Siem Reap

The hotel we were staying at in Phnom Penh had a partnership with a homestay in central Cambodia. It was on the way to Siem Reap, so we figured we would stay there for one night en-route to Siem Reap. After a few hours on the bus, we arrived at a small roadside town where we transferred to scooters and were shortly at the homestay.

The homestay had maybe a dozen different units for people to sleep in. Each one was a wooden hut on stilts. There was no electricity other than a car bettery that we could connect a light and fan to. Shower and toilets were located nearby, but unless the generator was turned on, there was no light. Against the back of the grounds were rice paddies.

After a quick lunch, our guide arrived. He spoke perfect English and helped to teach it to others in the village. We boarded a horse and cart and headed out so he could show us regular life in a Cambodian village. Our first stop was to a place where women wove cloth.

The weaving loom was being controlled by a woman when we approached. It was human powered and required her to keep stomping her foot down over and over again in order to keep the machinery working. I had never seen one in action before and was curious to see how it all worked.

A roll of many individual strands of thread were pulled towards the operator from a giant spol. The threads were passed through the eyes of different wires which would move up and down so as to separate the threads enough for a wooden spindle to fly across the threads. When the operator's foot came up, the metal wire would alternate and the wooden spindle would fly across in the opposite direction. Doing this over and over again would produce cloth out of thread. This machine was set up with two spindles which could be wound with differet color threads to produce a simple pattern. It was all controlled by different gears and looked to be from a much simpler time. The cloth was sold onto other people or used in the nearby workshop to produce scarves and tablecloths.

Our next stop was to a village where one family was just about ready to make rice noodles. These noodles are a staple of their diet and are made almost daily. First, rice is ground down to a powder using a grinding stone. The rice flour is mixed with water to produce a dough. This dough is then paced in a wooden press which is rather like a very large garlic mincer. The holes of the press are balanced over a pot of boiling water, and an old man had the best job of sitting on the long wooden handle in order to press the dough out of the holes and into noodles. The noodles then fall into the boiling water and are immediaately cooked. Thelma and I got our chance to do some pressing of our own.

The tour concluded with a trip down the night market and then a ride out to the rice paddie on an ox cart to watch the sunset. The clouds were being stubborn and a proper sunset had once again elluded us. our guide mentioned that the oxen are slow to go out into the field as they know it means work, but when they come in form the fields, they walk a bit faster because they know they are going home to relax. Sure enough, the oxen had a bit more spring in their step on the way back.

After the sun had gone down, we gathered in the homestay compound to see local children perform some traditional Khmer dance. They performed about three different dances including one called "the coconut dance." Each person had one half of a dried coconut in each hand. They danced around each other as they touched each others shells together. After watching them, it was our turn to have a go. We managed to muddle through it and I think all of the locals had a god laugh at our expense. I taught them how to horse ride with the coconuts like Monty Python.

The next day we made our way to Siem Reap. Tourists only go to Siem Reap for one reason, and that is to visit Ankar Wat. The area of Ankar used to be the capital of the Khmer Empire (what is now Cambodia) and in the year 1130, King Suryavarman II built the temple of Angkor to honour the Hindu god Vishnu. Cambodia became its most prosperous during this period and Ankor supported a population of over a million while London was still only about 50,000. All that is left of the ancient city are the temples or Wats as they are called. People lived in wodden dwellings as only gods could live in buildings made of stone. Eventually, the empire crumbled and the capital moved to Phnom Penh.

Ankor Wat is the most famous of all the temples in the area. It was left to the jungle for many years until it was "re-discovered" by a French explorer in the 19th century. It can hardly be claimed he discovered it as it was a working monestary when he got there. Nonetheless, his published works on the temples drew world-wide attention. The temple was in need of repair after centuries of neglet. A restoration project was begun, but had to be placed on hold when the Khmer Rouge gained control over Camodia. Pieces of the temple were strewn all across the ground and no one had the plans on how to reassemble it. The Khmer Rouge ended up vandalizing and stealing from the temples until they were finally kicked out of power. The temple was finally restored and in 1994, tourism started up again after peace had been achieved in the country. Ankor Wat would get even more publicity when it was used as the back drop for the movie Tomb Raider.

In addition to Ankor Wat, we visited Ankor Thom, which housed The Bayon. The Bayon was the king's state temple. Over the gate's entrance is four stone faces looking north, south, east, and west. The faces are meant to be of a god, but they bear a stiking resemblence to the smiling face of the king. Other temples look as if they are slowly being reclaimed by the jungle as massive trees grow up and over the stone. It was amazing being able to climb all over these ancient ruins. Thelma made a good point when she mentioned that in ten years it will all probably be roped off, just like Stonehendge is now.

While we were in Cambodia, it was hard not to miss all of the landmine victims. Unfortunatly, Cambodia can lay claim to being one of the most heavily mined countries on earth. Decades of civil war and conflicts with their neighbors have left Cambodia with hundreds of thousands of unmapped mines and unexploded bombs dropped from planes. Even the mine fields that are known can be a problem as heavy rain sometimes carries them elsewhere. People, usually farmers, end up detonating these devices and losing their limbs, and with it, their ability to provide for their family. You can not go a day in Cambodia without seeing amputee victims.

On our last day of visiting the temples, we went to the Cambodia Landmine Museum run by Aki Ra. Both of his parents were killed by the Khmer Rouge in the killing fields under Pol Pot. He was conscripted into the Khmer Rouge Army at the age of 5 and taught how to lay landmines. This was a common task for children. In his adult life, Aki has turned into a landmine clearer. He has himself removed over 50,000 mines and unexploded ordinances (UXO). Thankfully, he had never sustained injury doing so. The museum showcases some of the different UXOs that he has removed. He also has adopted two dozen children, many maimed by mines, and raises them next to the museum. If you would like to help, you can donate money to the Landmine Relief Fund. All money will help Aki and his crew to de-mine low priority areas of Cambodia that would not be visited by other international orgaizations for years. There is constantly a waiting list.

Please visit www.landmine-relief-fund.com for more information.

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