It's really funny. Cambodia was a vassal state under the Siamese kingdoms most of the time from the 15th century to 19th century, when the country was finally swallowed up by the French. The Khmer were defeated by the Thais in almost all battles since the 14th century. The Khmer kingdom had long been an empire no more by the 17th century. They were constantly kept busy balancing the powers of the Siamese and the Vietnamese. Yet the Thais never thought of naming any of their provinces "Khmane Riab" or "Khmane Phinat" (literally Khmer Destroyed). It seems that the Khmer's once-in-a-while victories over the Siamese must have been very important to them.
brave girl what you go through Miss Claire to help out others, all those pricks and pizzas! Love your stories, keep them coming, meantime, I sit back in my armchair and travel, chin chinxxxx
Great blog entry Your writing is excellent. You should turn this in to a column at home! Get some family members to forward it to your local newspaper! Great info, glad you emphasized on the sterile/safe standards of the hospital, for the more skeptical tourists.
Blood Dear Claire & Stuart
What experiences you are having. I am sure that you are in your element there.
Just to say that Rick and I gave our blood regularly twice a year all our working years until we had to give it up because of our age. In fact I seem to remember that Rick has a "pin" for 50 donations!! I didn't get there because of the in-between years when I was having "babies" when you cannot give until a year after.
Carry on the good work. Thinking of you. Luv Sheila xx
Amazing journey Hi Claire and Stu
What a fabulous journey you are on, so wonderful to share these peoples lives. It does shock me how easily we can do this, just think tomorrow after a flight any of us could be in Cambodia, but we get pressured into maintaining our daily choires.Take inspiration and if you want to travel, and catch a glimpse of another time and place and touch peoples hearts....DO IT.
GIVING BLOOD Thank you Jessica for mentioning this other important thing to do here in Siem Reap, I did this yesterday I gave blood, and it was the best donation of my life. I shall be writing this up on my next blogs.
Good for the Soul I commend your time well spent in Siem Reap. I remember donating blood at the Children's hospital during Dengue fever season and looking at the line-ups of (very ill) babies and children along the hospital hallways and outside...waiting for my blood. When he put my blood into the fridge, the fridge was almost empty, mine being the only type B. With thousands of tourists, this is atrocious. As soon as I said I wanted to donate blood, I was escorted inside the hospital by a friendly security guard, and immediately taken care of by smiling doctors. It took less than 10 minutes, I felt completely safe, watched him open the packaged needle. I felt good walking out of that hospital and encouraged my friends to do it as well. They did. Six of us. The doctors said that it was a REALLY GOOD DAY. It felt so good but it left me with the desire to help more. SO glad to come across your blog. Brings us all hope. Reminds me of giving and makes me want to go back to where I'm needed most.
Thank you,thank you As usual your writing informs and inspires. I shall spread the word of your good works and this place. We shall look for it next year when we go there. I will get 'pledges' from friends to sponsor a student before I go and present it to them so their education can continue.
Gunga
humbling As always dear Claire a lot of give and no taking, which is what we here in the West have lost, the art of giving so well done and snogs for all those cute little orphans who could set an example to those bad kids here in London who think the world owes them their Nikes.xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Virtual tour Thanks for doing this for us Claire, I haven't got the get up and go to do it but love following in your footsteps and seeing your fabulous pics, happy birthday indeed Hugs Pamxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Flying over Hey Claire,
Looking at the picture I'm in, I couldn't help but notice that if we wanted to stage a production of 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' we'd already have the costumes (and Douglas would make an excellent McMurphy, no? Apologies if my cultural references are lost on you). Anyway, the blog is great, captured the experience completely. Looking forward to looking back on your past travels once I get home and have more time (and a faster internet connection). I was taking the bus to Anghor Wat too, but I only stayed a couple of days. Down in Koh Tao now. Have fun in Cambodia.
Ed
P.S. Thx for the extra pictures!
Birthday Dear CLaire. What a time you are having. It made our visist to our local Chinese restaurant for the "New Year" sound very boring!!
I do hope that you received my E Card. I am thinking of you today. Have a good one.
Love Sheila xxx
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU XXXX What an incredible journey you are on. I love reading every word and these photos are amazing, a real wow factor. HAPPY BIRTHDAY claire you deserve a great one. SAM. x
Peace Dearest Claire, what a wonderful reminder of the need to and value of silencing our constantly chattering monkey minds to discover the truth within. Thank you. Plus...I always love your portraits of people (especially the Peruvians), but these pictures of the monks are on some new, even more beautiful level. Loads and loads of love to you, my dear amiga -- MoonGirl
Getting there Hi Clairey, seems you are emptying yourself of practically everything you have known, I hope you can bring back to England what you have learned and teach our new generation what it is to love and respect everything, AND how do you get a little boy of 4 to meditate, am gonna try this, meantime, if we banned all mobile phones it would a start. Nobody on the train can be without one, what does this say about being alone with one's thoughts.Love to you from a grumpy old woman
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Look Inwards Look Inwards "We all have three eyes. Two for looking out and one for looking in. Why would we want to look in when everything is happening 'out there'? Because the treasure we seek is inside, not outside. What is treasure? Beauty, truth, peace, happiness. You already have what you seek. You already are stunningly beautiful. You are already peaceful and loving. How come you don't know this? Simple, you never look inwards, beyond superficial memories or recent experiences, so you never see your own riches. Take a moment to stop, look in and see. Don't rush. Don't search. Just look. And be aware." www.relax7.com
Filled With Pure Love & Wonder Dearest Claire. This morning as I pulled into my parking space at my day job I saw the most amazing site and I was filled with wonder as to what it meant. Now I realize clearly that it was you. A large stark white egret was standing on the median between the road and the freeway. Egrets do not live around where my day job is. She just stood there staring at me and me at her. She was not afraid. Another car then pulled up startling her. She took off in flight, flew directly over me with her giant fabulously beautiful wing span soaring and flapping and away she went off into the world. Amazing. Beautiful. Abundant Grace. I was filled with pure love and wonder. Thank you. MAC from California
congrats Hope you keep the old five pence piece. It was a payment you made from your past self to the future you. Brilliant blog. Proud of you! You should have your own tele programme. Pick-ups of the dialogue and the dramas around you excellent. Entertaining and exact - the way to go Clairey. xxx
what I love about you, Claire is that you are gutsy enough to actually include the picture of the old mass of shit ... bless you, that certainly takes the mystery out of it all, for someone who has never done a colon cleanse. Wish I had that product for sale here in the healthfood store in Pana ... I can put quite a bit of it together, but it just won´t be the same! Miss ing you, my friend. Linnet
Meditation TV -- too cool!!! Dearest Claire, so fun and lovely to read all about your sun-filled adventures as I sit bundled in my (Guatemalan) shawl on my porch in wintry New Mexico, trying to get a wireless signal while snow swirls all around me! Love love love the Buddhist tv programming. If I'd worked on that sort of thing in Hollywood maybe I'd be there still. Much love & safe travels to you, my dear - xoxoxoxox MoonGirl
Great Blog! Congratulations on cleared colon and getting over the fear of the sea - or at least starting too! I have a good diet, but find myself relying on coffee to get my energy levels up - I'm going to give the cleanse a try in 2008 after reading this :) thanks.
KP1958
non-member comment
It's really funny. Cambodia was a vassal state under the Siamese kingdoms most of the time from the 15th century to 19th century, when the country was finally swallowed up by the French. The Khmer were defeated by the Thais in almost all battles since the 14th century. The Khmer kingdom had long been an empire no more by the 17th century. They were constantly kept busy balancing the powers of the Siamese and the Vietnamese. Yet the Thais never thought of naming any of their provinces "Khmane Riab" or "Khmane Phinat" (literally Khmer Destroyed). It seems that the Khmer's once-in-a-while victories over the Siamese must have been very important to them.