The unsexy side of traveling

Visiting Cambodia was amazing. I got to run a race with temples in the background, I got to eat some amazing food and I got to see a country that I’ve wanted to check out for a while.

I also got sick.

It started suddenly. I arrived in Thailand and my stomach was feeling a little off but not too bad. But then that night the fever, vomiting and diarrhea started – and wouldn’t stop. Sometimes both were happen ing at the same time. The next morning was even worse. The fever was still there and my stomach still wasn’t up to eating. In addition, my muscles felt like I ran a marathon. I was physically exhausted, and the back of my legs also felt like I had massive bruises on them, yet I couldn’t see anything.

Day three, I still wasn’t better, and the pain in the back of my legs was worse. However, now giant mystery red welts had shown up. Did I go to the doctor? No. I decided to try to sleep it off as I was still so tired and having hot and cold flashes.

mystery red welts that really, really hurt

Day five, the fever was finally gone and so was the pain in my legs. The welts? Well, they were still there, but they were changing. The skin on top of them was peeling off and underneath was a weird bruise. They looked like reverse sunburn.

It was now I decided to go to the doctor as this was beyond weird. The good news was that I was now back in Switzerland where I know everything is clean. The bad news was that I don’t speak the language very well and it turned out the doctor had never seen anything like it. I tried to explain that this started in Cambodia and that I thought it was food poisoning or the flu. The doctor brought in two other doctors. It was a mystery – but it definitely was not the flu and I didn’t get these bruises from the bad food.

The welts now peeling

After an hour of prodding and looking up things in books and online, they concluded some sort of spider or bug had bitten me and all the symptoms were my body’s way of killing off the poison. They said they looked like they were starting to heal and weren’t infected.

Basically, because I had no idea what had bitten me, they couldn’t do much except give me some lotion to make them less crusty.


Deadly bug bites. Stuff you don’t think about when traveling.

From Siem Reap to Phnom Penh

I admit except for running the Angkor Wat half marathon, I really didn’t have any concrete plans on what I wanted to do in Cambodia. But I figured while I was there, I should go visit the capital Phnom Penh and check it out.

It’s about a 6 to 8 hour drive from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh mostly because the roads are full of holes so you can’t speed along at 100 km an hour like in can in other places. But the drive is interesting as you pass through a bunch of villages and get to see some of the landscape. A really cheap why to do it is on the sleepy bus. The bus picks you up at 10 pm in Siem Reap and you arrive at 8 am in Phnom Penh. The cost was around $15 a person and we saw a lot of backpackers doing the trip that way.

But my friend and I took a more luxurious way. We asked the hotel how much it would be to hire a car to drive us there and the cost was $75. We thought about it and considering we would be recovering from running the race, the car had air conditioning and could stop whenever we wanted if we needed bathroom breaks or photo moments, we figured splitting the cost between two people was more than worth it.

The choice was the right one. The driver let us know when we were coming up to villages that had clean restrooms. And I one of the best soups of the whole trip at a little café he knew along the way.

Plus, when we got to this one area of the country, a little town called Skuon, where they have these giant black spiders that they fry and eat, he pulled into a market so I could see them.

The spiders are bred in holes in the ground and the spider-getter reaches into the hole and snatches them out.  They were big and the live ones were more than a little scary. But still I was fascinated and had to get a close up of them. Did I eat one? I was tempted, but then figured they were out in the sun all day and probably not the freshest choice – and I was really trying to be safe and not get food poisoning too early in the trip. Turns out, it didn’t matter. I got sick anyway, but more that in a later blog.

Anyway, back to Phnom Penh. Let me start by saying that it takes a couple of days to get used to it. Siem Reap is cute and touristy with just enough exoticness to make you feel like you ventured out on your own.

Phnom Penh is fast-paced, crowded, noisy, smelly and everything a city of 2.2 million in a hot tropical country is expected to be. They use their sidewalks for selling stuff, but walking on the street is an adventure as there are so many mopeds and motorbikes, you feel like you are in a video game.

 Crossing the street as pedestrian is a feat in its own. You can spot the expats in their big SUVs and we were amazed at how they could park those things in city made for bikes and Tuk-Tuks. Someone told us they are a hazard as you can’t see around them when on a moped and after being there for a few days I had to agree.

Traffic rules and passing lanes seem to be made based on “space”. In other words, if you think you can fit, then you can go. So passing happens on the left, on the right, and anywhere in between. What totally amazed me was how many people they could fit on their little motor bikes and the stuff they carried with them. I saw someone with live chickens. I saw someone with stuff strapped on the back, front and on their head. It was fun just watching them and seeing what would drive by next.

One thing I can say is that if you look, you can find anything and everything in Phnom Penh – from gourmet restaurants to sex-for-hire bars. And they may be located within a few feet of each other. Narrow dirty alleys are really streets and there are people everywhere. People are creative with their businesses. We saw a guy set up a chair in a little side alley and give people haircuts and shaves. Hotels, food and massages were a little more expensive than in Siem Reap, but still very reasonable compared to Western prices.

By day 3 we had the city under control. We even found an aerial yoga class held in a little building that was taught by an Australian expat. The cool thing, is once you find one expat, they can give you tips about the city that only an insider knows. She let us know which hotels you could visit during the day and for fee or for a drink, you could hang by the pool to escape the heat.

Phnom Penh is bizarre combination of poor and rich, modern and traditional, and all of these things are mixed together in a way that works for them. It’s really worth a visit.

Running the Angkor Wat Half Marathon

I wanted to run the Angkor Wat Half Marathon last December, but because I had gone a little overboard on my trip to Thailand in October, I couldn't make it happen for me financially. But 2015, I knew I was going to do it.

My friend and I waiting at the starting line at dawn.

My friend Rory was also up for the challenge. He had never run a half marathon, but the advantage he had over me was that he would be training in the same climate – hot and muggy. I was training in Switzerland where it was cold and I would be arriving the day before the race and hoping to pull it off, jet lag, heat and all.

On race day, we arrived at the starting line at 5 am. It was dark, but considering it was going to be 28 degrees by 8:00 am, we were okay with the darkness. The race was supposed to start at 6am, but naturally it was late. So it really began at 6:30am –and just as the sun was rising, we were off and running.

I think this may have been one of my favorite races to date. It was hot (really hot) and humid, which meant I had to run slower than usual. It also meant that it was not going to be a race where I would beat my PR of 1:47. I knew I was going to come in after 2 hours if I was going to finish feeling good and not like throwing up. (estimated 2:10; came in at 2:13 -- bad, but not too bad).

Accepting that I was going to suck was the best decision. That meant I wouldn’t feel the pressure of shaving off seconds and could take the take to stop and snap photos along the way. Rory didn’t bring his phone with him (how he can run without music amazes me), so I knew my shots would be the ones that “proved” we were there -- and we may only do this race once in our lives so I wanted to cherish it.

I was glad I did.

 The race took us around all the temples in the area. It was a blast running and then when seeing a temple, veering off to the side to snap a quick photo and go on. I wasn’t the only one doing this. Many of the runners were like me. They too were getting their tourist sights in along the way.

That’s what I really like about my Angkor Wat photos. It’s the runners who are in them that make them special as these are my peeps. They may be from all over the world, but we all were there on the same crazy, hot and humid quest.

For me, it’s not just about seeing the temples – you can see temples anytime, but how many times in your life will you get to run 21.2 km to see them?


Next marathon? Dubai in January!

Pampered at the Golden Temple in Siem Reap

It’s always a little bit scary when booking hotels online in countries you’ve never been before. Not only do you have no idea if the neighborhood is going to be good, but you have no idea if you are getting a good deal for your money. Plus, sometimes places that come up as 4 or 5 star in Trip Advisor, really aren’t.

The Golden Temple Hotel and Spa in Siem Reap is not one of those places. It deserves its 5-star rating and beyond. We not only got our money’s worth, but we were pampered like celebrities. 

First of all they picked me up from the airport. After flying 18 hours and arriving exhausted in a super humid country, seeing a smiling guy holding my name up on an iPad was a great feeling. Instead of having to try to communicate with a taxi driver in a new language, I could veg out in an air-conditioned car and enjoy the sights. Yay!

And the place. Wow. Golden Temple is beautiful - from the lobby, to the spacious rooms, to the amazing pool. Everything there was exceptionally clean, tasteful and relaxing. They had colorful flower petals everywhere and the bathrooms were modern and chic. The place was so nice, you almost didn’t want to leave to check out the sights.

Then there were the perks of the place.


Every night they had Happy Hour from 7 pm to 8 pm. And their Happy Hour will make you really happy as it’s free drinks and free nibblies for an hour – whether your drink of choice is wine, tea or whiskey. In addition to the daily happy hour, we got one free dinner for two, a free massage, a free picnic lunch and free daily breakfast. Considering we were only there 3 nights, that was a lot of free stuff.

But the best part had to be the customer service. The team was always smiling and ready to help you hail a tuk tuk, arrange an outing or whatever else you wanted. We were there to run the Angkor Wat Half Marathon and had to be at the starting line at 5:30 am. They arranged a tuk tuk for us and the poor guy waited there while we ran the race to take us back to the hotel. They also arranged for a car to take us from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh.

Anything we asked, they were able to do for us and their little touches such as bringing you shaved ice with fruit when by the pool were always unexpected and touching. They made my first visit to Cambodia worth coming back again.