Cambodia - You Should Go.

I started writing ths blog about 2 weeks ago, short as it is, it has taken me until now to post it.

I am sitting in an airport in Sidney, exhausted and out of sorts, on my last leg and on way back from Chile to Singapore. As to what the hell I was doing in Chile in the first place, will explain later, but for now, with more than a 6 hour layover and a spotty internet connection, what better time than to catch up on a little bit of blogging.

Chinese New Year is the one holiday in the year that can out do Christmas in South East Asia. Families get together for a giant feast and the exchanging of gifts. Singapore is decked out with giant and somewhat disturbing “lucky” rabbits and people are reminded by the government, that in keeping with the year of the rabbit procreation is a must, despite the Singapore goverments encouragement, Mike and I do not plan to pull the goalie anytime soon.

   

Having yet to be adopted by a Chinese family, Mike and I took the opportunity to plan a week long excursion to Cambodia (4 days Siem Reap, 2 days Phom Phen) along with our friends Peter and Shelim.

What is there to say? At some point you just let the pictures do the talking.

Bayon @ Angkor Thom

Angkor Wat

Monks hanging out at Angkor Wat

 

The temples are very cool. Should you find yourself at an opportunity to  go see these impressive monuments at least once in your life, well you should. 

We decided to go see the sunset over Siem Reap........

Apparently so did everyone else.

Lucky we came prepared though.

Sunset

Other hidden gems in Siem Reap included:

The bat tuk-tuk 

For $2 you could get a beer and a 20 minute fish pedicure.
It took Mike about 5 tries to get his feet in.  Oh what we do for cheap beer. 

In all honestly it worked!
 our feet felt great afterwards - highly recommend trying.

And finally i'll admit a bit of a surprise, one of my least favourite friends in the world reared their ugly head up in Siem Reap.

I now know where the worlds supply ended up.

I tried to warn Peter nothing good could come from a place that
 served black vodka, but he didn't listen.

We did go to the killing fields and genocide museum in Phom Phen and it was a very moving and a solitary experience. I didn’t take any pictures – it didn’t feel right. Maybe I’m over analyzing or over sentimental but I chalk it up there with taking photos at a funeral – just something that shouldn’t be done or allowed for that matter.

CHILE

As for the Chile thing, I have accepted a job with Concha Y Toro Wineries (www.conchaytoro.com) as their Regional Marketing Manager for Asia.  As to what exactly the fancy title means, I’m still trying to figure that one out, but  from what they tell me I will be traveling around the region and assisting our various distributors in planing, producing and executing marketing plans for our wines; primarily at the retail level. Should be fun.

As a result Mike and I have decided to extend our time in Asia past our orginal planned time frame – as to what the new time frame will be, well we’re not exactly sure on that one but will keep you posted.

In the mean time, only buy Chilean wine and don’t forget to have a glass or eight of: Frontera, Casillero del Diablo, Trio, Marques or Don Melchor for me!