Project Cambodia: Rice Paddy Diversity: Finally, after three weeks, my first post and quick summary of whats been going down here in the adventure that is Cambodia

Here are some pics. They took a long time to download, so unfortunately I dont have the time to write any text at the moment. Hopefully I can write a brief summary of my experience and adventure thus far in Cambodia tomorrow, but for now enjoy the pics...

So finally after being here in Cambodia for over three weeks, Im going to attempt a quick overview/summary of my adventures so far. Ive met some interesting characters, seen ancient structures, and have experienced Cambodia's glorious natural beauty.

First off, like an earlier blog entry refered to, the travel over to Cambodia was quite brutal. Im not a huge fan of being couped up in a tiny place for a long extended time. I think overall with the flight and lay overs we spent roughly 30hours traveling to get to Cambodia ( not including the 5 hr drive to Chicago). On our last layover we landed in Taipei Taiwan. That seemed to be a very interesting place and I was hoping thats what Cambodia had in store for us. This first picture was taken in the airplane right before we landed in Cambodia

Once we landed in Phenom Phen, I noticed the humidity right away. I had known it was going to be hot and sticky, so I psyched myself out and the weather hasnt really affected me all that bad, but even the slightest physical activity causes one to sweat buckets. We didnt have much time to explore our surroundings, as we quickly were loaded onto a van by Deb's coleauge and friend, Kolap. We were off to Kampon Thom, where we would stay the majority of the time while in Cambodia. During this van ride, I was exposed to my first experience with Cambodia's traffic, and the lack of any traffic laws... pretty intense. Basically the only rule is make way for the biggest vehicle.

Our first week was sort of used as an adjustment phase. We basically did what we wanted, and had free reigns to go and explore the town. I did just that. I wondered around the town and had a bunch of random people stop me to talk to me. Sometimes it was to try and take me to a nearby temple sight and that I should hire these guys as a guide, but most of the time it was just people who were curious about me and where I was from and they often like to practice their English with me. The people here are very friendly and my first week, I felt like a celeb or rock star walking around. The coolest part is when tiny school children randomly stop you, practice their few phrases of English they know, and then bid you adieu. Here are a couple photos I had taken durring this first week.

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This first one was of a wedding set up I randomly walked by.
The second photo is of these little girls who are hired as the "street sweepers" I kind of feel bad for these girls because they are working out in the heat with these jacket/uniform things on. It cant be very pleasent and they probably get paid very little. But to be positive at least they have a job and can earn some money. These too were giggling at me as they watched me attempting to catch butterflies (and appearently making a fool of myself) by a nearby park where they were working.

And This last photo is of the river that is near the hotel we are staying at. I thought it was an interesting pic, and seeing how we have just arrive durring the rainy season, Im curious to see what the river will look like (how deep it has gotten) since the time we have been here..

So Ill take another pic at the same spot before I leave. I can tell already that it has risen considerably

As Chris's last blog entry has reffered to, him and I seem to be encouraging one another to try some of Cambodia's unique delicacy's, but Im sure most of you wouldn't call this stuff that. We first tackled crickets, and we were both surprised how good they tasted (mostly because they were deep fried and had a deep fried taste). I called them french fries with eyes, here are a few of the pics.

We have already tried a few other of these, how can I say, wierd food choices, which include frog, eel, chicken ovary and undeveloped egg. The durian fruit (which suprisingly was the only thing that I hated, and I hear this fruit drive the people in this region crazy, uck!) and a few other things I cant think of off the top of my head.

But we still must take on the tarantula, which Im sure there will be a good vid soon. But for now check out the recent vid Chris just posted of him eating an under developed duck egg! I still must try this.

Also durring this week, I decided to get a little adventurous and kicked it into outback mode. Before I left the states, I picked up a very handy guid from Nat Geo on Cambodia. This guide has given me alot of valuable tips and ideas to explore here in Cambodia. So I read up on a few of the temple sights that were around the area and found that they were in a tuk tuk range of time to go and explore.

Here are a few pics of the "creepy crawlys" all of us are more than ethusiastically chasing around here in Cambodia. We have started up a bug collection to bring back to the university and so far we have caught some very fascinating things. There are also alot of lizards running around this place. Oten a gecko will accompany us at dinner. Some of these lizards are very elusive and seem to escape both the catch of my hand and of my camera. I found the praying mantis outside of a school in a garden and the milliped was scurrying around an ancient temple.