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Like reading Traveling Liz? Want to see more fun posts about travel? Want to buy me a beer? Please consider donating a small amount to help support the site and my RTW trip:About L’appel Du Vide
There exists a psychological phenomenon in which perfectly sane people, with no desire to die, find themselves faced with a steep cliff and experience a strong desire to leap. To jump from their safe vantage point into the unknown. This phenomenon is so common in fact, that the french have a term for it: L’appel du Vide – Call of the Void.
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Tag Archives: Cambodia
Misadventure Monday: Shannon from “A Little Adrift”
![backpacking with ana in bangkok[1] Shannon from A Little Adrift](http://travelingliz.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/backpacking-with-ana-in-bangkok1-150x150.jpg)
This post is part of a L’appel Du Vide feature, Misadventure Mondays. In each segment, I’ll ask one of my favorite travel bloggers to share one of their Travel Misadventures. This Monday, Shannon from A Little Adrift shares her tale of getting lost in Cambodia. Tell me a little about yourself and your current trip? Back in 2008 I was living in Los Angeles and decided I needed a change; I needed to follow through with my dream to travel. I set off on a one-year RTW trip, and have never looked back. After that first year on the road, I slowed … Read More
Misadventure Monday: Kyle and Briana from ‘Roll Gobal’

This post is part of a L’appel Du Vide feature, Misadventure Mondays. In each segment, I’ll ask one of my favorite travel bloggers to share one of their Travel Misadventures. This Monday, Kyle and Briana from Roll Global share their tale of a dinner visit gone wrong in Cambodia. Tell me a little about yourself and your current trip: In January 2010 we got married and quit our jobs to take an indefinite honeymoon. Indefinite turned out to be reliant on money in the bank. In the end we traveled to 19 countries in 12 months. After being abroad for a year … Read More
The Monks of Cambodia

Cambodia is a beautiful country (And I’m sure you can tell from my many posts about my trip how much I loved it). Ancient Temples. Kind warm people. Great Markets. Amazing food. A sometimes troubled history. Cambodia is a country dominated by the color green. Dirt roads wind through grassy banks. Trees slowly eclipse the mossy stones of Angkor Wat. Green tinted water snakes its way through Phnom Penh. The green is so dominated that the Monk’s are shocking. Bright pops of orange against an otherwise cool backdrop. A monk speaks to a woman in Phnom Penh I became fascinated by … Read More
Ruining my Hair on a Rainy Afternoon

In Cambodia, in June, it rains almost everyday. In Phnom Penh, like clockwork, each afternoon the clouds would gather and the sky would darken. Then the heavens would open up and it would pour. As my dad would say it was “Taint a day fit for man nor beast.” Once I realized this was going to be a daily pattern, I stopped letting the rain keep me inside. Instead I just ignored it. I took tuk tuks in the rain, I visited the sights in the rain, I walked around in the rain. It actually wasn’t that bad – … Read More
The Murky Waters of Cultural Tourism: Visiting Kompong Phluk Floating Village

When I went to Siem Reap to visit the famous Angkor Wat temples, I booked a guide for my two days at the temples. However, I had no plans for the afternoon before and when I arrived, my Hostel recommend an excursion to see the nearby Floating Village of Kompong Phluk. Thinking of my visit to the Floating Markets in Thailand I agreed – I assumed it would be touristy but fun. Cultural Tourism can sometimes walk a fine line between the careful study of another country and a total invasion of privacy. If you were at home, eating your dinner, walking your dog, doing your … Read More
Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum in Phnom Penh, Cambodia

After my visit to the Killing Fields outside of Phnom Penh, I had my tuk tuk driver take me back to the city to visit the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. The Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum was formerly a High School in Phnom Penh before the rise of the Khmer Rouge. When the Khmer Rouge took over the city and expelled the citizens, all the schools were closed. The city became a black box and no one from the outside world knew the full story of what was truely happening inside Phnom Penh. Years later, in 1979, after the deaths of millions … Read More
The Killing Fields in Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Located just outside of Phnom Penh, the infamous Cambodia Killing Fields are one of the most important places you can visit in Cambodia to understand the history of the Khmer People. As I mentioned before, I had read Loung Ung’s book First They Killed My Father about her history living under the Khmer Rouge’s oppressions before my visit. Her story gave me great background into the atrocities committed by the regime, but the memorial gave me an even deeper understanding of the suffering of the Cambodian people. (For additional background on the Khmer Rouge, I also recommend a visit to … Read More
Landmines, The Never Ending War

The Cambodian Landmine Problem Cambodia is home to the largest number of amputees in the world. It’s impossible to visit the country without seeing amputees – a situation which is only compounded by the lack of availability of prosthetics. Most people are forced to do with ill fitting or homemade devices, or they simply go without. Although I had seen many of these amputees in the entrances to the Angkor temples, it wasn’t until my visit to the Cambodia Land Mine Museum, near Siem Reap, that I fully understood the reasons and implications. Most if not all of these amputees were victims … Read More