Templed Out

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After our night in Kratie, we were put in a bus and taken to Siem Reap. Funny enough we were the only foreigners on the bus. This was odd considering we were headed to one of the most touristy spots in Southeast Asia, the temples of Angkor Wat in Siem Reap. When our bus rolled into the very unofficial looking bas station, a pack of aggressive touts were being constrained by a chain linked fence outside the station grounds. I was relieved that they were not allowed in and that, if we acted quick enough, could avoid being attacked with offers of cheap guesthouses and tours of the temples. Someone from the bus company had sold our names to their friends at guesthouses in Siem Reap, so as we looked over the touts' bobbing heads we could see our names (misspelled) on little signs as if we were being picked up at the airport by a swanky hotel. It was a bit freaky, but we had to laugh. My friend Ida asked the guy if she could keep hers as a souvenir. We hadn't even retrieved our bag from the bottom of the bus, when the flood gates were opened and the sea of desperate men stormed in. As I said before we were the only "falang" or westerners on the bus. Needless to say, we were immediately targeted. After a bit of questioning about the accommodation and prices, we made our choice and were swept away in our carriage. Cambodian tuk tuks are the best in Asia. They are pulled by a scooter, with two facing benches, space enough to stretch your legs out and a good view of the road. No need to slouch down to see where you're going, unlike the tuk tuks in Bangkok. We settled into our guesthouse, took a nap, showered and got ready to eat.
The town of Siem Reap was surprisingly pleasant. I thought that it was going to be a big tourist rip off, crawling with beggars and thieves. In reality, the restaurants were great and the people took a lot of pride in presentation and service. I had the best curry since I've arrived in Asia at a place on Pub Street called the World Lounge. Coconut based sauce, flavored with lemongrass, kampfer lime leaves, star anis, cinnamon and pumpkin- yum. I had it twice while I was town. The shops were tasteful and the cafes unique. We found a place called the Butterfly Garden. It was close to the river and they served cocktails and delicious passion fruit sorbet. The whole garden area was decorated with fountains, lacey wrought iron patio furniture, foux statues of some important figures at Angkor, Buddha and to top it all off hundreds of butterflies fluttering around the netted in garden feeding on flowers and posing for pictures.
For the next three days we visited the temples (see Angkor Wat blog) and visited other attractions around town. There is so much more to do in Siem Reap than just spending hours, days looking at the temples. I find it a shame that people leave town without discovering other things about it. On the second or third day we were in town, we hired a tuk tuk for the day to take us around the temples. As were driving down the main road, I spotted my friend Sarah from work walking down the street. I didn't even know that she was going to Cambodia. For the summer holiday she spent a couple months in Malaysia. We had loosely corresponded, but we were not keeping up with each other's whereabouts by any means. So, it was a bit of a miracle that I ran into just then, there, strolling down the sidewalk. She's over 6 foot and blonde, so she doesn't really blend in. I noticed her from the moving tuk tuk and yelled at the driver to stop. We got all excited at seeing each other and met for dinner that night.
She told me that she had found a monk on the internet that had an English school for orphans in Siem Reap. She found the name of the school and asked if I wanted to come along to see what it was about. I decided to take a break from the temples for one day and met Sarah in search of the monk.
I've had many tuk tuk rides in my day, but this one clearly sticks out in my head. The roads in Cambodia are infamously bad and this one was no different. We weren’t exactly sure where we were going ourselves. We gave our driver vague instructions to take us to a temple in X neighborhood. He seemed confused, as would I, but managed to get us to a temple in that vicinity. We hopped out of the tuk tuk and explained to the monks and children hanging about why we were there. It was a bit uncomfortable at first, but then we were shown to the school were the orphans were given classes. I guess we did make it to the right place after all. The school was on the far side of the temple grounds and consisted of a long hut-styled building divided into three small rooms, each with only three walls. The best room contained a whiteboard and about six antique desks. From the size of it you would assume the room could accommodate no more than ten children, when in fact, classes there were held for forty or more.
After the tour we chatted a bit more with the monks about the future of the school. They had a sound system set up near the front of the temple where they would be performing a funeral that evening. Later that day, Sarah went back to the temple to donate some school supplies to the monks and the funeral was in full swing. Anyway, on the way back into town our driver made a second stop at another temple, we had not asked him to do this but we thought “What the heck” we’ll take a look. This temple was not as humble as the last. In the center of the front patio area was a glass monument. As I approached I noticed that it was filled with human skulls, bones and clothes. There was a killing field during the Pol Pot Regime only meters away and these were the remains of the victims.
We were shown into another classroom where there were already six or eight male students involved in their English class. We introduced ourselves and talked with the students and teachers a bit. They were all very sweet and seemed really happy that we had stopped by. The school received money from a Japanese organization. The name was stenciled on the front of the desk. This school obviously got much more funding than the last. The teacher asked if we wanted to do something with the students, so we pulled “32 Boxes” out of our hat. It’s a game where you have to match sixteen words that are related somehow. It was always a big hit with the kids at the middle school. Anyway, it worked great and even our driver got into it. We did a few more fun activities and left the teacher with the instructions on how to play them incase he’d like to do them in the future. He thanked us and said that he was “really happy” and he meant it. We walked out of there feeling really good.
Another day while we were there Ida, Marie, Ale and I went to the Siem Reap mine museum. There was not too much to see as they were in the process of relocating, but we were able to talk to the guy, Aki Ra, who had established it. Cambodia has many amputee victims. It is not uncommon to see people of all ages with missing limbs. Most of the mines were planted by the Khmer Rouge to control their own people and to keep the Vietnamese from advancing farther into their country. They laid the mines everywhere; in the mountains, near farmland, roads, etc. Like what happens with most kind of weaponry like this, after the matter, no one takes responsibility to deactivate them. The man at the mine museum has single handedly deactivated thousands of mines. Aki Ra doesn’t do it for the money (because he doesn’t get paid to do it) and he doesn’t do it with fancy tracking equipment, he does it with a pen knife. His tiny museum in a shack off the main road displays mines from countries such as Russia, USA, France, China and Japan. He has pie charts that give the statistics of how many people are killed each year by mines, over 90% civilians such as women, children and farmers. He has one table of books with tastefully done photos of amputee victims and other books giving testimony. Some of the people in the books I recognized walking around the museum. I guess it didn’t click at first, but they were able to control their prosthetic arms and legs so naturally that I was convinced they were real until I took a second look. I wish them luck on their new museum. I hope that other people are touched. I hope that someone above is protecting Aki Ra while he opens landmines with his pen knife. Risking his own limbs in order for others to keep theirs.
That evening, we went to Dr Beat Richner’s weekly lecture about his mission in the Cambodian hospitals. He has been in Cambodia for over thirty years. He has set up four hospitals around the country and has saved thousands of people’s lives, mostly children, from horrible diseases like tuberculosis and dengue fever. That is not the only fascinating thing about him. In order to raise the 20 million dollars he needs to keep the four hospitals open, he gives cello concerts twice a week in Siem Reap and goes on tour in his own country of Switzerland and around Europe and the States in search of generous people with money. During his lecture, he asked the young people to please donate blood and for the older people to donate money and everyone in between to donate both. I had never given blood before so before the concert the four of us went to the clinic next to the concert hall. I was nervous because I had never given blood before and I am a big wimp when it comes to hospital stuff. Ida is a nurse in Sweden, so it was good to have her there. The guys in the hospital even let her take our blood pressure. The needle was bigger than usual, but the blood gave out faster. Luckily, I didn’t feel very weak, but they gave us stickers, a T-shirt, brochures, cookies and all kinds of stuff to make us feel better anyway. We had a lot of fun, singing and joking while we had the blood pumped from us for a good cause. The male nurses at the clinic told me my blood type which turned out to be O-. The kind of blood anyone of another blood type can receive. This visit in Cambodia was only getting better.

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Photos

O Negative
Ale(It), Marie(Fr), Ida(Sw) and I at the donor clinic for Dr Beat Richner in Siem Reap

Cambodian Eng. Student
Student of the Hirata (Japan) funded English school. In case you didn't know, it's stenciled on the desks.

Pol Pot Victims
Sculls of victims murdered at nearby killing fields in Siem Reap. These are encased in a glass monument in the temple courtyard in front of the English school.

Butterfly Luv
Butterfly sweethearts in the butterfly garden cafe.

Sorbet
Rarely do I take pictures of my food, but I want to remember this tropical sorbet trio of passion fruit, coconut and mango forever.

Cambodian Chariot
Ale and Marie in a Cambodian tuk tuk, voted by me to be the most comfortable in Southeast Asia.

Beat Cello
Dr. Beat Richner playing his cello to raise money for his four children's hospitals in Cambodia. Really, an incredible man.

Painting Spirit Houses
These spirit houses are found all over this part of the world. It is not a Buddhist belief but rather an animistic one.

Cambodian Saint
This is not Buddha but rather a special saint praised only in Cambodia. I like his serene expression.

Comments

[Sally and Hattie]

Way to go, girl!!
Each time I read your Blog, I can't help but think "Granny would love this!!" She would probably get someone with a puter to come and show her your fantastic pics and words. I feel I am right there with you. This session stuck out somehow. You do have the gift! Love