Tuesday Morning - Last Day in Phnom Penh

Well, yesterday was quite an adventure! Mike Lewis, Max, Josh & I flew up to Siem Reap to see the temples at Angkor Wat. Our flight was great and our Tuk-Tuk drivers were on time and waiting for us.

The 4 Mustketeers and our Tuk Tuk with Driver

The temples and ruins at Angkor Wat are almost beyond description. Truly boggles the mind to understand how it all was done without modern machinery. One temple had a tree grown up in the middle of it, which has continued for hundreds of years. This has caused the temple to collapse. The tree trunks look like a snake wrapped around it.

Panoramic Shot of the back of Angkor Wat

Panoramic Shot of one of the Angkor Wat pools

Before we left, I put fresh batteries in my camera. By about 1:00 p.m. my batteries were going bad. Mike Lewis had the same experience. I think I took nearly 300 pictures during the day.

We had lunch at a restaurant that served an approximation of western food. I had spaghetti with meat sauce, which was good but spicy. Mike & Max had hamburgers with fries. The hamburger was a hamburger patty between 2 slices of bread. Josh ate Cambodian food.

We also got to see the main church here at Siem Reap. Very nice facility, much nicer than here in Phnom Penh. We saw the bass guitar that we helped replace. Yikes! I took a picture. Their main microphone had no cover.

John 3:16 in Khmer on Siem Reap Church Wall

Siem Reap was MUCH cleaner and more inviting than Phnom Penh. We were actually quite shocked at the difference. We talked to someone who told us that there are parts that are as bad as those in Phnom Penh, but overall it is less crowded and the cars pretty much drive on the right side of the road. (As an aside, we were told that up until 2 years ago there were no stop signs or stop lights in Phnom Penh - a city of 1.4 million people!).

While we were gone, they had to take 1 student to the hospital for a minor infection. All went well. She said the hospital looked just like the hospitals at home. All the medicines, emergency room visit and all cost $63.00.

This morning we will be moving to another house so that the Khmer students who let us borrow their apartments can move back. We will go to our final market and then go to the genocide museum. I've read that it can be pretty disturbing. Yesterday the team went to the killing fields and I guess it affected the students quite a bit.

I may not be able to post again while we're in Phnom Penh. The next update may be from the Singapore Airport.

Thank again to all of you for your support, prayers and emails. We'll be back in the states in about 4 days.