Khmer NOW!!

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The trip to Cambodia was fine. I had a 1-stop flight, which landed us in Guangzhou after 3 hours or so before our 2 and half hour flight to Phnom Pehn. I got to the airport about two hours before the flight; since I knew the actual time this go around…it was a lovely ride in the hotel’s pimped out Benz. I was actually surprised to see the crowds at the airport. The day before it was kind of empty but this day it was packed. Obviously I wasn’t planning on waiting in line since I waited so long yesterday and went right to the VIP line…cuz that is what I do, I guess the self-deserving NYer coming out of me. Anyway, no problem and I zipped through and headed to my gate.

So I’ll tell you about the guy next to me on the plane. Aside from his weight that encroached my air space, he had this nasty cough. I was able to block that out with my headphones but when he proceeds to spit in the vomit bag with enough gestures that it looks like he may actually really hurl, it’s hard to ignore it. Mind you I wanted to vomit myself…he took off his shoes and the stench from them and his feet just permeated so fast it was nauseating! By the end of the first flight I gave him a look that could kill and he put them back on, but it was just awful. Then when we reboarded in Guangzhou he took his shoes off again!! I had to tap him on the shoulder and ask him politely to put them back on. I pointed to his shoes and motioned to put them back on since he didn’t speak English. He kind of laughed and kindly obliged. I was nonchalant about it but I had to ask…they smelled like your cleats after playing soccer games in 90 degree weather all season and keeping them in your shoe bag and then opening it a week later. Wretched I tell you, wretched. We were three in the row for the second leg like the first, but it was a pretty empty plane, so the third guy in our row moved to the back of the plane to lie down. Then after I asked my friend to put his shoes back on he went back there too…I assume to take them off and relax, but at least I am in the front and he’s in the back….although I wouldn’t be surprised if that smell made its way up here…its effin potent.

So I didn’t have much to do on the plane with no books. So I spent the entire plane ride looking back at pictures from like the past two years. I have to say, I feel pretty fortunate a) to have most of this documented in photos, and b) that I get to travel as extensively as I do.

When I walked off the plane in Phnom Penh, I got that rush of air that feels as though you have just landed in a humid Florida. I quickly applied for my on arrival visa and went through customs and immigration. Got a taxi to the hotel to meet up with Kirsty and her two friends from the UK, Helen and Gavin. Got some pizza and beer, which was much needed… So unfortunately, they had the extra day to go to the killing fields and other sites in Phnom Penh while I was traveling and the plan was to leave the next morning for Siem Reap and Angkor. I guess it turns out not to be that big of deal but ideally I would have planned out my trip a little differently since I want to cross the land border into Laos. They all have about two weeks and want to fit all of Cambodia and Laos into that. I have a bit more time so it may end up that I split from them, which is a bummer but this is my trip and I want to do it right. We shall see.

I am on the bus now, which left at 7:30AM to head up to Siem Reap. So far I love this country. I think its gorgeous! And all of the palm trees everywhere just make me smile. I mean they are in such abundance and so picturesque against the green rice fields. It is wildly different than what I thought was a very muted, bland and brown China…I found it difficult to find colors and maybe that’s cuz the country is covered in a permanent haze of smog. Moving on, as we are driving I am seeing about a million pictures I want to take but I know they never come out when moving on the bus, but to try and describe….the road is a good sealed road with a brownish/redish dirt outlining the shoulders. There are canals/wetlands on each side with the stilt homes just beyond that. We pass a wat/temple about every 1 or 2 km. There are signs outside of the driveways to the stilt homes demonstrating their support for one of the political parties (Funcinpec or Cambodian People’s Party or Sam Rainsy’s Party). People are all outside, washing their clothes, lying on hammocks, tending to the farmland and homes, flying kites, and every so often selling something. The homes are so close to the road really, I feel like their lives are completely exposed. There are a ton of white cows grazing in the fields or just relaxing on their owner’s property. Little school children playing “proper” football (as my British friends would say). OY!! There are about 100 pictures in my head I have seen so far…at least! I wish I was driving myself, although I think the journey would take two days with all the stopping to photograph that I want to do instead of only few hours. I think I will start to take pictures anyway…

We used the driver of our tuk tuk from the bus station in Siem Reap to the hotel for all three days we were there. Really nice guy, but his damn tuk tuk was the SLOWEST thing out there. I mean we were passed by everyone. It’s really testing my patience and I’m okay with it to some degree but it’s really a waste of time, the entire complex of Angkor is ridiculously large and there is so much to see…we bought a 3 day pass, so when you are moving at like 10 miles an hour, it’s like “are we there yet?!” And his poor motorbike overheats and we have to stop for him to collect water from the dirty river to cool it off…yada yada… Anyway, he is a happy smiley man and I’m trying really hard to like him as well, but… My other complaint is that while we were in a temple looking around I came back and I swear I had less water in my water bottle. I knew I did not drink enough that morning and tried to chug a little before we went in but it certainly wasn’t that much. Well, I convinced myself that I actually did drink it because there was no way the driver would touch it and so I drank the rest. Then after lunch, I bought another bottle and hadn’t yet opened it when we went into the next area. I came back and saw that my water bottle had been opened. OY. The driver turned around and said, oh so sorry I got thirsty and drank some of you water. Yes, ok? OK, OK. And of course I said NO that is NOT ok. Let me just mention that there was a stand about 30 feet away that was selling water. And he kept saying, yes it’s ok. I got it through though that that wasn’t going to fly and that he should buy me another water bottle. I was quite put off by this. I’m sure he doesn’t think anything wrong by it and it’s not like I’m a germ freak but I don’t know him and I’m pretty sure by his smile that his hygiene isn’t the best. Anyway, easy problem fixed but a story to share…

So getting to the good stuff (finally), I took almost 500 pictures the first day, Tuesday. Not just on the bus ride but we also took the afternoon to go to the first temple, Angkor Wat. It is an incredible structure. Really magnificent and massive. And I guess I didn’t realize that Angkor was more than Angkor Wat…it is a huge complex! Each area is enclosed by a wall which was pretty much a city in itself to my understanding. One of which is thought to have inhabited 1 million people back in the day. You could easily spend a week meandering through all of the temples…we took three days and it felt a little rushed in the end to get in the ones we really wanted to. They are all just so beautiful and ridiculously majestic. You can get lost in there…literally and figuratively. Me more figuratively. I was just in awe of all of the details of the bas-reliefs, apsaras, faces of Bayon and the rustic, antique look of the temples, many of which are over grown by plants and trees and mold…there are times you actually felt that you were in a jungle. It was so large and there were sooo many tourists especially during the sunrises and sunsets….each night as we left Angkor I felt as though we were leaving a concert at Jones Beach or something with all of the cars lined up, headlights on and slowly creeping away from the parking lot…there were a zillion tourists there, even if I don’t have any in my photos. I guess that gives you an idea of how big the complex is.

As a follow-on story… lots of photographers seem to want to avoid people in their pictures and when we were at Ta Prohm - the one with the Angelina Jolie tree - everyone was taking turns getting their picture taken in front of it. There was this one woman who was visibly distraught that she couldn’t get a photo with no one in it. And at the time when Kirsty was taking a picture of me, this woman was just standing in the back shaking her head and rolling her eyes. Now, every so often there is actually a time when no one is there and everyone gets their photos…you just have to be patient. So when this woman was reacting irrationally it just got under my skin …we may have exchanged a few words…maybe not. I dunno, it’s just rude, I don’t want to be rushed ESPECIALLY at a place like Angkor so I’ve chosen to be patient and wait for people to move on versus asking and I would expect the same in return…it’s not like there isn’t nothing else to do, just standing there waiting in admiration of the temple is more than good enough for me!

Traveling to and from the temples was nice, but every approach to and every exit from the temple to locals are ALL OVER YOU. You buy water bottle, you buy bag, you buy ornaments, ok, yes?? Ok ok. Yada yada yada. You can say no thank you all you want and continue to walk away but they come back with smart comments, well how about for your friends at home, or your friend bought you need some too and the like. I was pretty impressed to be honest. So in order to get them to leave you alone, you need to stop walking turn to them and say, really this is very nice but I am not going to buy anything thank you. You can then walk off on your own until 10 feet later someone else is at you again…oy! And they all shout in this loud whiny voice. Hellooooooo, you like water. They also have their children do most of the soliciting. It’s sad to think that this is what they do during the day and I find myself asking, why aren’t they in school?! There were tons of schools that we passed…

Well this section is a very sad one for me. I went through a very traumatic experience (I exaggerate, but not really) where I watched my brand new Nikon digital SLR camera fall from my lap and end result: BROKEN! I have to say that for it to happen at the end of my third and final day at Angkor is the only positive thing I can take away from it. It’s one of those times that if you could turn back time and do any number of things differently this situation wouldn’t be happening. Simply put, I was GUTTED…utterly and completely heartbroken! And ridiculously upset, needless to say. I just bought it four months ago! And for those that know me or anyone in my family, pictures are pretty much a defining characteristic of us and pretty much everything to me. Anyway, I was pretty thankful that Kirsty was there cuz once I calmed down a bit she was able to talk rationally to me and it also didn’t hurt that she went through essentially the same thing two weeks prior (we both agree that it REALLY is the end of the world but she did survive!). But now neither of us have a decent camera and she was relying on my photos for this part of her trip! Oy! Anyway, again, my parents came to the rescue and since my father and I have the same camera, he was able to ship me his body and I should get it in less than a week. For the record, I want to say how grateful I am to have parents like I do. With no questions asked they were on top of helping me with my own problem half way across the world within hours. It’s incredible and I am beyond words with how thankful I am. Beforehand we were coming up with some fantastic ideas about how I was getting me a new camera (dropping everything and heading for Saigon or Bangkok or even Hong Kong)….Anyway, for the time being both Kirsty and I do have little digitals but its really just not the same. I did take some 1,600 pictures at Angkor in the three days, but still…I mean FtLoG.

So being in Cambodia is a MUCH different feeling than China. The obvious: definitely better. For one, its like 80+ degrees and the people are nice. Almost too nice that it can be annoying but I’ll take that over the obnoxious people from before. There are a TON of Western travelers…it’s a little bit of a shock actually coming from places where I really didn’t see so many and now its like every other person. There are also a TON and a half of mosquitoes…so this is my next “story”. I have at least 50 mosquito bites to Kirsty’s maybe two. About 12 on my left arm and hand (including one on the palm of my hand and one just below my nail bed - those are really fun), about 9 on my right arm and hand, 3 on my face, 2 on my neck, 4 on my collarbone and the rest all over my legs, ankles and feet - I look like a small child with chicken pox!! And this is just within 3 days. I also should mention that I have an allergic reaction to mosquito bites so they all swell up to the size of quarters - so pretty. One occurrence happened while I was sleeping and in the morning I killed the little *explicit*. Let’s just say it certainly didn’t seem like that one was going hungry - it was a bloody mess. I also found myself once at Angkor standing on an ant hill…that was swell…mind you these are red ants and the last time I got bitten by a red ant I was like 10 and ended up in the hospital with hives all over my body and a shot in my ass…believe you me, I was freaking out…but thankfully over nothing!

So the food. Yea, its pretty delicious here. The Cambodian/Khmer curry is scrumptious and once again I am not going hungry.

Aside from Angkor, we didn’t really do much else in Siem Reap but eat and drink. We made it to the FCC, the Red Piano and Temple where they had traditional dancing and music. All of which was very nice. And we also took an elephant ride up to Phnom Bakheng for sunset…that was neat. Kirsty was all about the elephants!!

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