I am a Cambodia Expert Now

So after 8 days in the country, I can now answer a few questions with some confidence (and a ton of questions without any confidence whatsoever). Here are the common first ones asked by my online friends.

Why Cambodia?

Why not? I've always wanted to go there and see it, even though it wasn't super-high on my list. Truth is, by the time we all synchronized our schedules for time off work, the only tickets even available out of Taiwan to Southeast Asia were to Cambodia. So in some ways, we were destined to visit there.

What's in Cambodia?

34C temperatures in the dead of winter. A lot of poor people. Sandstone (and the dust of). And, of course, Angkor (more here, including Angkor Wat and others.

How's the pho?

Uh, pho?? There's no pho in Cambodia to speak of; that's Vietnam where the good pho is. To me, Cambodian food is an uninteresting mix of Thai and Indian. Not that the food isn't good -- I like Thai food, and I love Indian food -- but that there isn't a whole lot that is particularly unique to the region. With the exception of amok fish (one recipe here).

Is it cheap there?

Yup, stuff is cheap: meals for $1.50US, hotels for as low as $8 a night, etc. But I know it could be cheaper, because those are the tourist prices, and there's a major discrepancy between that and the local prices. And I hate feeling like I'm getting taken for a ride just because I'm a foreigner. For instance, we paid twice what we should have for a bus service between cities; it was cheap anyway, even at $6 a person, but I didn't like the idea of getting scammed.

Did you guys have fun?

Of course! We packed the first few days with Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, Angkor -- including a few early mornings to watch the sunrise -- and then slowly started to tone down the energy level as we went down the week. At the end, we were generally all suffering from "temple burnout" and partook in foot massages instead. Eventually, I got tired of every brother and his mother trying to sell us "traditional Khmer" this, "traditional Khmer" that. Oh, and wandering local markets, bargaining for hours on end for that last $0.25US for the trinket -- "it's not the money, it's the principle"!

Did you take lots of photos? Are they up yet?

Yes and no, respectively. I think my "yes" also answers why I haven't uploaded yet.

Are Cambodian chicks hot?

Okay, nobody asked this (explicitly), but I'll just say that they're not really my style. Some are definitely pretty, though.

Okay, that's it for now. More insights later. But for now, Taiwan sure seems pretty clean in comparison.