Camry-bodia

Alright, well, I typed this entry before and lost it (I told you the internet connection in Cambodia was iffy!). But I will do my best to recreate it.

Little did I know that growing up in a family that insisted on buying Japanese-made cars only (with an emphasis on Toyotas, Camrys in particular. I might add that my mom totalled the only Nissan we ever had...) would one day prepare me for a trip to Cambodia. As it turns out, Toyota is, with a very few exceptions that I've seen in the capital, the only car company that has ventured into Cambodia. It means that all the taxis and like 95% of the cars are Camrys (the other 5% are Land Runners in case you were wondering). It meant that I felt right at home cruising down what I would losely define as a road on my way from the border of Thailand to Siem Reap in a nice Camry. Who knew?

Anyway, we've been here since last Sunday and are enjoying ourselves mainly. We started at Angkor Wat (which you might know from the movie Tomb Raider if you saw it) and its surrounding temples just outside of Siem Reap. It was really quite spectacular to see all of the old temples and whatnot built at about the turn of the last millenium. I hadn't realized before going there that Angkor Wat was just a little piece of what the area had to offer, that the actual ancient city was called Angkor Thom, and that it was really quite large. My favorite I think had to be the temple of Bayon (see pic above, not my pic but an accurate representation of what I saw) in the very center of the old town Angkor Thom. Each of its towers are carved with big faces with slightly smiling lips. I'm having trouble describing the sensation I felt walking through there. It's slightly creepy for the faces are always watching, but then its simultaneously a warm sensation as if they're protecting you with their pleasant smiles. Chesa appreciated the volupuous lips of the statues and swears that's where the Cambodians of today get their gorgeous ones from. No collagen needed here!

Siem Reap itself came as somewhat of a shock to us though. It's a seriously expensive (compared to the other places we've been travelling) place! Ironically, at the same time its an extremely poor town. I don't think I've ever experienced as many beggars at one time in my life. Joelle, a fellow traveller, "gave in" to a boy who was begging on the street and took him to a little market to pick something out. She expected him to go for a cookie or sweet thing. He pointed to baby food.

At first the beggars were really bothering me, but then I realized that they were not just targeting foreigners, they were also asking other Cambodians for hand outs--and the other Cambodians were responding. I also then learned a little bit more about their tragic history, and though we are far from the days of Pol Pot and his evil, horrible regime, change takes time.

My favorite thing that happened in Siem Reap though was while I was bargaining for some whicker placemats and baskets. We were at a little stand in the middle of nowhere, and we started haggling over the price. When I couldn't get the price I wanted, I gave a vaguely pouted look at our vendeuse. She pouted back and won (remember the Cambodian lips are quite large). We kept at it, and she actually hit me (in a playfulish manner). She even slapped me in the face at one point. It was a good time. I learned later that she was charging a very reasonable price and that I really shouldn't have been haggling at all (I hadn't known at the time) when I went to a different place and they started at $5 for the same placemat I had gotten from her for under a dollar.

We have now left Siem Reap and Angkor Wat and are in the capital Phnom Penh (pronounce pah-nome pen, the h's in SE Asian languages actually, as I've discovered indicate aspiration and does not change the consonant shape) to learn more about Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. We went to one of their prisons this afternoon, and it was quite an eye-opener. It was a converted high school where the prisoners were shackled one after another on a long iron rod across the ground of the classroom. They were not allowed to change positions even and just laid on the floor most of the time until they were exterminated.

I knew from back in high school that Pol Pot was one of the most terrible of the dictators, but I'm really starting to learn and understand what that meant here. I watched The Killing Fields in Siem Reap (which by the way, Athol Fugard plays a bit role in. I saw his name in the credits and was like 'like the playwrite who wrote Master Harold and the Boys?' I had to research online later to verify, but it was indeed him. Athold Fugard is just one of those names you don't forget!), and would highly recommend it. I'm just astonished, as always, with how vicious human beings can be to one another. The scariest part is how large of a role the kids seemed to play in everything. They were the guards' aides, and selected who to kill. *Shudders*

And with that note, some "Fun" (aka informative) Facts for Cambodia:

25- The percent of the population killed during Pol Pot's reign.
14- The number of beggars we had while sitting at a cheap street vendor having dinner in Siem Reap. It was less than an hour.
VII- The number the God King Jayavarman who built most of Angkor Thom and Wat. On a side note, he was forced to sleep with a woman incarnation of a naga (snake/dragon thang) EACH night lest the kingdom fall apart!
10,000 sq km- The amount of land the Tonle Sap Lake expands over during the rainy season in Cambodia. In an interesting geologic/meteorlogic phenomenon, the Tonle Sap river, which links the Mekong River to the Tonle Sap Lake reverses direction depending on the season. When it's the wet season up in Laos and the Mekong River is high, the river runs into the lake to fill it. During the wet season in Cambodia, when the Mekong is running low, the lake drains into the Mekong. Crazy desu ka?