

Shortly after checking into our hotel we caught a "tuk tuk" (motorcycle attached to a wooden cart on wheels) to tour the sites. Our driver, Sanni, was awesome. He's 29 years old and lives on a farm with his wife who is 25 and their 3 year old son. After rice season, he moves away from his family and stays in Siem Reap, about 2 hours from his village. He rents a small room so he can work as a tuk tuk driver to help bring in more money. He speaks very good English, even though he didn't believe us. He hopes to save enough money to go to the university in Siem Reap to study English more and learn to type and use a computer so that he can someday get a better job, working in a restaurant, or as a professional tour guide to large groups.

Sanni drove us around for 4 days, about 12 hours per day, and explained a lot of the history to us. We toured Angkor Wat and all the surrounding temples. The temples were amazing. Some were built as early as the 9th century. It's amazing they are still standing. It's mind blowing to think they built these things without any modern machinery. They essentially hauled large rocks across miles of farmland and stacked them stories high, and then carved very detailed pictures on the faces of the buildings. Much of the temples are being restored and maintained by donations from Japan and Korea to pay salaries of local Cambodians. Angkor Wat is stunning, especially at sunset, where it has a magical glow to it.

We drove by a children's hospital where a Swiss doctor provides free care to children. Sanni pointed out that during malaria season ("river fever"), all the children line up outside the hospital the evening before to wait for the hospital to open. The next morning we drove by there was a huge line of families outside. This prompted us to go see a Cambodian doctor to get a prescription for Doxycycline for malaria prevention.

Next Sanni took us to tour a floating village. The houses are built on bamboo stilts and the entire town survives off fishing alone. After the floating village, Sanni hiked with us to the top of a mountain to enjoy a sunset over a view of the city.

We continued our journey with Sanni and next went to tour a land mine museum and a war museum. It's sad to see all the destruction and killing that these people had to endure. Every person there was affected personally by the war, and they still have a hard time talking about it to this day. The young man who gave us a tour through the land mine museum lost both his parents during the war. He is about 6 years younger than me and now lives with his uncle and works in the museum as a tour guide. He is missing three fingers and has a huge piece of shrapnel in his leg near one of the main arteries, and a smaller piece right next to his eye. He had two land mines go off in his presence during his lifetime. One killed his two childhood friends as they were walking around just outside their town, and the other resulted in his loss of fingers. He had a hard time telling the story to us but he explained it to us after we had a long conversation with him about war. After explaining his story to us, he gave us both a big hug and thanked us for listening. Sadly, many of the injured receive no health care support from the government, and rely upon donations and volunteers for support. They estimate there are still 2-3 million land mines buried in Cambodia.

After touring the land mine museum we went to a national park to hike up to a river where many of the stones on the bottom of the river have carvings centuries old. While he was waiting for us, Sanni picked some mushrooms to bring home to cook for dinner. We opted to eat at lunch at the restaurant. When we were driving back to town, we stopped on the side of the road to watch a family making sugar from palm trees on the side of the road. They offered us samples of brown sugar candies which were delicious. After that we went on a hike up to a temple that sits on the highest point in Siem Reap. We enjoyed the sunset at the top of the mountain. We went to an amazing buffet dinner and traditional dance show later that evening.

Our last day in Cambodia, we went to tour a stone carving school which provides free art education to people who are deaf and mute. The idea is they can attend the school for free, and once they learn to master the art, the school helps them set up a business where they can make carvings to sell. Following the tour of the stone carving school, Sanni drove us on the tuk tuk miles away from Siem Reap, the town we were staying in. We drove as far as we could on the tuk tuk, and when the dirt roads became too rough and narrow, we parked the tuk tuk at his friend's house and Dave and I each hopped on the back of a motorcycle to continue our journey to another floating village. Our ride out to the village was like nothing I've ever experienced. We hung on really tight as we bounced through dirt roads and muddy puddles. At one point, we approached a small river we had to cross, but our drivers made it through without falling over. We got a little wet and muddy, but it was so hot, we didn't mind. Dave stopped to take a photo of some rice farmers, and one of the women giggled and said in Cambodian to Dave "He has long hair, like a girl," which Sanni translated for Dave. I thought it was really funny. In the floating village, the entire family works together to fish out of the lake where their homes float. Even kids as young as five years old were doing what they could to help out with the work. One family invited us up onto their floating home and we watched as they sorted fish by sizes and types. Then they wait for large fishing boats to come and buy the fish off of them, to sell them to markets in Japan and Vietnam. Sanni purchased two fresh fish to take home for dinner. After touring the floating village, we hopped back onto the motorcycle to drive back to the village. When we were crossing back over the river, there were some farmers with a plow being pulled by bulls. The cattle and plow got stuck in the mud and Dave helped the other farmers try to push the plow out of the mud. Unfortunately, it was really stuck. After touring the floating village, we walked through a small town by the river. The village had no electricity and their water was supplied by wells sponsored by various countries, mostly from the U.S. and Japan. We went to visit a school and purchased books and pencils to deliver to the students, and each student thanked us. They were extremely grateful. After touring the village we went back to the motorcycle driver's home and he invited Dave and I to take a rest on their hammocks. They helped wash the mud off our shoes using water from their well. After a well deserved rest, it was off to the airport to fly to Bangkok.

The food in Cambodia was amazing -- spicy curries, excellent noodle dishes, and great beer (Angkor beer). The city of Siem Reap was a bit loud and people honk their horns as often as we use our turn signals. In contrast, the countryside is beautiful, very lush and green.

Somehow the people in Cambodia manage to make the most of what limited resources they have. Motorcycles fill up their tanks with gas from whiskey bottles being sold from stands on the side of the road, and people cook in woks outside their homes near the street. Its not uncommon to see families of 3-4 squished onto one motorcycle, and because there is no garbage service, people have to burn their garbage in the front of their homes. We got woken up numerous times each night to the sounds of dogs howling and barking while hunting for food in packs, and roosters announcing daybreak long before sunrise.

I must say, the people of Cambodia are some of the nicest people I have ever met. Everyone there was so friendly and warm, asking us where we are from, what we do for work, and everyone was happy to help show us around and teach us about their history. Although many people live below the poverty level, there was no threat of pick-pocketing. Everyone works really hard, but I never heard anyone complain about how hard their life is or how little they have. We became quite attached to Sanni and it was hard to say goodbye to him. We exchanged e-mail addresses and hope to stay in touch. When we get back to the States, we plan to mail him the photos we took of us together. I hope someday he gets to go back to the university to study more so that he can achieve his dreams. He really deserves it.