What happens when you're bored...

...the population of your country jumps from 4 million to 14 million in nearly 29 years. That's Cambodia. Our tour guide was explaining the history to us today about the genocide that happened here, where 3 million Cambodians were killed. (Most of you know how bad I am at history... so names of Regimes etc just don't sink in, so bear with me. Also, I can't understand my guide, Kakada's, accent a lot of the time, so I only get a few of the details). The Regime at the time that was killing off the Cambodians was overthrown, ending the genocide in 1979. At this point, Kakada explained that the strife was over and the people were bored. Apparently they found a way to kill the time... resulting in the birth of 10 million people 29 years. I never would have thought it was possible... but they proved me wrong.

Cambodia is beautiful. I love the people, the food, and the sites we've seen so far. I'm trying to be brave and expand the foods that I order. I have had a couple bad run-ins with chili powder, but other than that it's been great. For $3.00 I get a feast!The people are so warm and interested in learning everything they can about us. People will stop me pretty often just to ask me where I come from and what my name is. It's great to see that they don't mind tourists being here, but that we are just part of their way of life now and they embrace us. I've seen some pretty incredible sites just within the past day of being here. We took a boat (real long and skinny with just enough room to fit our group) out to the floating village outside of Siem Reap. There are 3 million people living in tiny houses that sit on stilts above the water. The water is contaminated with all of their waste... but it is the source of all of their food and it is used as the main roadway to get from A to B. Everybody has their own boat... and traffic in the water is just as crazy as traffic on land. They just don't have any sense of space or safety- if you want to go, you go! Seeing those villagers living in those conditions made me appreciate how easy life is at home. We have clean, running water, electricity, cars, and overabundance of food... etc. It comes to us so simply at home. I wonder if they ever think about the way other people live... probably not. That is their life and they seem content with it. The children in the villiage were so happy... they would jump in and out of the water the whole time, scream at us and wave and smile. Maybe they are completely fine without the things we consider necessary... and I guess they don't miss what they never had at all. It's just incredible how drastic a difference their lives are from ours.

Tomorrow we are meeting at 4:45am and heading to Angkor Wat to watch the sunrise over the temples. We'll be there all day, even to watch the sunset at around 6pm. I'm so excited to see the temples, I imagine that it's going to be an incredible site. But the early start means that I have to get to bed now... otherwise I'll never make it through the day. Take care, I love you all!