Welcome to Cambodia

Welcome to Cambodia, a place of temples, dancers, weird food and much more. We went over to Cambodia on a boat, after our tour of the Mekong Delta. We were heading to Phenom Pehn the capital of Cambodia. As we cruised past the river banks I hardly saw any people, unlike Vietnam where there would always be people in boats, fishing, or even bathing.

When we arrived we were swarmed by tuk tuk drivers, all wanting to take us to our hotel. It was like we were movie stars!

My favorite thing we did in Cambodia was visiting an orphanage. When we arrived all the kids rushed out to say "Hello!" They were the friendliest people I had ever met. They walked up to my older sister, Sierra, and asked "How old are you?" She said she was 14. They looked at each other and laughed. I was confused. Then they asked me how old I was. They laughed even harder when I said I was 11. I was even more confused. Then they said that they were 14, 15 and 16. They were laughing because Sierra and I were both taller than all of them.

After talking for a while, the kids asked if they could show us a dance. Of course we said, yes. Some music started playing and the little boys jumped up and started doing a monkey dance. After that, the girls got up and did a traditional Cambodian dance. Cambodian dancers stretch their fingers so that they bend back far. It was cool to get to watch them, because we hadn't seen any real dances while we were there. After everyone had done their dances, we had to go. I was so happy just being around those kids. They reminded me you don't need expensive things to be happy. Everyone waved to us until we were out of sight. I just wanted to take all of them home.

Our first night in Phenom Pehn, we went to a restaurant. There we had fish amok, banana flower salad, and spider! To be exact tarantula! I was afraid to eat it. I opened my mouth to put it in. Then shut it. I closed my eyes opened my mouth and bit. As I chewed I nodded my head. It was pretty good! After dinner, my dad asked what was my favorite thing we ate that night. I thought for a second and said "I've got to say the tarantula was pretty good!"