more, from angkor

after phnom penh, tim and i got a bus (the mekong express) to siem reap. we had heard various horror stories about the journey, but it was fine in the end--we got some weird cambodian pastries and the roads were good. we went through village after village of neon green rice paddies and wooden houses on stilts, all of which were very beautiful. we stopped halfway in a town, and we bought some bananas and some pineapple. while we were standing outside the bus eating the pineapple, a little boy came by, begging. i gave him two bananas. he gave me a radiant smile and ate them immediately. another boy came by. same routine, same response. kids in cambodia are hungry, man, and they like bananas. we ended up giving the first boy the remains of our pineapple as well, and on our way onto the bus, we gave some money to a landmine victim with a fake leg and a blind baby. i know we said we weren't going to give anyone any more money, but sometimes you have to make exceptions.

when we got to siem reap, i got off the bus and was immediately in a scrum of tuk-tuk drivers. no joke--about 30 men surrounded us and tried to take our bags to their tuk-tuks, and would only back off when the policemen with whistles and sticks kicked in. tim went with the guy with the sign for the guesthouse we wanted, and pissed a bunch of the rest off. there was room for us at the guesthouse, but our tuktuk driver seemed to think he would be driving us to angkor the next day. tim told him no and paid him for the ride. i think it's normal for you to go with the driver from the station, but we didn't know, which was great because we ended up going with theary, the guy from our guesthouse, who is the sweetest, most gentle man. he told us he was a tuktuk driver when we arrived, and the next morning, when we asked him to drive us, i have never seen anyone as happy. he was the best driver ever, as well, and we just loved him. if any of you go to siem reap, i will give you his number. he is the greatest!

tim and i loved siem reap. i think it was the best destination (apart from sa pa) on this entire trip. tim thinks so too. it was in siem reap that i fell in love with cambodia and with the children (who for me, were just as good as the temples). let me be clear: siem reap itself isn't too pretty--it's sort of like a town from the old west, with all one-story buildings and dusty roads. also, there are dozens of children and women and men with missing limbs begging in the streets. i have never seen poverty like that in my life. there are families who sleep on the sidewalk at night. on our block alone, we had a family of 4 (one mother, 3 kids) sleeping on a mat on the corner, and a man with a whole mossie net/mat setup right by the hotel.

the temples are amazing. easily the most tremendous thing i have ever seen (man-made, anyway). we started at angkor (in the scorching sun) which is simply spectacular. we climbed to the top and walked all around. it's hard to envision it being lost in the jungle, but once you see the other temples, it's easier to imagine. and it's perfectly clear why it is the cambodian national emblem. from there, we went on to the bayon, which is a pretty massive complex itself. the temple is full of 51 towers with 4 faces each. inside the temple, there is also a very aggressive little buddhist nun who grabbed us, thrust some incense in our hands, made us pray with her and then made us pay. it was kind of a neat experience, but she was surprisingly sassy. outside the temple, we were trying to get to the terrace of elephants when we were approached by a cambodian kid who just started directing us around and giving us information about the temples. it was good he came along when he did, but we knew we were going to have to pay in the end. he told us his story: his parents were killed by the khmer rouge and he had only his sister, who was killed by a landmine. now he is in school, living with his friend and the monks. he told us he was in his early 20's (i forget exactly), which means his parents would have died when cthe khmer rouge was fighting vietnam. but can you question it? no. at the end, he told us he couldn't go any further and asked us for thai baht. we didn't have any, so he told us he wanted $5 each. (he had taken us for about 15 mins and we were paying theary $10 a day). we gave him $6. that night, we went to watch the sunset with everyone else in siem reap. it was beautiful, but there were clouds which meant the sunset itself was obscured. oh, well.

we liked angkor so much that the second day we got up BEFORE SUNRISE (please, let me repeat: TIM AND I WERE AWAKE, VOLUNTARILY, BEFORE THE SUN) to watch it rise over angkor. it took ages, but i think it was worth it in the end. afterwards, we had breakfast nearby, which was uneventful except for the fact that I TOUCHED A DOG! hooray! after 2 months of dog-free life, a dog loved me and jumped in my lap. and he didn't even chew on me! yay for the dog love!

after that, we decided to have theary take us to the faraway temple and a waterfall in the jungle, about 35k from town. this was the best day ever. the ride to the waterfall was amazing--so many kids and parents along the road, waving and smiling at us. and the scenery was stunning. i have never seen green like that in my life. tim and i took about 4394372 pictures before we figured out how to get them right, but we still have some good ones. the waterfall was at the end of a half-hour hike through the jungle, and was so pristine and quiet. a polish woman was there and she told us to walk along the river to see the carvings, so we did. when we got to the top of the waterfall, there was a man there who started pointing them out to us. he showed us vishnu, and the 1000 linga, and a frog and all kinds of carvings we never would have seen on our own. when he was done, we expected him to ask for money, but he didn't. tim gave him $2 and he was very pleased. it turns out he works there, so he probably shouldn't have shown us around, but thank goodness he did! and he was one of the first people we saw who asked for nothing. bless him.

then we went to banteay srei, the faraway temple. i think this one was my favorite. it looks like a big pile of bricks from a distance, but when you get up close, it has the most ornate carvings i have ever seen! after that, theary took us back to town for lunch. the next day, we went to see the smaller temples, and ta phrom. ta phrom is where tomb raider was filmed (which means nothing to me because i never saw it), and the whole complex is covered with giant trees and their roots. it's pretty amazing, and it's the place where you get the best idea of how these places could have been hidden in the jungle for so long.

the temples were completely magnificent, but i think the thing which has stuck with me most about cambodia is the people. from the boy at our guesthouse, who befriended tim over football talk (who goes to private school and is fluent in english) to the kids begging on the street, to theary, the people were just beautiful. we stopped giving the kids money in siem reap and started giving them bananas and pencils, which worked for the most part (it worked best at the temples, when the kids selling stuff would be so pleased to get a present that they would just beam at us).

we had one ugly altercation with some local kids who wanted more than we were going to give them, and it ended up with one girl following us around town telling me "f*ck you, f*ck your mother, f*ck your father, f*ck your dog". she was angry because we had bought baby formula for some of the kids with babies and we were going to buy her fruit. she wanted shoes instead. but there was another day when tim gave me some money and he went to do a photo cd. i ended up using most of the money for food for kids. there was one beautiful little girl with a baby named mom (the girl's name was ray-something) and i bought her some formula and a giant orange, and she was just so happy. of course, once people saw me with her, they all wanted something, so i ended up buying some other kids some food, and then giving some money to a man with one leg and a woman with a baby in leg splints. but again, they were so grateful, as most of the people were. just for a friggin' banana.

it's hard to say how i feel about cambodia. i think the best way i can explain it is that it stole my heart and broke it at the same time. the country is enormously beautiful, but you can't really explore it because of the landmines. the people seem to have survived the khmer rouge and are trying to look ahead, but the poverty is still pretty devastating. and it's a nation of paradox--you see lexus SUVs all over the place, and then you have a family sleeping on the curb. one night, tim had a man with stumps for arms following him down the street, whacking him with his arms. another night, we saw a little girl no older than 2, carrying around an infant. the country used to have one of the greatest kingdoms in the world, and now it's been reduced to poverty and landmines and the simple survival of the khmer rouge. it's awful, and so sad, and yet the people are so beautiful that you just have to believe if they have gotten this far, they will keep on going.