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Published: November 6th 2009
Bayon
One of the many faces at our favorite templeSiem Reap
Okay, so Chris has been doing a wonderful job of keeping up to date with the blogging (thanks largely to my continuous nagging) and so I figured I better finally chime in and contribute a little something. It is just so much easier, and fun, to bug him to do it .😊
We made it across the Cambodian border and were able to spend about five days in Siem Reap. I grew quite fond of this little city. The people here in Cambodia are so inspiring. They have so very little but always have a big smile to share and love to enjoy a good laugh...I'm sure often at our expense.😊 At the same time, it is very sad to see many of the conditions these poor people are forced to live in. Beggars constantly surround you as you walk along the streets, many of whom are children and/or victims of landmines often missing several limbs. Due to their limiting physical conditions, many Cambodians have no other way to survive and so are forced to the streets.
On a lighter note, upon our second day of arrival in Siem Reap we made the journey out to see
the temples of Angkor Wat which are the main attraction here. With just a few short hours of sleep we woke at 4:45 am so we could make it to Angkor in time to see the sunrise. We hopped into our tuk tuk with our cute little driver Nat who looked to be all of about fifteen. Nat, who drove us the previous night to see the sunset at the temples, spoke hardly ANY English. The only three words in his very very limited vocabulary were ''I so sorry,'' which at the time we didn't realize how familiar with we would soon become!
After Nat conversed briefly with Sheena and Noah's driver we made a rather abrupt departure from our guesthouse, as I am pretty sure that Nat was still half asleep. We falsely assumed that Sheena and Noah would be following right behind us in their tuk tuk after they picked up Noah's friend who is in the marines and was in town staying at a nearby hotel. To make a long story short, we never met up with them and ended up having to navigate our own way around the grounds. We almost missed the sunrise because
poor Nat got lost which is pretty difficult to do considering there is only one road to the temples. Luckily, the day before Chris and I purchased a lonely planet book on Cambodia which provided useful information on touring the temples and included a one day itinerary recommending the temples we should try to see. Chris did an excellent job of giving directions to Nat who appeared to be visiting the temples for the first time also.😊
Our favorite temple was Bayon which featured magnificent faces carved out of stone. The faces appeared to be gazing down at you when you looked up. The shadows cast off the stone faces from the intense sunlight made them even more amazing. It is astonishing to imagine that some of these temples were first built around 800 AD. To witness firsthand how well-preserved they are today in their original structure and form was just incredible. The monuments at Angkor Wat are truly breathtaking and no words that I can write or pictures can amount to their natural beauty.
After walking around the temples for about 6 hours in 105 degree heat we were pretty much templed out by mid afternoon and
decided to call it a day. Our only regret for our visit was that we should have forked out the $25 to get an English speaking guide to explain all the history behind the various temples...definitely would recommend if you visit Angkor. Anyway, we headed back to town and later that evening I enjoyed a $2 hour long pedicure while Chris received a full body massage to help recover from the long day. The night before when we met up with my cousin Andrea and her boyfriend Greg the six of us indulged ($1 a person) in a ten minute fish pedicure. For those of you like me who have never heard of such a thing let me explain. Basically, there is a large blowup pool filled with water that contains thousands of fish. You stick your feet in the pool and the fish suck on your feet while spitting out the dead skin. It was a real tickling sensation on your feet, and If you could get over the idea of fish sucking on your toes and dead skin floating around, it may be quite a relaxing experience. Chris's big toes were quite popular with the little guys...he was
bragging about how smooth his feet were for days. Dad, we may have a new business idea back home with the upcoming fish hatchery.... mom, you would be so proud of the refined daughters you have raised...don't worry, I'm sure they sanitized the water after each dip!
Cookin' up some Khmer The next day after visiting the temples, Chris and I decided to attend an afternoon cooking class at a nearby restaurant. We were each able to choose an appetizer and entree from the menu that we wanted to learn to cook. Chris chose papaya salad and ginger chicken while I selected mango salad and for my main dish chicken amok. Amok is a traditional Cambodian dish which is chicken, or fish, cooked in a delicious coconut curry sauce and served in a banana leaf. For dessert we learned one of my favorites, mango sticky rice, YUMMY!
Chris and I were the only two people in the class and prior to our cooking lesson we visited a nearby food market where our teacher pointed out the various ingredients we would be using to prepare our meals. After experiencing the various smells and sights of the food market I
was thinking to myself that I wished this was the last part of the class...after we had eaten. Perhaps it was the black, five foot long lizard I witnessed crawling in the produce, or maybe it was the several stalls that featured rows of dead fish with their eyes staring at you as you walked by. Actually, I am pretty sure that the dead chickens hanging by their feet was enough to put me right over the edge. All of these unique smells in the hot muggy air made for a pleasant trip to the market and on several occasions I came close to losing my breakfast.
As far as the class went though, it was wonderful! Chris and I were both pleasantly surprised how clean the kitchen was, of course this is the one for guests to use though.😊 We even started with actually washing our hands in a big bowl of water with a slice of lime....soap rarely exists in this country, and if you happen to come across some, it is not used by the locals but is rather only to help ease the minds of tourists. My only mishap during our cooking was when the sweet lady asked if my salad needed any more flavor. I loved the taste of the peanuts and so I was about to ask for another spoonful. Luckily, I happened to causally glance over at the peanut jar and noticed a farm of aunts residing in the peanuts (not just browsing on the top but inches deep). I quickly changed my mind on the peanuts and politely declined. Thinking she would discard the container because there was no way you could miss the hundreds of ants crawling around, I watched her put the lid back on without even thinking twice....extra flavor I guess for the next guests.😊
Fun Fact: Toilets are seldom found in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia (great for a wonderful quad workout ladies)...toilet paper is a luxury and soap is a five star hotel!!!
In Siem Reap we were fortunate enough to arrive just in time to experience the two-day water boat festival that took place this past weekend. It happens only once a year and is quite a production that brings the entire city to life. This year over thirty wooden boats were handcrafted for the event and featured teams of men and women that race the oar powered boats down the Siem Reap River. There are street vendors set up for miles that sell everything from cuttlefish on a stick (my personal favorite, the Y-U-C-K) to every flavor of colgate toothpaste you could imagine.
Phnom Penh We departed Siem Reap by bus and arrived in Phnom Penn, the capital of Cambodia, three nights ago. When we arrived we had to pile into a car to drive into the city because the roads were closed to buses due to the water festival that was going on. There were an extra million people in the city for the festivities. We had never seen so many people along the streets or such insane traffic jams as witnessed here. Crossing streets provided quite the obstacles as we literally had to climb over tires and moto bikes that were stuck in bumper to bumper traffic coming from every direction. Yet, we were able to find a restaurant along the river and watch the sky light up with a spectacular show of fireworks.
Yesterday, we had quite a long and rather sad day of visiting the killing fields and S21 prison. It is so disheartening to believe that from 1975-1979 over 2 million Cambodians perished under the rule of their own people. The killing fields we witnessed, just one of many here, was home to the remains of over 9,000 people. As we walked along the dirt paths, we viewed bone sticking up from the ground and human teeth sprinkled in the dirt. Our guide mentioned that after heavy rain, new bones and other human remains are brought to the surface...one cannot imagine the horror of this place. It is something that Chris and I will carry with us forever. If anything positive can come from such a tragedy, it is the hope of the Cambodian people who are trying to educate the youth so that another genocide will not repeat itself in years to come.
After the killing fields we visited S21 museum. S21 was previously a high school but transformed into a detention center under the rule of Pol Pot and his Khmer government. The people who were educated were brought here before their lives would be taken at the killing fields. When they arrived a single picture was taken of each individual holding a sign with their name. As we walked through the photo gallery with all the pictures hanging, Chris and I were both awe struck by the hopelessness and despair conveyed through these peoples' eyes. There were signs posted that if you smiled you would be beaten. Of the 20,000 people detained at the prison only 7 survived to tell their stories.
Okay, enough heavy depressing stuff for one day. We are planning to head to Bangkok tomorrow evening if we can find a cheap flight. I'm hoping that during the day we can volunteer at an orphanage in a nearby village. I called and spoke to the director and he sounded very excited to have us visit and possibly help out teaching an English class.
Well, until next time, which may be a while since I just wrote a novel, best wishes to all of you.😊 Count each day as a blessing because we all have so much to be thankful for.
Lots of love,
C&C
P.S. Sorry for not having a lot of our pictures to share yet....we have thousands, but are having a REALLY difficult time getting them posted due to very slow internet connections and archaic computers!!!
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Lenore
non-member comment
hilarious/sad
Charchi!!! You and Chris are both such hilarious writers, I've really been enjoying the blog! This entry was so so funny (I love how Nat got lost), but so sad as well...thanks for sharing your experiences. <3