It was in the last week in India when I arranged my travel to Cambodia. During this time I felt a bit tired after all the daily new impressions there. I also realized that I finally needed some time for myself. I really love to have people around but since I’ve started this trip, there was always someone around and I didn’t do what I normally use to do from time to time: Closing my apartment door to find quiet moments to read, watch documentaries, think, work on pictures, listen to music, etc. So the decision was to use the time in Cambodia to spend time for myself. That’s why I booked a hotel instead of a hostel this time.
Being in Siem Reap, Cambodia, I divided the day in time at the pool, time to explore the ancient temples of Angkor and time to relax in the air conditioned hotel complex (yes, I had problems with the extremely high humidity and hot temperatures again^^) . My passion for photography came out again and I took my time to see Angkor from many different perspectives through the lens. It felt like meditation to me and later on in the hotel I worked on the pictures in Lightroom which is another very relaxing activity for me.
I didn’t do what I did in the places before the Cambodia trip: Visiting museums, getting information about the place and the culture where I'm at. It seems like you can't do that every week as everything you normally like to do gets kind of "boring" after some time. So I enjoyed Cambodia a "photography way" and during lunch brake on the daily tours I talked to my tuk-tuk driver about life in Cambodia and his family, but mainly about soccer / football as he is a supporter of the Germany national team and knew all the players. He was very excited about the upcoming world cup 😉
After three days "on my own" I changed the location from nice hotel to decent hostel to have company again and to get to know people. On the last evening in Cambodia I felt ready to head back to Hawaii where I had a four day layover on the way to Latin America. I was happy about all the Asia experiences I had on this travel and in the last years. But in the same way I was very curious about exploring another part of the world soon.
Feel free to have a look at the pictures below to get an impression of the Siem Reap area. Angkor Wat is the largest religious monument in the world built in the 12th century. There are over one thousand temples in the area. It was an amazing experience to walk through time there. I did both routes: The inner circle which shows the Angkor temples and the bigger one which leads you to the ladies temple Banteay Srei.
I'll write about the first weeks in Latin America soon. Cya and enjoy.