Stephanie N. Baker Photography » Blog

This October, I spent three perfect weeks travelling throughout the beautifully kind countries of Thailand and Cambodia with a backpack, four friends and my 25 year old teddy bear, Honey Joe.

  

Here’s how I got there: A 2.5 hour flight to Dallas.  A 3.5 hour flight to San Francisco.  An eight hour layover in San Fran.  An 11.5 hour flight to Tokyo.  And a 6 hour flight to arrive in Bangkok.  It was FUN.  Seriously, I enjoyed every. single. step. of this trip.

We started by spending three amazing [tiring] days in Bangkok visiting temples and China Town and riding on the most fun riverboat.   Leaving Bangkok, we headed to Cambodia where we visited Siem Reap and the ancient city of Angkor – the most amazing 1,200-year-old sandstone ruins spared by the Khmer Rouge and revered by all Cambodians today.

  

Following Angkor, we headed to Rokha’s (our Cambodian-American travel friend) home village of Phnom Thom (Yes, you actually pronounce the P).  His family was having an annual celebration to remember their ancestors and celebrate the Na family.  This was such a fabulous, authentic experience.  There were prayers, monks, fabulous food and lots and lots of friendly Cambodians.  There was one with a particular aversion to blonde, American girls.  Proving this by hexing me in Khmer, ruffling up my hair and poking me in the eye.  But it’s ok, I later learned that I just shouldn’t talk to the Cambodians who are ‘branded’ with a black line on their forehead – apparently they’re the crazy ones.

 

While in Rokha’s village, we visited his cousin, Boran’s, rice paddy.  Such a cool experience to see the process of rice growing, harvesting, husking, and packaging.

    

We left Phnom Thom and headed to the town of Botthambang where –for me– this was one of the most rewarding parts of the trip.  We spent an unplanned day in this city where we just rode around in a tuktuk and saw the really authentic side of Cambodia.  Families living in shacks without walls, babies playing in a drainage ditch, naked kiddies begging for money… it was heartwarming and heartbreaking all at the same time.

        

We spent three days on the gorgeous beaches of Sihanoukville snorkeling and sight seeing -  we even went to a restaurant with seating around glass tables housing live snakes!

   

Leaving Sihanoukville, we headed to the tumultuous city of Phnom Penh, full of beautifully kind and happy people, street celebrations, bustling markets and the largest, yummiest buffet restaurant I’ve ever seen – it had two floors!

         
While in Phnom Penh we visited the Cheung Ek killing fields.  If you are not familiar with the devastatingly recent Khmer Rouge, you must read about this chilling genocide which happened a mere 35 years ago where over 3 million Cambodians lost their lives to the leadership of the tyrant Pol Pot.  When leaving this memorial, there is a 17 story glass building holding four-thousand skulls found in mass graves on the property.  After a heavy rain, you will still find human bones and pieces of tattered fabric have risen to the surface of these mass graves.

We were travelling with a friend who escaped this awful genocide at the age of 3 with his family and moved to Denver.  His return to this peaceful, haunting spot was a particularly emotional experience.   Khmer Rouge is a tragedy from which these people are still recovering – but you’d never know based on the smiles on their faces.

While we enjoyed the city, leaving Phnom Penh was a relief – all of us hailing from areas where we celebrate nature, space and quiet.  Our next stop was the resort island of Phuket (Nai Harn) where we spent seven days lounging on the beach and bathing in the warm Andaman Sea, taking day trips on scooters to surrounding towns, experimenting with unusual food, and getting to know the lovely, hardworking Thai people.   We took a boat to the famous beach where they filmed Leonardo DiCaprio’s, The Beach where I got attacked (more like a big, unwanted hug) by a monkey.  BTW: I have now been ‘attacked’ two  times more than any of my travel compadres – once by the crazed, anti-blonde Cambodian and the other by a crazed, banana-seeking monkey.

      

We returned to Bangkok to be greeted by the [tragic] flooding that made world-wide news.  I spent one night in the wild city and departed early the next morning on a last-minute ticket back to the US to avoid being stranded alone in Bangkok.

When people ask me what was my favorite part of the trip, I think they are expecting to be answered with a place, a food, a boat ride, but my response is always the same, it was the people that made my trip so, so amazing.  These people are kind.  They are always smiling.   They work harder than anyone I’ve ever met.  They might live in a house with a scrap metal roof and salvaged wood siding with holes for windows, but they are happy, kind, and so so spiritual.  This place is rewarding.  These people are generous and compassionate and friendly – oh, they are so friendly.

Yes, travel here is hard.  It’s tiring.  It’s dirty.  It’s not so fun to run to the bathroom after a five-hour car ride to be greeted by a porcelain hole in the ground – and no toilet paper.  But this place is the most magical, heartwarming, eye-opening place on earth.    I will go back.  I can’t wait to go back.