1) You don't have to convert money, ever.  The entire economy is based on dollars, oh sure they have reils but at 4,200 reils per dollar, they are used more like pennies and dimes - when you have to return change for less than a dollar.   When you get money out of the ATM it automatically gives you dollars.  So you don’t have to do that constant calculation/translation of prices in your head which makes bargaining easy peasy. Now naturally this is only great for people from the USA but, after all, this is MY list of reasons I love Cambodia!




2) You don't need a towel, ever. Yes, we are here in the rainy season, and yes this means we get caught in the rain probably once a day.  Quite often the rain is so intense umbrellas and rain coats are essentially worthless and we get drenched.  But two minutes after the rain stops, we are completely dry.  Obviously the same is true for when we are at the beach. Two minutes after we step out of the Bay of Thailand we are dry as toast. No need to shlep along boring, oversized beach towels.




3) Your total shoe wardrobe consists of one pair of flip flops.  There is no need for sneakers since apparently the Khmer can do everything from trekking to cave climbing in nothing but plastic flip flops. And no restaurant or hotel, even in the capital Phnom Penh would ever be so fancy that you would feel out of place in $2 sandals. 




4) In fact, the most important item in your wardrobe is a sarong.  You need this as a beach cover up, towel, pillow, picnic blanket, rain cover, blanket, makeshift skirt or dress, etc, etc.  It’s uses are infinite and it is put into use once a day in this country.




5) Beer only costs a dollar here so I don't feel bad when I only finish half a bottle, since I generally don’t drink too much.  Personally I love Asian beer - Angor beer, Singha beer, Tiger beer - because they are very light.  If you are a fan of dark beer then maybe you won’t be so happy, but in any event you would only be out a dollar.




6) Cambodia coffee is the best in Southeast Asia.  Frankly all the coffee in Southeast Asia is better than western coffee.  Much smoother and richer than Italian, it has a full body that is perfect on its own.  But marry it with condensed milk and pour it over ice and you have something like dessert in a glass, it is so yummy. The bit that makes Khmer coffee better than Balinese or Vietnamese (also strong contenders) is that hint  of chocolate swirling through it.  I may have to leave behind everything in my suitcase and just fill it up with coffee beans on the way home. 




7) The food! This is asian fusion before there was such a name, The Cambodians’ classic dishes are based on recipes that spring from before chili peppers were brought to Asia so they are not as spicy as other countries in this area. They also conquered and were conquered by neighboring Thailand and Vietnam ad nauseum, seamlessly incorporating bits and pieces of those cuisines over the years. I would have to say fish amok and pepper crab are my very favorite dishes in the whole region. This trip I have picked up not one but three different Cambodian cookbooks. It is also the country I have finally discovered how to cook perfect sticky rice. 




8) Of course before you can have food you must pick the ingredients and Cambodian markets are some of the best in Asia - full of life (like live chickens), color and commotion.  Scooters edge past haggling customers in the cramped aisles; while wandering among the fruit, vegetable and meat or fish option one can also pick up a fresh squeezed juice drink or bowl of noodle soup, a new pair of flip flops or set of PJ’s, or uncut rubies. 




9) Then, of course, there are the delicious pastries and breads that beckon from the countless coffeeshops and bakeries on every corner.  You can blame the french all you want for colonizing this whole area and getting us (the US) into the bloody Vietnam war but they left behind damn good pastry chefs.  The croissants and baguettes here are consistently as light and flakey as any you find in Paris. And the desserts! Traditional asian desserts are normally on the gluey, sticky bland side so this is one area I am glad to find perfect approximations of western eclairs, madeleines and mousse.




10) Finally, (in terms of food), my favorite fruits in the world are available here - mangosteen, rambutan, dragon fruit, jackfruit, passionfruit, coconut, pomelo, longan, and tiny three inch long bananas. Just walking through a market and seeing mounds and mounds of glowingly beautiful fruit in all the colors of the rainbow makes me happy. Moreover they are available everywhere blended into delicious icy shakes. I think the passionfruit/watermelon shake alone is worth the price of an airplane ticket.  Personally I am not crazy about durian but I love that the Khmer are so in love with a fruit that smells like a dirty toilet. The sheer weirdness of durian flavored ice cream is simultaneously attractive and atrocious. 




11) Cambodia is the most amazing place for motorbikes. They are my favorite mode of transport when on my own and I love that you can hop on the back of one for a dollar to go across town.  It may not be the safest mode of family transport but one has to admit their ability to safely maneuver whilst encumbered with babies, groceries and bags of who knows what else is a testament to mom or dad’s skill. Now wondering if scooters serve as form of planned parenthood since, reasonably speaking, you can fit - at most - two parents and three small kids onto a single bike.




12) Of course we have to include the Khmer people themselves in any list of great things about Cambodia.  So kind, so generous and so patient, they never at any point failed to deliver service over and above what could be expected.  It is one of the reasons it is so easy to travel in this country.  As soon as you have a question -  how can we get a bus ticket? When does the boat to the island leave? Is there a cooking class we can take? - it is somehow instantly taken care of and you have the ticket in your hand or are being transported to your destination. Besides, there are the monks.  I do love the monks.




13) Despite this level of service Cambodia is still cheap as chips. Six dollar dinners, three dollar coconut shakes, ten dollar massages, kayaks renting for $4 an hour; it is a country you can indulge your taste for luxury without much pain. 




14) I love traveling by boat and Cambodia is a lovely country for boats.  The trip from Seam Reap to Battambang past the floating villages is one of the loveliest ways to get from point A to point B. But the best is taking a boat to cross the border into Vietnam or Laos. This is, needless to say, so much more preferable to flying, driving or even the train. Instead of cramped buses or security lines you are floating down a river with fresh air, comfy seats and flat, calm water. Paradise!




15) Last but not least - tuk tuks. I LOVE tuk tuks. These little scooter taxis just make me happy.  So comfy, so small. Just right for two or three passengers but if necessary the driver can cram in six people and all their luggage. I’ve seen entire gamelan orchestras transported via tuk tuk. They have took tuks in other asian countries but Cambodian ones are the best.  They are like fine victorian carriages, often with carved black wooden sides and plush red seats.  Some are fancy enough for a royal procession. But even the humblest are consistently cool with a breeze blowing your hair back as the side covers snugly protect you from rain. Tuk tuks are reason enough to live here.

My new year’s resolution was to, finally, post a RTW round up - a summary of the countries we visited from August 2011 to August 2012.  So January is behind us but yesterday was the first day of Chinese New Year so GONG HAY FAT CHOY!  Happy New Year’s and welcome to the post!

Here, in the order that we visited, are the countries and our suggestions of what was the best part and worst part of visiting them. 16 countries in 13 months (17 if you separate Tibet from China) meant an average of one month per country with shorter stays in Singapore, Uruguay, Bhutan and Costa Rica. 


Borneo 

Best for - Interactive nature! Walking hand in hand with Orangoutangs through Camp Leaky, having baby sea turtles hatch in our hands, pushing through clouds of stingless jellyfish; Indonesian Borneo is a place of wonder.

Worst for - Transportation.  We got stuck for three days due to an unexplained countrywide airplane “maintenance review.”  It took us three days, two planes, a ferry and a speed boat to get from the Malaysian side to the Indonesian.  But it was worth it.

Singapore 

Best for - Science museums and zoos. Its not everyday you get the chance to sit in the middle of a tesla coil while electricity shoots around you.  Moreover, just outside the museum is an indoor snow park where you can tube down an ice mountain while the weather outside is 90 degrees (maybe sparking a chat about global warming?).

 Worst for - Cost.  First world entertainment takes first world money.

China

Overall best for - Food.  Even when we had no way of communicating whatever was brought to us was delicious.  If only we could figure out how to say, “not spicy”.  Ah well, it toughened us up for India.

Specifically best for Pandas - don’t miss the chance to be a panda keeper while in Chengdu.

Worst for - Communication.  With so many billions of Chinese speaking tourists you can quite understand why tourist or transportation centers would not feel the need to hire english speakers but still it does make life difficult.

Tibet

Best for - The people with their deep commitment to Buddhism.  The reason we are considering this a separate country from China is because they do.

Worst for - Chinese soldiers on every corner.

Nepal

Best for - White water rafting and general availability of snickers chocolate bars.

 Worst for - Urban squalor.  There does not seem to be any aesthetic appreciation when religious temples are covered in trash and relics from the 9th century are used as dumps.  It may be that since there is some thousand year old building on every block it is simply too common to appreciate.

Bhutan

Best for - Most Romantic Couple (the King and Queen) and happiest subjects. 

Worst for - Cooked meat.  But since the country is 99% vegetarian buddhists it is really not their fault and tourists should just concentrate on the delicious cauliflower and potato dishes. 

India

Best for - Camels.  Between the Pushkar Camel Fair and the camel safari we took through the Thar desert we learned to know and love camels.  We especially loved the ones that wore Kohl make up for the beauty contest!  

Worst for - Food.  Thal and Dhal got old fast.  Much faster than our two month stay.  It will be a long while before we can face an Indian restaurant again. Oh, and while the English may have left a superb legal system, they apparently were never able to institute the concept of “queuing”.

Thailand

Best for - Malls.  These are perhaps more impressive to us having come from a non mall culture in general (NYC) and having spent 8 months in Asian street markets, but any building with an Aquarium in the basement, an outdoor film screen and nightly free concerts is worth shopping at.  Or just go for the food courts. Just kidding (hmm?),  it is best for the elephant camp in Kanchanaburi where we learned one should never, ever ride in a howdah. 

Worst for - Nothing really.  Thailand is one of the easiest countries to get around in the world with great food, smooth transportation, polite people and plenty to see.  But it is not really an “adventure.” 

Cambodia

Best for - The Battambang Bamboo Railroad!  One of our most fun days.  We also loved Cambodian cuisine so much that we took not one one but two classes to learn how to recreate it back home. Would have loved to have had more time there and the first place I would like to return to.

Worst for - Over expectations.  Everybody goes for Angkor Wat, which is nice but just another big temple framed by a sunset.  The smaller temples, markets and Pub street in Siem Reap are plenty reason enough to visit.

Myanmar

Best for - Least Westernized Country.  A true taste of the exotic, makes you appreciate how people lived hundreds of years ago.

Worst for - Least Westernized country. Villages have no running water, sanitation or medical facility. Makes you appreciate how difficult it was to live hundreds of years ago.

Laos

Best for - Scenery.  Whether biking through Luang Prabang or gliding through ten thousand lakes Laos is uniformly pretty, serene and calm.

Worst for - Vang Vieng, a sad blight of pot smoking drunkenness imposed a beautiful culture. While we were there CNN ran a pretty accurate story asking “Vang Vieng: Backpacker Heaven or Hell?” saying “You are more likely to see topless tourists vomiting than you are local culture” and more seriously that “in 2011 up to 22 people were reported to have died on it’s river”

http://travel.cnn.com/explorations/life/vang-vieng-backpacker-heaven-or-tourist-hell-994621

Bali

Best for - Aesthetics.  Pretty much any art class is available - dance, sculpture, music, painting, weaving. The Balinese have beauty woven into the very fiber of their being and everything they do from how they wrap a sarong to how they offer a gift is infused with a delicate grace.

Worst for - Kuta beach. The amazing sunsets and awesome surf breaks have been lost to a sad mess of bracelet sellers and braid makers aggressively pestering  drunken tourists.

Argentina

Best for - Tango and streak.  Here is where you get your meat fest on.

Worst for - Reverse culture shock.  If you’ve lived in New York, Paris or Madrid, this is no different. But if you appreciate good restaurants, charming architecture, first class art work, it is not a bad thing. 

Uruguay

Best for - Mate.  A country of obsessed mate drinkers.  English and Chinese tea drinkers are punters compared to them.

Worst for - Vegetables.  If it can’t be grilled or put on top of pizza than it apparently doesn’t exist. 

Ecuador

Best for - Swimming with the sea lions. Flora and Fauna in general.  There is no comparison to the Galapagos Islands anywhere.  We are ruined for zoos forever.

Worst for - Sigh, cost.  Two weeks in the Galapagos equals two months in South East Asia.  The rest of Ecuador, however, is quite reasonable.

Bolivia

Best for - Getting off the beaten track, walking in the steps of dinosaurs, otherwordly landscapes, $3 hand knit alpaca wool hats.

Worst for - Acknowledging Western tourists’ predilection for heat and running water - if it’s cold, just put on another shawl! At some point somebody told them tourists like pizza and to this day, outside of the major cities,  it is almost impossible to find any other food source.

Costa Rica

Best for - A paradise of active travel - zip lining, rafting, horseback riding, volcano trekking, rain forest hiking, there is every possible mode of getting from point A to point B, including driving your own minivan.

Worst for - Retired Americans in every nook and cranny.  It is like Florida in the rain forest. Give up all hope of learning Spanish here since everyone who interacts with you will speak English.

Finally

Everyone always asks which was our favorite and the short answer is - they all were. There is not one country we are not glad we visited. But hoping to be helpful, we have broken them down a little bit more.

Best for Kids

Costa Rica and Bali - This is Disney land with ziplines and arial obstacle courses in lieu of roller coasters. Parents can stagger the adventures with a steady round of field trips to learn how chocolate, tea, coffee, rice and spices are traditionally (organically!) grown and processed.

Best for Teenagers 

Nepal - If you want adventure, this is the place. They are the perfect age to trek up the Himalayas, raft down white water rivers or take to the skies on a paraglide. Moreover, they will find the filth and congestion of Kathmandu well worth the endless supply of mac and cheese or chocolate unknown anywhere else in Asia.  Do not bother going down to the malaria riddled south since the Chitwan area has been throughly stripped of wildlife and the exploitation of elephants for tourists is pure and simple animal cruelty.

Borneo - Last chance for unfiltered interaction with Orangoutangs before their habitant is destroyed.  Not only is it ultimately cool to be able to walk with and observe orangoutangs in the wild, older children will learn how fragile and interconnected all the world is as they see how the demand for teak furniture and cheap palm oil affects these great creatures. 

Recommended only if you have done your research first

Myanmar - 60 years of repression and human rights abuse are not wiped out by one visit from our state department.

Laos and Cambodia - be prepared to answer questions about why we (Americans) indiscriminately bombed and killed people we were not at war with and still refuse to sign a ban on land mines which would entail helping to clean up the live explosives still in their fields and school yards.

This is not to say don’t visit!  Tourism dollars and awareness help with all these issues. Just don’t let the beauty of the countryside and the people blind you to some serious problems.

Best all round 

Ecuador - Like Costa Rica, it has beaches, mountains, rain forests and sophisticated cities in a manageably small country.  Unlike Costa Rica, it is not overrun by American expats and retirees quite yet.  Although, between its restaurants, knitting stores and ease of transportation, I could quite see  the appeal of retiring here myself!

Bhutan - A fairytale of a place I can’t quite believe actually exists.  I don’t think I ever want to go back just in case it is not as romantic and perfect as I remember.