Phnom Penh & Siem Reap, Cambodia

(Sept. 22-Sept. 30) The difference between Thailand and Cambodia was apparent as soon as we passed through Customs and out the doors being greeted by a chorus of taxi drivers imploring us to take a ride with them. Sure we had our fair share of tuk tuk, moto and taxi drivers in Thailand, mostly in Bangkok, honk at us hoping we may want a ride. A simple shrug of the head and they would move on. The Cambodians are different, they hardly take no for an answer. A no only makes the whine go up a notch in volume. We continue to amaze ourselves with our stupidity when it comes to traveling. Instead of thumbing through our guide on the short plane ride to Phnom Penh we waited until we were surrounded by drivers to decide on a place drawing the most amount of attention to the fact that we had no idea what we were doing. Still at 7 bucks the ride to the guest house on the lake was cheap by our standards.

It took me until the second day in Cambodia to realize that they drive on the same side of the road as in the States. Thailand is the opposite. Not like rules readily apply to driving in general here in Cambodia or even in Thailand. Sitting in the back seat of our air conditioned taxi I saw a woman side saddling on the back of a moto while breast feeding her infant child as her husband was driving with one hand and dangling a series of pots filled with what I assume was lunch in the other hand. Not a helmet in sight. Seeing four people is totally normal on a moto. Anything and everything can get stacked on and around a moto from coconuts to a basket filled with pigs. I'll post some photos of my favorites when I get a good connection.

The level of poverty in Cambodia has hit me harder then I care to admit. The 20 minute drive to our guest house awakened something in me that I hadn't felt since I left Senegal, a mixture of despair and indignation for the disparity of people. It's hard not to feel as though I am apart of the problem when I directly benefit from the economics of poverty. We joke that Cambodia is a giant dollar store because somehow if by magic everything costs one dollar. Taxi rides, food, even trinkets all add up to one dollar, and U.S. currency is preferred. The people speak English incredibly well for being formerly colonized by the French. They make it easy for the traveller, especially cheapos like Matt and I, to adjust when we can use our own greenbacks and speak English without having to bother to learn even basic phrases in Khmer.

My days in Senegal hardened me to harassment. Daily I was asked, pleaded with, taunted and heckled with requests of all kind. From a hand in marriage, to a cadeau (gift), to money to even a lock of my hair, nothing was off limits from the Senegalese to demand from me. I do not treasure the fact that I have a certain way of channeling off the cries of the needy. The Senegalese did force you to at least acknowledge them, they wouldn't allow you to just walk by unnoticed. The Cambodians are very similiar in that regard. The children in front of the Wat's in Siem Reap, known more famously as Angkor Wat, do just that. They swarm you with their trinkets running alongside you barefooted, clothes tattered begging that you buy their merchandise. "One dollar. 5 for a dollar, ok ok 10 for a dollar. You no buy I cry. Yes thank you, not no thank you. Sorry doesn't make me happy. Sorry only makes me feel sadder" On and on it goes. Eyes that plead with you, guilt you can't escape. Matt calls it guilt-onomics. These kids know by instinct what to say to made you feel as lousy as possible. Even when we give in and buy something we still feel bad because someone will come up to us and ask us to buy one of their things. It's not like you're given a button or a badge for giving for the day and that's that. The need is always there. What tears me up more is wondering how can a buck even make that much of a difference?

Matt has a gentle soul and when approached by these kids he talks to them about their lives, about school or about sports. When we asked one girl what she learned in school she replied, I learn to speak tourist. We had kids counting to us in at least 6 different languages. These kids will learn whatever it takes to make one stinking dollar. Minds that could be better applied learning to read are instead forced to learn how to counter an argument why you should by this or that in multiple languages. What I do love about these kids is that more often than not when we refuse them they turn it positive like, "Well if you do buy something buy from me. When you are done visiting the temple then you can decide what to buy."

When you look past the grimey streets and the ramshackle homes and look at the people and their friendliness and humor that's where the true beauty of the land is revealed. The countryside is amazingly lush and green from seas of rice paddies. Houses loom on stilts surrounded by palm trees. Small boys herd water buffalo and cattle down the roads. Bikes totter down the streets at a leisurely pace. Life just seems so beautiful in it's simplicitylost in the noise of the bustling towns. The temples of Siem Reap are as magnificent as anything that I have seen. We went to countless temples that were once devoured by the jungle with viney tentacles still grasping onto some of the structures. Hundreds of stone faces that appear similar but like the Mona Lisa seem to move with you and smile depending on what angle you look at them. I was mostly intrigued by the intricate carvings on the temple walls. Elaborate murals depicting warring monkeys and seas of churning milk. We saw the sun rise over Angkor Wat with a couple hundred of our closet friends. No angle was left unphotographed.

We spent three days visiting as many temples as we could handle. On the third day we revisited a few that we had been to previously. It was nice to go back and look deeper into the images on the walls and the construction of these impressive temples. Often toothless and always shaved to the scalp, little ladies would beckon us to light incense to pray for luck at one of the hundreds of small shrines decorated in the small vestibules of the temples. It's not frowned upon to climb all over the temples, sometimes defying gravity to do so. The rewards are spectacular when the views of the lush jungle and rice paddies reveal themselves. The temples of Siem Reap are a world treasure.