Here, at long, long last, begins the tale of my trip with Uncle Chava to Cambodia, Lao(s) and Thailand. I have decided to tell it in three parts, one for each country, as this approach is sure to make things easier on the brain-palate, as it were. Because of an unfortunate incident involving me, a memory card and loss, all of the pictures of Cambodia have been kindly donated by Uncle Chava. Thanks, Uncle C!
And here we are: Book, the first:
I arrive in Cambodia in the evening. I get a room at Chava's and my afore agreed-upon hotel and grab some tasty curry at a nearby restaurant. I get a bit of a sense of the city, but it's not that easy since it's already dark. Chava arrives around midnight. We get settled, trade flight-stories and catch some Z's.
In the morning we get up and look out over our balcony too see streets like this. Clearly, my friends have not been lying about the chaotic nature of Phnom Penh. Crossing the street in this bustling capital is always an adventure. Everything feels immediately vivid and intense. We set out to run some errands and explore the city on foot. We get some tasty brunch, check out a random photo exhibit, get visas for Lao(s) and check out the National Museum, which has some pretty neat artifacts. We then explore the royal palace with it's many stupas.Uncle Chava runs into a couple of Monks who want to practice their English and we have a nice conversation with them. They ask if I am Uncle Chava's wife, which has us both trying to politely veil our shock and laughter. When Uncle C mentions that I'm a singer, one of the monks asks me to sing. I sing the first song that I can think of, which happens to be one from the last play I was in at English Village. How silly!
Before leaving the palace, I get the chance to try playing a wooden Cambodian xylophone-like instrument (the patala?) with some teenagers who are playing traditional instruments (theirs are a little more bell-like). We then grab an early dinner and then take a walk around the city.
What strikes me most about this city are the many beggars and hawkers on the streets. Every tuk-tuk driver we pass asks if we want a ride and when we decline asks if we want them to take us around the next day. We can't sit at a restaurant without being offered books and other wares.
The next day we take a tuk-tuk out to the Killing Fields, where the Khmer Rouge took people by the truckload where they were tortured and killed during the KR's reign of terror. The pagoda above...
Is actually filled with the skulls of victims that were found in mass graves there. A very gruesome and sobering reminder of the horrible things of which people are capable.
On this tree, there hung a speaker that played loud music and sounds, so that the farmers nearby could not hear the screams of the people being tortured.After our visit to the Killing Fields, we return to the city to run some more errands and plan our boat trip to Siem Reap the next morning.
Our boat leaves at 7am and we are able to ride on top of the boat and take in the surrounding scenery, including the houses on stilts pictured above.
Here are some of our travel companions taking in the scenes and the sun.
The trip takes under 5 hours, and just before arriving in Siem Reap, we pass by through the floating village above.
When we arrive at our hotel, the beautiful Thonbury (recommended, along with our guides, by Uncle C's friend Shane). we are soon greeted by our guides, Thy (pronounced like the stuff the British drink every afternoon) and Jam (like something you might spread on the toast you might eat to accompany the beverage described in my previous parenthetical reference). They suggest that we take a breather, eat some lunch and then meet them at 4:30 when they will take us to watch the sun set from a popular temple spot. And that is what we do. The temple and sunset are beautiful, but we are certainly not alone in our desire to enjoy them. It is CROW-DED!
After sunset, Thy and Jam take us to a (somewhat touristy) Cambodian buffet where traditional music and dance are performed. We enjoy the food and entertainment and head to bed early because our day of temple exploration starts at 7:00am!
Our first destination is Ta Prohm, one of the more famous temples in Siem Reap. Its name translates to "Jungle Temple," and one can see why. On our way in, we meet the best salespeople I have ever encountered in my life. Seriously, if you want to learn to sell something, take a lesson from a Cambodian child. They latch onto you as soon as you arrive and they don't leave until you enter the temple gates. And each time you decline to purchase, the price of the merchandise drops. I think we made it from one bracelet for one dollar down to five bracelets for one dollar in about a minute's time.We meet a lady, who is selling incense and offerings to place at the temple with her impish son in tow. Uncle Chava buys some of her wares in exchange for the photo above.
We then wander up to a series of breath-taking ruins like this one. Trees have grown over and/or through many of the structures in their quest for sunlight and survival. Wow!
Here is Uncle Chava, taking a breather in one of the ornately chiseled doorways.
We just keep wandering around, encountring structures like the one above and proving exceptionally inarticulate. All we keep saying is "Wow!" and "That's amazing!" and "Look at THIS!"
And just for a sense of scale, here I am among some of those mighty roots.We spend about two hours at Ta Prohm, and probably could have spent more if we hadn't known that we still had so much to see and had guides waiting for us.
On our way out we see this little lady balancing on some of the thick jungle vines.
We move on to explore more temples in the Angkor compound. I don't think I ever learn the name of the second one of the day, but I enjoy exploring it a lot. It is a very different style from Ta Prohm, architecturally speaking, and I have lots of fun traipsing around its half-ruined corridors and imagining how everything looked when it was new and what people's lives were like then.Our next stop is the "twin temples," one of which is pictured above. They are small, but also quite impressive and we are lucky enough to have both great lighting for photos and plenty of space to explore (the latter, thanks to Thy and Jam's knowledge of package tour traffic patterns).
On the way out of several of the temples we visit are groups of musicians like the one pictured above. They are victims of land mines with various injuries and ailments who play traditional Cambodian instruments and survive on donations from temple visitors. The music is very interesting and very different from what I am used to. I feel a stange sense of whimsy in it.Next we visit Prasat Bayon, a temple made of many turrets, each with four faces at its top. This is, for me, the most impressive and enjoyable temple of all. It is like a giant maze and I am completely amazed by the almost completely undisturbed detail work that I find in some of its darker corners. Unfortunately, Uncle Chava and I lose each other at this point and go through a series of farcical situations before finally being reunited. I take a quick look at two more nearby temples that Uncle Chava has already explored, and get to see the Elephant Terrace, a wall with hundreds of elephants carved into it. We then stop for a much-needed lunch break to refuel before taking on one of the eighth wonder of the world: Angok Wat itself.
Before we get to Angkor Wat, I make a quick bathroom stop, and it is at this point that I unintentional end up buying every bracelet in the whole of Cambodia. On my way to the bathroom, a young girl asks me if I want to buy a bracelet and when I decline her offer, asks where I am going. I tell her it's the loo that I seek and she leads me there. During the process she asks my name and I make the mistake of telling her. She and her friend tell me that I should buy bracelets from them on the way back because they helped me find the bathroom, and I figure, "why not?" If I only I had known what was in store for me. When I exit the bathroom the girls descend on me like vultures , their voices a chorus of, "Please, Alena! Alena, you buy now!" As soon as I buy a bracelet each from the girls, I am surrounded by about 5 more of their friends. One girl tells me: "You buy from her, not from me. You buy from big girl, not little girl. You make big girl very hap-py. You make little girl very upset" The minute I buy from this girl I am done for. Now I have to buy bracelets from everyone because they will not leave me alone until I do. I feel like the pied piper, only I'm the one being piped away by my minions. Each girl shows me why her bracelets are different from the ones I already have and about 7 dollars later I have enough accessories to make even Barbie jealous.
And now, it is time for Angkor Wat. And here is the really sad part. Uncle Chava's camera battery died right after we arrived. At the time, this was no problem since I had my camera, but because of the aforementioned incident with my memory card (which we try to think about as rarely as possible), we are left with no positive proof (digital, anyway) that Uncle Chava and I were even at Angkor Wat. Perhaps it's just as well. No picture could really make anyone understand the incredible scale of this amazing compound, and words can't really do it justice either. It is huge and amazing and I still cannot believe that something so impressive could have been built so long ago. It's fun to imagine how Henri Mahout and his fellow adventurers must have felt when they found it in the middle of the Jungle. We explore Angkor Wat until it closes, shortly after sunset, and then head home to clean up, have dinner, check out the night market, and SLEEP. We are completely exhausted.
The next morning we get started a little later. We hop on the back of Thy and Jam's motorbikes (this has been our mode of transport since we got off the boat) to see a couple of temples outside of the Angkor complex. The first one is Bakon, pictured above. I look around to my heart's content, while Chava gets an impromptu tour from a security guard who's looking for a little extra cash.
On our way out we give a donation to an organization that aids orphans in exchange for the photo above.We then head back to our hotel to chill and get some lunch. We run a few errands...
Including taking pictures with this creepy-looking Mickey Mouse which stands outside of a gas station for no reason that I can discern.Thy and Jam then come to take us to Jam's school. It's called The Children's Training Center and is a place where poor Cambodian children come to learn foreign languages from volunteer teachers. Obviously learning foreign languages puts kids at a great advantage because of the growing tourism industry in Cambodia.
First, we stop to see a small ruin that is right near the school. While we are looking around, two young men approach us and explain that they live with the monks (from the active Buddhist temple next door) and that they are studying. They are clearly looking to earn a few bucks by tellings us about the ruins and the temple, and we are fine with that. As it turns out, there is a festival going on because of the full moon.
Thus we are able to watch the procession pictured above, which is pretty neat.After thanking and paying our tour guides, we head over to the Children's Training Center. The plan, as I understand it, is that we will meet the students and I will introduce myself and teach the kids a song and answer any questions they may have.
First, we mingle outside a bit with the some of the students and their teacher. When it's time for class to start, I go to the front of the room and tell the kids about myself. I then teach them the song, Head, Shoulders Knees and Toes. I turn to Jam and say, "okay." And he says, "That's all? Class lasts for an hour." So suddenly it is aparent to me that I am meant to teach the ENTIRE class. I am immediately flustered, but thanks to my previous experience in the classroom I am able to pull some things together. First I ask each child a question about him or herself. This is harder than it seems because I don't know what assumptions I can make about these kinds of kids. Do kids this poor have hobbies or spare time? Obviously I can't ask about where they have been on vacation or where they like to shop.
We play several rounds of Bingo (if your team gets the answer to my question right, you get to choose a square) and a word search game (like Boggle). I run around the classroom, acting things out and being as silly as possible in order to keep the students' attention. At the end of class, I am exhausted and relieved, but then Jam tells me that there is another class starting in 5 minutes, and so I figure "What the heck," and I do it all again.
The second class is easier, because the kids are younger and therefore less skeptical of me and my silly songs. They love the Bingo and I think it's safe to say that they have a pretty good time.
Here I am after all the insanity with a volunteer teacher, the director of the center, and Jam. All in all, it was an incredibly stressful, exhausting, and rewarding experience.
Since this is our last night in Cambodia we invite Jam and Thy out to dinner with us for a traditional Cambodian meal. Getting some delicious amok curry and tasty, cold beer in me definitely lifts my spirits. We chat with Thy and Jam about their hopes and dreams--they want to sell their own package tours--and we promise to recommend them to our traveler friends. They are seriously great guides, incredibly accommodating, knowledgible and friendly.When we arrive at our hotel, seriously ready for some sleep, we get word that Suy Han, the owner (and another friend of Uncle C's friend Shane), is there and wants to meet us. Suy Han invites us to come "see" his new restaurant. Jam and Thy will of course come with us. I have my sights set on a documentary that's playing in the night market, but I decide that it's fine for us to go, just for a little while. Of course, we should have known what we were getting ourselves into.
When we arrive at the restaurant, it's jumping and Suy Han immediately orders a round of beers and snacks. Soon we are informed that we are not allowed to leave until we are drunk. And boy do we ever deliver.
Suy Han(pictured above) keeps the beers flowing, to the point where I honestly cannot believe that I am going to be expected to drink more when yet another round arrives. We learn to drink Cambodian style: When one person drinks, everyone drinks, and we all toast every time (this protocol is lots of fun, though it can get tiring and certainly excelorates inebriation). I chat American action movies with Suy Han and he tells me about how he doesn't believe in superstition or fate, only in himself. Chava and I get into some heated political discussions, and by the end of the night, everyone is wasted. Thy and Jam suggest that I maybe accompany them to another bar when we are on our way to the hotel, but I tell them I am plenty drunk, thanks! Good thing our flight to Luang Prabang isn't until 1pm.In the morning, Thy and Jam take us and our twin hangovers to the airport where we bid them a poignant goodbye, promising to stay in touch and to send many travelers their way. And thus end our adventures in Cambodia.
Stay tuned for Lao(s) Redux and tales of Thailand, coming soon!
