mila | adventures . cambodia

it started out with our luggage not showing up.  somehow our luggage decided it wanted to take a more adventurous route.  it went to bombay from bangkok and no one knew when it would make it's way to cambodia.  groan.  guess it was time to go shopping.  then petra comes out of the bathroom with this statement... "the green stuff in the little bottle isn't mouthwash".  silly girl tried to gargle with shampoo.  rofl.  it was a great start.


we decided to spend the first day shopping.  gee... i wonder why?  we went to the "old market".  it's a tourist trap quite honestly.  several stalls of the countries local goods.  everything from metal and wood works to fabrics and fish.    we bought enough clothes to get us by.  i would have purchased more but they trade in US dollar.. dollar as in the paper money.  no coins here.  so the smallest denomination they are willing to trade on is a buck.  even for the smallest toy they want to charge a dollar.  it gets ridiculous in some cases.  i don't think i'll be coming back for the shopping.  


we took a trip to a place called floating village.  it's amazing!  everyone lives on "house boats".  people here learned how to swim and maneuver boats before they learned how to walk.  many of them never even learned how to drive or ride a bicycle!  although i should be one to talk, curtis just taught me how to ride a bike last summer.  

cruising through the neighborhood and peeking into their homes you see that they have everything they need.  gardens are found out front and music in the back.  some homes have TVs and monitors.  the village has a floating basketball court, a church, post office and a school.  behind each of these you see little boats parked out back.  the local restaurant is well equipped and the bathroom is cleaner than the ones on land!  the best part of all this is that the shopping is a window service!  the floating produce store comes right up to your doorstep where you can make your selections in the comfort of your home. 


that night we hung out at pub street.  it's the local bar hopping hang out, hence the name.  it's a colorful strip with art shops mixed in with restaurants and pubs.  kids walk the streets peddling goods to the tourists.  street artists -- i only saw one guy actually -- performing daring stunts complete with speakerers on wheels.  down a little ways are food stalls selling local favorites and next to that a 3 story restaurant with a skate ramp on the roof!