Cambodia

Afer a couple of days in Bangkok we took a one hour flight to Siem Reap. It's the second largest city in Cambodia and it's the location of the famous Angkor Wat.

I wasn't expecting a beautiful relaxing time here, I just really wanted to see Angkor Wat and that's all I imagined about Cambodia before I actually got there. It's just an experience I'll never forget.

Our hotel in Siem Reap was ironically amazing. That's what's so strange about Siem Reap. On one side of the road, you've got a four-star hotel with a huge swimming pool and valet parking, on the other, a dirty, smelly, run-down shack with people begging you for a dollar as you walk by. It's just stange because they've tried to boost tourism so much and so soon after a major war that they just haven't recovered. It's just so surreal because you are literally in paradise and a war-torn place all at once. You can still see the burned buildings and so many of the people I saw had such blank and dark expressions on their faces. They are actually very kind people and I never really felt unsafe, it's just that they had zero joy about them at all - but they really have no reason to have any, especially compared to the lives that you and I have. I think that's why I took so many pictures of just people in Cambodia.

Cambodia made me think about so many things, especially how extremely lucky and blessed I am. You know, a bad day for us is getting a speeding ticket or having a cold. A typical day for them is trying to walk around with one leg and/or one arm, bathing in a dirty river (which is also the city's sewage) and begging for their next meal. Once, a boy about seven years old hobbling with one leg came up to me and asked me for a dollar. I know that most believe that giving money to someone who's begging only makes the problem worse, but I thought, "what else is this boy gonna do?" Plus, it's not his fault that landmine was there... But, after I gave him money, many other kids saw me and they all started asking for money too. It was a bad situation and I just had to stop after that because it caused a big scene, definitely not what we wanted.

If you're like me and you didn't know about what happened in Cambodia in the late 70's, you must read about the Khmer Rouge, a radical political party who took control of Cambodia and massacred over 2 million of their own people in an attempt at genocide. If you spoke French, you were murdered. If you wore glasses, you were murdered. If you owned a business or lived in the city, you were murdered. They believed that Cambodia should be cleaned of any trace of anyone who could possibly oppose their communist ideals, so only countryside peasants were spared. It is gut-wrenching to even read about what happened to people. They took groups of innocent people out into the jungle and mass-murdered them by beating them to death and they had the "work camps" similar to those of Hitler's. It is pretty much a Cambodian holocaust. I just didn't realize all of this while I was there, and, I guess at the time it was better that I didn't.

The first night in Siem Reap, we went to a dinner theatre where they had a huge buffet and a traditional Cambodian dance show. It was incredible. The food was so wonderful, it was like very very good and high quality Chinese food, and it's not as ridiculously spciy as some Thai food is.

So, the second day, I went to Angkor Wat. It is truly spectacular. The day I was there it was quite cloudy and there were hardly any tourists, so I really felt completely consumed by it. There are so many narrow, shadowy corridors to walk through. You really feel like you have been transported to and ancient place in an ancient time. There were many monks walking around, so at some points, I could see only ancient ruins and monks praying or appearing to be comtemplating something deep. I actually had a nice conversation with one who had actually been to California. I was really shocked when he came up to me and asked me where I was from because I didn't think they were allowed to talk to women, but he said we couldn't hands and he couldn't look me in the eye, but, he was allowed to practice his English with foreigners. We talked for quite some time about Cambodia and what's it's like for him to live there. He said he loves Cambodia, but his heart is always sad there. I really just can't describe the feeling of walking around Angkor Wat, so I really hope my pictures can say a lot.

The last day in Cambodia, we went to the markets and got Cambodian massages. They were relaxing, but also a little violent! Barbara actually ended up with bruises! They do a lot of stretching as well as deep massaging, but I felt great afterwards. The markets have just as much of an aggressive vibe as those in Cambodia. People are always yelling at you to come look in their shop. They are very quick to haggle though. The only time I coudn't haggle though was in a store that was run by the most charming and adorable little girl, maybe about 8 years old, and I actually gave her more than what she asked for. I got a picture with her too as well as you can see toward the bottom.

That night, we went on a boat ride to "The Floating City" which leads out to a huge lake named Tonle. So many people were living on the river, mainly for fishing. It was, well, it was life-changing. I knew people in the world lived like this, but, to see it up-close in person is remarkable. Again, we had groups of children coming up to us begging for money. Families lived in very small, one-room huts made of straw and sometimes light wood and were taking baths in the very dirty river, which I just didn't understand. The communities were divided up between Cambodian, Vietnamese and Muslum and everyone stays on their side of the lake.

We rode out to the lake and our tour guide was telling us that many people die each year living around Tonle Lake because of sudden flood during the rainy season. I didn't feel to good at that moment needless to say. He said when he was young, his brother drowned in the lake when he went fishing. I asked why then did people still live here when they know it's dangerous, and he said that this place is all they know and they don't care because they can catch the most and best fish here. We stayed to watch the sunset and headed back to our hotel as quickly as possible after that.

Visiting Cambodia just completely changed my life and how I view everything and everyone around me.