March 17 , 2007 - Two Steps Back

The guesthouse we were staying at in Siem Reap was a bit of a dump. But it had A/C and was only $15 a night so we dealt with it. The custom in Cambodia is to take off your shoes and leave them outside before going in the building - just like in Thailand.

Well... I took my flip flops off to go to our room to get something. When I went back outside, my shoes were missing. I was looking everywhere and soon many people were involved in looking for the shoes. Finally, one of the Cambodian men who worked at the guesthouse "realized" that he had on my flip flops and gave them back.

Okay... you know that I don't like feet. You might also know that I hate it when random strangers touch me (Remember that little girl on the airplane who kept caressing my arm through the armrest? Disturbing.) Now put those two things together and you're going to see a sweet girl from Indiana come apart at the seams.

I tried to hold it together. I didn't want to be offensive. But I just couldn't do it. Sarah took one look at me, saw the breakdown brewing and took over. She picked up the shoes and hustled me back into the room to wash up and collect myself. I'm not proud of this story, but I do find it fascinating, horrifying and hilarious all in one.

March 17 , 2007 - Angkor Temples

The biggest tourist draw in Cambodia is Angkor Wat - said to be the largest religious structure in the world (although Sarah and I would argue that the Vatican is technicaly larger). But it's actually much more than just Angkor Wat - it's an entire city called Angkor and all its contains hundreds of wats (temples).

On our first day in Siem Reap, Sarah and I armed ourselves with the Lonely Planet guidebook and went out in a tuk tuk in search of some ancient temples. We walked around the temples and tried to piece together the history of the place, but it was pretty difficult. We decided to get a guide for the next day and ended up learning quite a bit about the history of this amazing place and the culture of the people who lived here.

Angkor was once the capital of the mighty Khmer Empire back in the 9th-15th centuries. The Khmer people built some of the most amazing architecture of their time in Angkor. They mined limestone and sandstone from local quarries and built temple after temple in honor of their kings. The carvings along the inner and outer walls of the temples tells the stories of the wars fought by the Khmer Empire as well as traditional Hindu stories. Walking through the temples is like walking back in time.

Ta Prohm

Angkor Wat

Bayon

March 17 , 2007 - Nightmares

I have started having nightmares. One night I dreamt that Sarah left me behind and I didn't know where I was or how to find her. I woke up scared to death. I yelled Sarah's name and scared the crap out of her too. But she woke up and was immediately soothing - telling me where we were and what was going on and assuring me that she wasn't going to leave me. We reached across our 2-foot divide to hold hands for a minute and then cracked up about how we can't be apart. I hope that soon I will resolve whatever is going on in my head and stop having these nightmares. It's really unsettling.

March 18 , 2007 - Polin

When we were touring around the Angkor temples, we thought it would be so nice to have a guide to teach us about the history of the places we were visiting. We had a guidebook, but felt that we were missing both big chunks of information as well as small details and inside stories. I saw a guide and listened to him for a while and thought it would be great to have him take us around the following day.

And so Polin enters our lives. We introduced ourselves and agreed to talk later. When I called, Polin said that he was already booked for the next day but that he had been trying very hard to find us a good guide. He wanted to meet up with us so he came to the restaurant where we were eating. We chatted for a bit and he shared a lot of information with us about the history of Cambodia. We were shocked to hear that both of his parents were killed by the Khmer Rouge when he was four years old. He lived in orphanages for a while and also with his aunt and uncle who were farmers and therefore spared during the communist regimes reign.

Polin is a lovely man. He's so gentle and kind. He is very well educated and speaks 3 languages fluently. He is gracious and shares himself openly. After working all day as a tour guide, he goes to volunteer at the local orphanage to teach the children.

The next morning, we invited Polin and his wife to join us for dinner. He was very pleased by the invitaton and agreed to meet up with us later. After our day of touring, Polin showed up at our guesthouse with his scooter. Both Sarah and I got on the back and we all rode to the restaurant together. It was really fun!

Polin's wife Janay was lovely. She didn't speak much English but she was very sweet and was clearly very much in love with Polin. They had brought their wedding photo album and we enjoyed looking at all the pictures. It is Cambodian custom to have a 2-day long wedding and the bride and groom change into 8-10 elaborate costumes throughout those 2-days. It looked like a lot of fun.

We learned so much from Polin about Cambodian history and culture and it was so nice to really connect with one of the locals. We felt so lucky to have picked him out of the crowd of tourists and tour guides. It was yet another example of something being "beshert".

Khmer friends

March 19 , 2007 - Phnom Penh Craziness

We took the bus from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh. The journey takes about 6 hours and costs $4. The bus we were on consisted of 4 tourists (including us) and about 35 locals. I think we had an authentic experience. They played Cambodian music videos the whole time and at the bathroom stop, we followed people to the "bathroom" only to find them all peeing in a field behind a building. In addition, we kept picking up more passengers and when the seats were all filled up, they pulled out plastic stools and had people sitting in the aisles. Very interesting.

When we got to Phnom Penh everything turned upside down. We were accosted by locals the moment we disembarked from the bus. Everyone wanted to sell us something or give us a ride or just get a donation. It's really difficult to deal with that on such a constant basis. It's very stressful. I'm not sure why it's so different here than it is in Siem Reap or any part of Thailand. Maybe because it's a large city that just doesn't have jobs for people.

The roads are an adventure. There are no lanes... people drive in both directions on any part of the road that they please. Most people ride scooters that hold 3, 4 even 5 people. There are also a lot of tuk tuk's on the road. People turn around in the middle of the road and no one seems to think anything of it . People walking down the road really take their life in their hands. You never know when a tuk tuk is going to come barreling down the street directly at you, or someone on a scooter is going to try to run you down, or an elephant is going to be strolling down the sidewalk. You really just don't know what's going to happen here.

Sitting in the aisle

No lanes

Walking down the street

March 19 , 2007 - Luxury at $23/day

Sarah and I were a little tired of staying in crappy places. We figured it would be a similar situation here, but we held out hope for a better room. And we got our wish! After getting turned away at a couple of places on our list, we popped into the Paragon to check out the space. We climbed up 5 flights of stairs and found home. The room was clean and cool and had a gorgeous bathroom. The shower is absolute luxury. It even has hot water!!

I am only slightly ashamed to admit that we spent our first evening just sitting in the room watching Speed and Witness on our television. Lovely!

Paragon Hotel

Gorgeous shower

Room with A/C, TV and hot water!!

March 21 , 2007 - The Killing Fields

We've all heard the stories of torture and genocide of the Jews in Hitler's Germany. But not many people know about the torture and genocide of the Khmer people in Pol Pot's Cambodia. I was shocked and horrified by what I learned here and I'm going to write about it in case others want to know the story.

In 1975, a man self-named Pol Pot (short for Political Potential) banded together a group of young Khmer soldiers and overthrew the government of Cambodia. These insurgents, called the Khmer Rouge (Red Cambodians), reigned terror throughout Cambodia for 4 years with a goal of creating a communist country.

The Khmer Rouge reasoned that they would be able to keep order by ensuring ignorance of the people and having all of Cambodians citizens working together to produce rice. To achieve this, they set about killing all the educated people in the country and forcing everyone out into the rural areas to become farmers. They tortured and killed anyone who was educated because they didn't want those people to rise up against this regime and take back the country.

Over the course of 4 years, the Khmer Rouge killed over 20,000 people through torture and murder and they killed about a million more people through starvation and disease because they weren't able to produce enough food to feed the people and there were no longer any doctors left to keep people healthy.

In 1979, Vietnam defeated the Khmer Rouge and Cambodia has been trying to rebuild itself ever since then. Destroying their entire educated population set them back at least 50 years. They have to focus on educating the children and eventually developing a population of skilled workers. Until then, the only thing they can do is teach people about what happened in order to prevent it from happening again.

Can anyone help me understand why so many political despots seem to come to power and destroy huge groups of people in the name of progress? I will never be able to comprehend how they are able to convince so many people to carry out their sick plans and why other, more powerful nations are unable or unwilling to step in and stop the madness. When will we as a people stop focusing on war and hate and racial/religious supremecy and start focusing on the betterment of humankind?

Choeung Ek Memorial

March 22 , 2007 - Dollar Signs

Cambodia is a very poor country and their main source of revenue is from tourism. They have created a range of hotels and restaurants to cater to western tourists and an entire sub-population of Khmers employ themselves in the business of street-hawking and begging.

As we walk down the street, we are constantly bombarded with people wanting us to buy something or give them something. When we walk out of our hotel, a bevy of tuk tuk drivers hovers around us shouting "Tuk tuk lady"... "Lady you buy me"... "Where you going lady"... We shake our heads, we say no and still they persist. They ask over and over and over again. It's quite maddening. If they weren't harrassing us past the breaking point, I know for a fact that we would take more tuk tuks around town.

As we eat our meals, people - mostly children - come at us from all angles. They want us to buy books or bracelets or food or they simply want a donation. They hold our their hands as we walk down the street. It's so difficult to be seen merely as a dollar sign. They don't see us as people at all. There is no interest in knowing us or interacting with us - only an interest in getting our money. It's a terrible feeling and it's hard to not let it get to you.

March 23 , 2007 - The Road Very Traveled

We took a bus to and from Sihanoukville and Phnom Penh. We paid $2 more than our last bus ticket (which was on a locals bus) and got a serious upgrade. This bus had excellent air conditioning, a hostess who handed out water and snacks and a toilet. We were so much more comfortable on this bus service.

But the one thing that stayed the same was the constant honking from the bus driver. On the two and a half hour ride, I think the horn was honked for about two hours of the journey. The problem is that everyone drives in the middle of the road. You look out the window and see people coming and going in all directions. There are people walking, people biking, many people on scooters, people in cars, people in vans and people in big buses and trucks. There are no apparent road rules and therefore people are constantly trying to pass each other along the road. In order to alert people that you're coming up behind them, the custom is to honk your horn. So basically, there is constant honking as you go down the street. Everyone is honking at everyone else. I have no idea if this system works for anyone, but it doesn't make sense to me. When you're on the road, you're constantly surrounded by weaving vehichles and are hyper-aware of what's happening around you. A horn seems unnecessary at thtat point and should probably only be used in situations where a person is actually in danger. Just a thought.

Although desperate to convey these thoughts to the bus driver, I managed to hold my tongue and block out the madness by alternating my attention between my book and the hilarious Khmer music videos. Sarah randomly came across a write up on Thorn Tree from someone commenting on this very subject. He had entertained himself by coming up with a system for the number of honks different groups would get (two honks for a scooter, one long honk followed by four quick honks for school children riding bicyles, laying on the horn without pause for any naked children walking along the side of the road). It was absolutely hilarious and gave us a whole new perspective each time we got into a vehicle from that point forward.

March 24 , 2007 - Lighthouse Orphanage

We learned about a great volunteer opportunity at the Lighthouse Orphanage from a friend we met in Siem Reap. We learned a little bit about the place and found that they welcome foreigners to help teach the kids English and to play games with them.

We hired a tuk tuk for the day and stopped off at the market and bought a 25 kilogram bag of rice to take with us . When we got to the orphanage, a bunch of the kids came running towards us. They were smiling and laughing and reaching in the tuk tuk to touch us. One little girl held my hand as we drove through the yard. They bombarded us with questions about ourselves... "what's your name?".... "where are you from?"... "how old are you?"... You should have seen their faces when Sarah tried to convey (through finger counting) how old we were! Shock and awe ;-)

They had already finished with their lessons so we just hung out with the kids. We talked to them so they could practice their English and in turn, they taught us several Khmer words. Then they started playing games. We watched as they took turns trying to jump over an impossibly high rope and I joined in a game of Khmer-style double dutch. They they started playing a game something like duck-duck-goose and they invited us to join them. We stood around in a big circle holding hands. A pair of kids would walk around the circle and touch the hands of two others and then they would race in opposite directions to get to the empty space first. The game was simple and fun and it was a joy to watch them play it. They were so engaged with them game and would laugh and giggle as people raced around the ring. They didn't discriminate about who got picked - they seemed to balance it out nicely.

Overall, I was amazed by how well-adjusted the kids were. They were clean and healthy and, most importantly, they were genuinely happy. They took care of each other and were very loving both with each other and with the volunteers that came along. They so readily gave and received love and hugs that it really surprised me. Even though volunteers come and go from their lives everyday, they still make the effort to connect with them by interacting, by touching, by involving us in their lives. I was overwhelmed by their generosity of spirit.

We were told that they were giving a dance performance the next day so we promised to come back and watch. When we arrived, we got the same warm welcome and were amazed at how much they remembered about us. We talked with them and had them show us their dance moves and then we got to see them perform several traditional Khmer dances. It was so fun to see them showing off for us! It was very difficult to leave, but we felt great about getting to spend time with these amazing children. With them, we were able to connect with local Khmer people in a way that is usually difficult. It definitely made me feel closer to the people of this country and it gave me better insight into their ways and customs.

Jumprope game

Riding around

Sweet girls