4-6tday

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We have now done 2 days of Ankor temples. The first day went from 7.30 to 5 and today from 5.30 to 12. The reason for me not writing is that I have been a little sick with “Cambodian Beelly”. Last night I felt awful. My stomach was doing all sorts of ugly things and my temperature was 39+C. It had sort of built up over the last few days and I chose to ignore it hoping that it would go away after a few days, but in reality I was just getting worse. Finally dosed my self up with antibiotics and panadol and stayed in bed mostly after the days activites. I am feeling a lot better now and I hope it stays that way. Funnily enough Lisa has not suffered from the same issues. (touch wood)

The Ankor complex is very beautiful and stunning. Like so many other tourist attractions around the world it is totally swamped with foreigners. There are people from every corner of the world here. The contrast between our wealth as foreigners and the average Cambodian is very humbling. These people are incredibly poor by comparison. Seem Reap is growing at a massive rate to cater for the tourists. You can get very cheap accommodation here or you can stay in a 5 star hotel for $2000 per night. I think this is obscene once you get a feel for how lacking this country is.

Every where you go you are swamped by kids wanting to sell you their trinkets. They are all very clever. Some are very young and still instead of playing they are trying to make a $ for their families. They can talk in so many languages. I spoke to a young girl today that I bought some postcards from and she was 10 or 12. She could count in 7 languages and could sell stuff in all of those languages. They do not have a life of a child. They don’t play, run around, or do anything at a kid of 10-12 would do in Australia. They are left by themselves all day and they work non stop trying to sell anything they can to the tourists.

Cambodia has a currency called the Riel. However US$ are the main currency when dealing with foreigners I wonder how the US manages its money supply when a country the size of Cambodia decides too use the US as its main currency. I brought some US cash with me knowing that I needed it here. I went into the bank to change it and they would not change because it was not a brand new note. I was so annoyed! How’s this for logic, we will use another countries currency as our own hence we don’t print any of it ourselves but we only accept new unmarked bills for use. Total crap.

Lisa made this comment today:There is only one thing these people don’t eat and its their own droppings. This was not meant as a mean or offensive comment about the people just an observation on how poverty can effect you. This may seem like an exaggeration but I assure you it is not, so far we have witnessed all sort of insects being eaten, including ants mixed with rotten fish meat, and chicks that are just about to hatch that are boiled and then eaten. We haven’t come across the deep fried spiders but I believe we may see some tomorrow.

Our guide, Allan who guided us over the last two days through Ankor has been very open with us about discussing anything what so every. The only thing she and our main guide Dino have been unwilling to discuss is politics. It seems politically this place is not very safe. Corruption is rife and the old Khmer Rouge leadership is still in charge of most things I this country. They were visibly uncomfortable to discuss this issue and asked that we not go there again.

One of the interesting statistics she gave us was that 85 % of the population lives in the countryside and only 15% of them have a toilet. The rest basically run into the jungle/rice paddy and do any required business there. Holes are dug sometimes but not always and the pigs and dogs of the household come along and clean up after them. Poverty of extreme proportions.

We went to the land mine museum yesterday, it is shocking how much damage land mines have done in this country. Apparently there are still 6Million mines to be found and deactivated. Walking in the jungle here is a very dangerous thing. I learned that most of the world has signed up to some sort of agreement to not manufacture and stockpile land mines. The sad thing is that none of the countries that manufacture the stuff has done so, hence Russia, China, US amongst other have not signed up for this treaty. Another treaty that has limited effectiveness to joint all the other treaties with the same outcome.

After this we went to one more temple and then back to the hotel. By this time the gastro I had been nursing for two days was in full flight, I had a temperature and was really feeling awful. I went to bed straight away and took some drugs. Lisa feeling really great went to the pool for a few hours. We did go out for a little while just to get some food but I really was not well so we went home again.

I had a fairly ordinary night and we woke up at 5am to go watch the sunrise over Ankor Wat. This is the most famous of the temples and by far the largest. By now the drugs had taken hold and I was much better than the night before. We got out to Ankor Wat but it turned out to be cloudy so we didn’t really see the sun come up. Spent three hours there and went to breakfast. A few more temples and that was that. I had a lie down again and finally woke up feeing much better. Rang the kids from an internet coffee. The cost of the phone call is an interesting study in modern technology. The hotel wanted to charge us $2 per minute for a call that the internet coffee was willing to give us for $0.05 per minute. Old technology versus new technology. The phone in the cafe was a skype phone but I thought it worked just fine.

It was great to hear that all the kids are well and everyone is enjoying themselves. Bit of a pity about the weather in Adelaide but hopefully it will get better soon. We both spoke to all and it was nice to hear each of their perspectives on the holiday. One way or another they all sounded like they were enjoying the grandparents lavished love.

By this time it was 4 pm and we were heading out to Tonle Sap lake, the larges fresh water lake in SE Asia. Took about 30 minutes to get to the canal that leads to the lake. We took a boat out through the canal. The canal was very low due to the dry season so it took a long time for us to get through the canal. The lake is truly enormous but the reason we had come here was to see the sunset over the floating villages that exist here. There are thousands of families that make the lake their home. They live in floating houses that move as the water level changes. They have floating schools and shops. It was humbling once more to witness the very basic existence of these people. Life was obviously difficult and without any great material outcomes. They were probably happy if they made a little money during the day and stayed healthy. I took lots of photos of the people of the lake and hopefully it will show the way they live.

Back in town by the early evening and off to bed. We are both very tired and looking forward to sleep. Of to the capital tomorrow at 7.30 am.

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Comments

[Geoff & Carley]

Ankor Temples
We look forward to your reports, have not commented before as I did not know as to whether you would see them, I spoke to Mike Smith and he considers that you would.