Greetings from the beach...

We're currently in Sihanoukville, Cambodia for a few days recharging our batteries before our sojourn into Vietnam. For us recharging equals reading some books, taking walks on the beach and drinking drinks with umbrellas in them. A rough life indeed.

For those of you who haven't checked in awhile, we put up four new posts last week and over the weekend. Feel free to catch up on the fun. For those of you a little more active in reading the site, don't worry; new stuff is on the way. Well, it will be after we stop enjoying the ocean view...

Hope all is well for everyone wherever you may be. More from Vietnam.

Brian

(more beach pictures to come.....)

Ruminations about the Ruins...

More on our time in Siem Reap, this final installment covering the four plus days spent touring the various Angkor period ruins. Enjoy.

So I considered writing this from a perspective where we gave our impressions and some historical background of the various temples we visited. I then realized that in four days we've visited 13 temples. Yes, 13. In fact, here's the list (in the order of how we visited them) in it's entirety.


Preah Khan
Preah Ko
Bakong
Banteay Srey
Prasat Kravan
Angkor Wat
Ta Prohm
Bayon
Prasat Neak Pean
Ta Som
Eastern Mebon
Baphuon
Preah Palilay

Despite the hype around Angkor Wat (pictured, which was definitely very impressive), our favorite temple area was the Angkor Thom complex, and by far the place that struck us the most was Bayon. This is the temple with all the towers with 4 huge faces. We could have spent a lot more time there and just absolutely loved the atmosphere. (At this point we were going to link to a number of really cool photos that we took of the temple and the faces, but those were on the memory card when the camera got stolen....so you'll just have to check here).

In an effort to not bore the living beejesus out of the reading populace (all five of you), I'm not going to talk about all the other temples and our experiences visiting them. If you're a history buff and would like to learn more about any of these sites, check out The Angkor Guide. The guide itself is a bit old but has plenty of useful information. In Part two of the guide there is specific info on the particular ruins.

Instead, I'm just going to add a couple of thoughts and/or interesting facts we learned while visiting Angkor...

- First and foremost, a healthy thank you to Andrew Dennis our great tour guide and the Reverend John Dennis for inviting us along to be a part of the tour. Andrew was a fountain of knowledge (thanks to his time working with the World Monument Fund) and gave us the information necessary to fish for ourselves in amongst the years of history. Now if only he'd quit using his fluent Khmer to tell the sellers "You see the guy in the red shirt? That's Brian. He's rich and he told me he wants to buy four silks/books/trinkets/whatever you're selling."

- Before the trip, I just assumed that being in a Buddhist country that all the ruins were Buddhist in nature. Instead only about half of them are and they were all built in a 40 year period. The rest of the time (about 400 years) and the other half of the temples were built for worship by the Hindu religion.

- Since the Buddhist period of ruins was sandwiched by the Hindu periods, an unthinkable amount of time was spent in the Buddhist temples both carving out Buddha images as well as doing some creative remodeling such as adding beards, crossed legs and some muscle definition to tens of thousands of Buddhas. On the flip side, there is an eight armed Buddha that was formerly a Ganesh.

- Brick v. Sandstone. The construction materials of the temples is an ongoing topic while visiting the ruins. The builders started with brick and over the years went to sandstone, the quality of which diminished over the years. The brick temples are 200 years older in most cases and in significantly better condition. As a result, Angkor Wat (built with lower grade sandstone) looks ancient compared to some of the earlier works. Maybe that's why people like it so much...

- Having the experience of being part of a family picture at Bayon. We'd walked up to start our tour and there was a family of about 25 who were up from Phnom Penh to visit. Next thing we knew Andrew had convinced their photographer to take pics of all of us. It was then that the eldest man referred to us not as balang (foreigner in Khmer) but as white Khmer. Very cool.

- The man v. nature battle that is Ta Prohm. This is the wildest of the sites because of the many trees that have intertwined themselves in amongst the ruins. So far nature is definitely winning. The conservations groups thought it was in the best interest to eliminate new trees growing in the area. Unfortunately in doing this they eliminated the most evident source of future support for the ruins. Eventually the current trees will shrivel up and die, leading to the collapse of Ta Prohm. Despite the ongoing efforts of the conversations groups, no real solution has been found.

- The giant jigsaw puzzle that is Baphuon. The French were in the process of rebuilding the temple piece by piece when the Khmer Rouge came to power in 1975 and destroyed all the plans. Now the French are back at it again. Of course they're doing so while trying to piece together the plans as well. Just a fascinating project. Like trying to do a jigsaw puzzle with the pieces but with no images on the pieces or box cover to tell you what it's supposed to look like.

- One great story related to the sellers in Angkor. When you step out of a vehicle, they are all over you, selling their very similar wares. Their pitch is usually some equivalent of "Two for one dollar" They're persistent but most of the time a simple no thank you will suffice. However, I had the following priceless exchange:

14 year old Girl: "You want book?"
Me: "Aht te aw kohn" (Khmer for no thank you)
Girl: "You want postcards, silk?"
Me: "Aht te aw kohn"
Girl: "What do you need?"
Me: (wearily) "I don't need anything. I have everything."
Girl: (two thumps on her sternum) "You don't have me!"

And with that she stormed off into the late afternoon sun. I had to admit I wasn't expecting THAT.

- The disturbing lack of an unified conservation strategy for the Angkor Wat ruins. The French, German, Belgian, Japanese, Chinese, Indians and the World Monument Fund (WMF) all have various projects they are working on but no one has taken the initiative to make sure it all is uniform. In fact in talking with Andrew I was amazed at the multitude of different restoration styles used. You'd hope that Aspara (the government based company related to Angkor) would take the initiative but my impression from the ground was they were too busy resupplying the vendors with silk and purses to sell the tourists. This is in contrast to the conservation effort at Preah Khan, where the WMF is in charge of all elements from forestry to architecture to construction and has had a clear vision over the last 10 years of work there. It will be interesting to see how this progesses with the number of visitors increasing exponentially year after year and with it the need for proper conservation.

- Finally, a bit of travel advice. DO NOT visit Siem Reap during Chinese New Year. Way too many people and more tour buses than you can shake a stick at. Andrew did a good job of moving us around to avoid the peak times at various temples but it still was very busy in places. We found one place on our fourth day devoid of tourists (and no, I'm not saying where) and it seemed like a slice of paradise.

We're off now to Phnom Penh in the hope that we don't get shot at or have acid thrown at us while we're visiting uplifting sites like the Killing Fields.*

Brian

* Note to the mothers: this only really happens later in the night according to the Phnom Penh Post Police Blotter. We'll do our best to stick around the drug pushers and touts near our guesthouse once it gets dark. So be rest assured we're a-OK :-)

Getting by with the help of our friends...

We have had some unbelievable opportunities to get beyond the temples and primary tourist sites during our time in Siem Reap. (Not that the temples aren't well worth the trip here as Brian's temple entry will attest to). Most of these opportunities came because we had the good fortune to meet up with the Rev. John Dennis and his group.

While we have very much enjoyed travelling on our own, it's also really nice sometime to feel a part of a group (and to have somebody else to talk to!) And when they are folks as interesting and nice as our group it's even better. To whit, included in our group was a professional clown who performs in hospitals etc, a retired Seagate executive who is making life better for kids in several Asian countries, the mom of a soldier killed in Iraq (and her two cool siblings) who has made it one of her life missions now to fight the scourge of landmines, a young cancer survivor, a peripetetic minister who has been assisting land-mine victims in Cambodia for years, and my former third grade crush who has worked with the World Monuments Fund restoring Preah Khan (one of the Angkorian era temples) on and off over the last 10 years and so is not only fluent in Khmer, but knows his way around a temple or two.

With this group we alternated touring temples led by super guide Andrew with visiting children at schools, orphanages and hospitals and watching Albert do his magic. We also were able to do several landmine-related activities (yet another blog entry).

All in all, being with this group and participating in their activities brought so much more to our Siem Reap and Angkor Wat experiences. We give thanks to serendipity, and to John and Andrew Dennis for their gracious invitation to join them.

Becca

Other notes:

-- Despite our enjoyment of being part of a group for a couple of days, this experience also confirmed our decision to go it alone in China instead of with a tour group. (China was the one place we had been considering getting some help travelling). After 8 months on the road we have definitely developed our own rhythm, and it was difficult to adjust to the schedule and speeds of others. It's no problem for a couple of days, but there's no way we would have survived 4 weeks of it in China without some sort of major incident.

-- Check out the info on the Angkor Children's Hospital. They're doing yeoman's work with little resources and are always scrambling to cover their needs. If you happen to have a new pediatric respirator to donate, John Morgan's your guy. And if you are looking for a bday present for the person who has everything, they are considering offering a hospital for a day. For four thousand dollars you will have a plaque up on the wall honoring you for the day and will be responsible for medical care being delivered to (they will send you the exact stats for the particular day) approximately 250-400 children on an out-patient basis and approximately 50 inpatients. Not a bad way to make a difference on your day.

Landmines on my mind

Before this trip I had always thought about landmines at an academic and intellectual level. I knew that Cambodia had a tragic history with landmines that their people were continuing to pay for on a daily basis and I heartily believed in the equation: LANDMINES = BAD.

But I didn't get it, really get it at a visceral level, until this trip.

My eyes were opened by a one-two-three punch of events. The first was meeting Lynn Bradach. I've already mentioned Lynn in the group post (and you can read more about her here), but in brief, her son Travis was killed in Iraq while clearing mines, and in his memory she has made fighting landmines and the terrible damage they do one of her life missions.

As the Portland Tribune said in the linked story:

"First she persuaded a dozen people to raise money to get rid of land mines in former war zones by running a marathon together. Then she took the more than $30,000 they raised and invested it in the children of Sakream Tbong, Cambodia, who walk through a minefield each day on their way to school. And then she traveled there to present the gift in person. She left behind notebooks and pens for the kids, and a plaque dedicated to the memory of her son, Marine Cpl. Travis Bradach-Nall. The memorial will stand by the flagpole of a new school being built by a Japanese aid group. Before the school can be built, the mines must be cleared, and Bradach's gift will make that happen."

That was a year ago. Now Lynn and two of her siblings (the gentle giant James and irrepressible Katie) were back to see the fruits of her efforts and attend a dedication of the memorial. We were privileged enough to be invited along.

This trip was the second element of the visceral recognition. When we arrived we found 300 children in school uniforms lined up like honor guards along the path from the road to the new flagpole that incorporates a memorial to Travis. As Lynn and Sokhon (who led the mine clearing efforts), followed by James and Katie, walked down the honor path, all 300 kids started clapping. It was an incredibly moving moment to see the children clapping for and thanking this woman who had made such a difference in their daily lives .

The moment then turned incredibly uncomfortable when the organizers called for the other people in the group to walk down the center of the path too. The rest of us didn't have anything to do with the fields being cleared, weren't related to Travis, and in fact had never had the opportunity to meet him. And though at least John had led the trip the year before when Lynn came out to make the commitment and Andrew had guided them then, Brian and I had just met them the night before. We were all just kind of there for support for Lynn and to see the school and field for ourselves and be inspired. We felt very much like a fraud walking down between the clapping children since we hadn't actually contributed anything to the effort. But we each put a flower on the memorial for Travis and added our thoughts of thanks for what his mom is doing in his memory and our prayer for an end to landmines and an end to the killing in Iraq.

The final eyeopener was a visit to Aki Ra's landmine museum in Siem Reap. (pictures for this paragraph to come later.) You can read his full life story here, but basically Aki Ra was a child soldier conscripted by the Khmer Rouge who set many landmines in uniform. Now that peace has come to the country he has dedicated his life to trying to make his country safer and improving the life of land mine victims. To that end he regularly goes out on mine clearing trips on his own using none of the technology or equipment that protects the official mine clearers and he has taken in a number of children who have lost limbs to landmines in other villages and provided them with a home and a chance to go to school. He has created a somewhat strange but compelling museum/exhibit area with all sorts of defused explosives and information about them and their victims. After being out at the school with Lynn (and seeing the ubiquitous landmine victims begging all over town) the experience walking around the small compound, looking at all the mines and ordinances scattered around, checking out the model minefield, watching the documentary on his efforts and reading all the life stories of his kids were the final pieces to bring it all home to me.

I'm not exactly sure how I am going to put this deeper understanding of the evils of landmines to use, other than obviously supporting anti-landmine initiatives. As we get settled back into regular life after our return, I'm hoping to find a way to incorporate action on a number of issues that have become important to me during the trip. Who knows, maybe someday I'll be able to help a group of children the way that Lynn has done.

Each of us doing our little part to act, instead of just talk. That's how things change.

Becca

-- Other cool parts of the visit out to the village with Lynn and co. was distributing the notebooks and pens that she had donated to the children and teachers and watching how happy they were with these items, and checking out the kids learning in their new classrooms. Since they don't have textbooks, the teacher writes everything on the board and they copy it all down into their notebooks.

Update from the Wild West

The picture to the right is an artist's rendition of us trying to cross the street in Phnom Penh. (Anyone remember Frogger?) Now on to the regularly scheduled post.

Wild West you say? Is the reason we haven't been posting that we gave up and hightailed out of the Far East? Did all the traveling finally cause us to breakdown?

Far from it. It's just that our current locale (Phnom Penh, Cambodia) feels like the old Wild West towns you'd see in the movies. Well without the active shooting of people in the streets. As far as we know.

In the last three days we've been a participant in a number of blackouts (they roll them through the town at unspecified times because the country doesn't have enough energy for the city), had our camera stolen (thankfully we only lost 4-5 days of pictures) and been losing a good pound or two a day in sweat. Fortunately we haven't seen any of the drive-by acid throwing and cutting of throats that the Phnom Penh Post police blotter had promised. But the one night we were outside after dark we lost our camera. So there you go.

As a result, we've been a bit... preoccupied. Good news for you the reader though is that we're refocused. We should have a number of new posts (including parts 2 and 3 of Siem Reap) going up this week. Look for about one a day for the rest of the week. Pictures will be coming as well though at a bit more of a leisurely pace. Or not at all depending on whether we have another blackout.

Otherwise, just sit back and enjoy. We're off for an uplifting trip to the Killing Fields tomorrow and then to the beach to celebrate a certain someones birthday....

Brian

How do we get to Siem Reap?

Greetings from Siem Reap. This is part one of our adventures to and around the home of the ancient Angkor ruins and so much more. Part two will be an unexpected start to our SR visit and part three will be our two cents on the various Angkor temples. Enjoy.

Upon our arrival to Pakse, we realized we needed to get transport to Siem Reap in time to meet the group we were touring the ruins with. We worked with our guesthouse owner (the seemingly always right Mr. Vong) to get a plane ticket. Fairly painless it seemed; his cousin worked for the airline and he seemed pretty confident we'd be able to get a ticket for the date we wanted.

With that taken care of, we headed up to the Bolaven plateau. We stayed for two nights at the Tad Fane resort as a present to ourselves. Man, we need to get better at giving presents. Ok place but not worth the "treat". We headed back to Pakse for a day to check in and see how our ticket was looking.

The answer? Not good. The best Mr. Vong could do was the day after we were supposed to be there. After wrestling with a number of options, we decided to tackle the overland border to Cambodia. This border crossing is the source of all sorts of good stories; of the water boat mafia, corrupt border officials, no ability to get visas, etc. After doing a little research online and another trip to the Bolaven (this time finding a winner with Tat Lo), Becca and I were convinced it wasn't going to go well.

Bummed and not looking forward to the next day, we headed back to the guesthouse and struck up a conversation with the previously mentioned musician David and his magician friend Steve. They mentioned that they'd found a company that would take them as far as Strung Treng (across the Cambodian border) in their efforts to reach Phnom Penh the same day. From there the adventure began...

8:30 pm We convince Steve and David to go with us to convince the company owner (an English guy named Alex) to sell us two tickets. The idea alone of avoiding the boat mafia made us giddy with excitement.

9:00 pm Alex arrives and we are able to get two tickets for the next day. Properly stoked we hang out for awhile and then head to bed.

6:20 am Our alarm goes off. Moving day. The alarm ends up being a unnecessary item as we'd suffered through a fitful night of sleep that had kept us awake since 2am. Mr. Vong informs us that Alex is not to be trusted and will most likely leave us 6-7km from the border and to our own devices.

7:00 am Talk with Steve and David about it and decide we'll just make sure Alex takes care of us. Contemplated strapping Alex on to the back of the car for insurance but decide against it.

8:30 am Pile into mini-van with 15-20 late middle aged folks all headed down to the southern islands of Laos. Alex is not in the luggage hold but we feel confident. Ride itself is pretty uneventful.

11:30 am Mr. Vong is finally proven wrong as our van takes us all the way to the border. The slightly sketchier Cambodian half of the company picks us up. I'm leery at first and then realize it's probably due to the fact that instead of picking up the folks with real money, these guys have to haul four backpackers and a slightly insane Belgian named Josef (who appeared out of nowhere at the Laos border) to Strung Treng.

12:00 pm Clean checkout through the Laos border. Our "departure tax" is set when Steve pays the border guard $2 without the requisite haggling. Given the rumors we'd heard was that they normally started at $5 we're ok with it. Evidently the "tax" is beer money for the guards. Can't say I blame them as we are firmly out in the middle of nowhere with what I'm convinced are minefields on each side of the road.

12:15 pm Arrive at the Cambodia border. Becca and I have smooth sailing with our overpaid for yet very valid visas while Steve, David and Josef all decide to test whether the just recently announced visas on arrival is still going strong.

12:45 pm We're clean through the Cambodian border. No worries for the three guys as they all sail through and Josef even saves us all a buck with the following exchange:

Friendly Border Guard (actually friendly): Your tax please?

Me: How much?

FBG: Same as Laos border. $2.

Josef (as my brain is trying to figure out what to do): We only paid $1 at the Laos border.

FBG: (stutter) Oh. Yes. It's Tuesday. $2 is the weekend rate. I'm sorry. $1.

Me: (hands the FBG the $1 and grab my passport gleefully)

Seriously Jedi mind trick by Josef. We're starting to warm up to him.

1:30 pm Bumpy trip gets us to Strung Treng. Kind of. We're actually dropped off on the other side of the river from Strung Treng proper. We thank our drivers and we're off to negotiate our way across. We get a decent fare and then are descended upon by Richie.

1:35 pm Richie (of the world famous Richie's guesthouse and restaurant of Strung Treng Cambodia) has us seated and ordering lunch at his place. Crafty little bastard. We inquire into potential taxis to Kratie all while having zero negotiating power and momentum.

3:30 pm After nearly two hours of negotiating, woe stories of being overcharged by poor Richie, the indifference of most Taxi drivers, etc. we've negotiated a car to Phnom Penh (typical midsize car whose six(!) passenger seats we've had to buy out to fit the traditional four. Josef bids us farewell as he patiently waits out the taxi drivers with a beer in hand. By his slightly crazed looks he's prepared to wait weeks to get his price.

3:35 pm Mr. Fish, the brother of one of the people hanging around the restaurant, has us in the car and we're off.

4:30 pm Mr. Fish asks us if we want to watch a movie. It's then that I notice that instead of a rear view mirror we've got a 7 inch flat TV. Our movie? Assassins. My guilty movie pleasure? Antonio Banderas. Who can't love his over the top "acting"?

6:30 pm We've all enjoyed the movie as it ends. This include Mr. Fish as while he's done his best to avoid large rocks, constructions trucks, pigs and the like he's kept one eye on the riveting complex narrative presented.

6:35 pm Right about dusk Mr. Fish pulls over for a rest stop. He uses it to convince us to spend an extra $5 to go an extra 100km instead of over the dirt rock filled road he's currently got us pointed to. I'm game for the dirt road but there's no other takers.

8:00 pm Having just gotten back on the road from dinner, we listen to David's CD. Good bluegrass that had my toe tappin. Shameless plug for our fellow traveler here. After the CD we get another movie to pass the time.

8:05 pm Assassins is Oscar worthy compared to our next movie, Hard Boiled. Mr. Fish does his best to keep an eye on the action while avoiding more livestock and an actual person who raises his ire enough to roll down the window and yell at them in Khmer. Becca's head is about to explode at this point at all the potential accidents she's had to watch from the middle back seat.

9:30 pm A thankful movie break at Kompong Cham where Mr. Fish tries pathetically to convince us to end our trip there. He's tired but so are we and we're ready to be in PP (still two hours away) and there's no way in letting us off on the price. Onward ho!

10:00 pm Mr. Fish realizes he's nearly out of gas and pulls into the station. Bad luck as it's closed much to his surprise. Surprise?! It's 10pm in Cambodia! If it's anything like Laos everyone has been asleep for hours now.

10:05 pm After driving a bit further down the road he is able to get some emergency gas at the local gas baron's house. This is accomplished though only after waking him up via car horn. The baron comes out tastefully dressed in a towel and a three button suit jacket. The emergency gas gets us far enough to properly fill up awhile later.

10:30 pm After a body count of 230 and finding out it is currently banned in Sweden, Hard Boiled comes to a painful end. The good news though is that no babies were harmed in the making of the film. Mr. Fish asks us "Do you want to watch Iraqi soldiers kill Americans?" Even our NOOOOOOOO!!!! still gets us 20 seconds of Faces of Death before our protests finally break the language barrier and he shuts it off. Ugh.

11:30 pm Exhausted and ready for bed, we arrive in Phnom Penh. The driver tries to get us to go to the guesthouse Richie recommended (i.e. gets a commission at) but we have him plow through to an area Steve is familiar with.

11:40 pm We finally arrive to the room in our guesthouse after avoiding the typical lakeside Phnom Penh gauntlet of touts, tuk-tuk drivers and drug pushers.

17 hours of traveling and despite the length, dodgy road, narrowly missed obstacles and the like the trip itself was pretty painless. Or so it seemed. Guess we're getting used to traveling in Asia.

The rest of the trip to Siem Reap was a piece of cake. One day scouting out the Wild West town of Phnom Penh and a painless bus ride up to Siem Reap. Now where's a guesthouse that has room during Chinese New Year?

Part two soon.

Brian