February 28, 2011 Too much information

I've been spending a lot of time learning about things that scare the poop out of me. We forgot to take photos this day because we didn't really do anything but do online stuff and hang out so I staged this triptych honoring my recent obsession with the economy, peak oil, peak water, peak food, climate change, etc.

OH, MAN - WHAT'S HAPPENING?

WELL, WHAT CAN WE DO?

WE CAN LOVE EACH OTHER, THAT'S WHAT!

February 27, 2011 Real life Cambodia

This is Yaly, who generously offered to bring me and Christian to his house for food and then around to some sites. Yali is very poor as are most people we talked to in Cambodia. He is also very generous and kind.

This is the first floor of Yaly's home. There's a wood platform to sit on, one plastic chair, a hammock that doubles as a crib for the baby and a kitchen area in the back. The walled area behind Xn is the toilet.
The boy in the photo is a cousin or a neighbor kid. He loved being in front of the camera and gave me some of the best smiles in all of Cambodia.

There's also an upstairs, which is also just a wooden platform area. I didn't go up there, but Yaly told us they don't have beds. Yaly's holding his younger son. 

They make clever use of their space. Or, shall I say, they maximize function because they have to. This is Yaly's older son and his niece having their lunch on the stairs.

After our meal, all 3 of us climbed onto Yaly's motorbike (Xn got the middle) and he took us to a fish product factory. It smelled horrible. Be glad this is only a photo. They make fish paste and various other things I didn't want to see.

We visited some temple ruins and the still functioning temple right next door. The basement of the functioning temple was flooded so there were just the tops of the Buddha statues. It was creepy. The main floor was filled with Buddha's with bad paint jobs. There was one by the door that had a bees next on it, which freaked me out.

At the end of the day Yaly brought us to his Mosque. The kids were in Sunday school on break when we arrived so they all scared screaming hello and ran over to us. It was very sweet. The kids went back to class eventually, but this little girl stayed close to us. She was trying to tie the scarf on her head but couldn't do it so I helped her. The scarf is a Nazi flag, though no one there probably knew what it meant nor believed in anything it stands for. She totally stole my heart. Yaly then told me that her story is quite sad. Her Dad died of HIV and her mom died also (likely of HIV, too) and she was living with her grandmother who is very poor. I desperately wanted to fix everything in her life and give her something safe, stable, comfortable.

And that was our day with Yaly.

February 26, 2011 Walking Battambang, Cambodia

We explored Battambang more earnestly today. Headed for the post office, which was closed. Battambang has some strange things about it. We came across this roller coaster. Notice anything wrong?

Nearby we came across some goofy statues.

After tromping around we stopped at a place called Madison Corner, which has deceng wi-fi and great burgers. This little dude was across the street practicing being the head of the dragon in a parade. He was quite good but got shy when he saw me with my camera.

Here we are being cute at Madison Corner ourselves. (Toothpicks are on almost all tables in SE Asia and it's great.)

February 25, 2011 Not much going on in Battambang, Cambodia

Man, it was h-h-hot. Xn and I lazed about then hit the local market to see what they had. I wanted to get some pajamas since I'd lost my thin cotton pants in the tuk-tuk in Vientiane.  And since they're ubiquitous here. Cambodian woman are too smart - they've figured out that PJs are incredibly light, comfortable, cheap and cute.
I got some that celebrate 2008, which must have been the year of the pig in the Asian calendar. I'm wearing them beneath my skirt.  This is the only photo I got of myself this day.

February 24, 2011 Battambang, Cambodia

Left Siem Reap for Battambang today. 

Got a room at the Royal Hotel, which is one of the oldest and more famous ones in the area. It was cromulent - nothing to write home about. Right away we were offered a sunset trip on the bamboo train. Since that was the reason we decided to visit and sunset is a nice time of day, we say yes.

The bamboo train is awesome! It's an old system of using the crappy train tracks. People build these bamboo platforms, place them on some wheels for a train track, attach a small motor and off we went. A French woman joined us on the journey.

Before the trip

Ready to go!

In motion - it went way faster than I expected it to.

At the end of the journey out we stopped at a brick factory, but since it was so late in the day the factory was stopped. We met a family who sold beverages and snacks. There was a huge group of girls who were learning to make bamboo jewelry and honored us with some of their creation.

On the way back we caught up with some other train platforms that were watching the sunset. We did a kind of caravan back, which at times made me nervous. We were traveling at probably 20 mph on an unsecured bamboo platform at very close distance to the unsecured platform ahead of us.

The bamboo train was definitely one of the more fun quickie things we've done on our trip.

February 23, 2011 Siem Reap - Boys About Town (no photo of me today)

We enjoyed our last day in Siem Reap just chilling. On our walk along the "river" we passed this area at the edge of the tourist area where the local houses begin. Notice the net strung across the water to catch all the trash so it doesn't flow down into the touristy area.

A bit further on we came across these bikes parked with these big sacs on theme carrying who knows what. 

They belonged to a group of boys taking a respite from work and the heat by swimming in the river using these two leaning trees to make it more fun. I really, really wanted to give it a try.

We stopped to get a drink at a cafe and this young man came up trying to sell us art. His name's Kim, but he goes by Jerry to the tourists. He's 16 and is earning money to help put his younger brother through school so then his brother will help him back when he's older. Jerry lost his leg in a car accident when he was 10 and then lost his father soon after. Instead of buying some art, we asked him to draw us a picture.

After he was done, he just hung out chatting with us and looking at photos on Christian's computer. He didn't seem to be in too much hurry to get back to peddling paintings. 

Toward the end of our walk we stopped in a lovely garden park. Soon after I took this photo a young man came up to us and talked to us about a school for orphans he helped found. We spent a lot of time talking with him about the school, Cambodia, the United States, his life, our lives, his future. He showed us photos of the place from the initial logs being cut to the final structure filled with kids. We gave him $20 to buy a set of books and exchanged contact information. We wanted to try to visit the school, but the timing didn't work for us since we were leaving Cambodia. Christian is, however, working on their website. 

February 22, 2011 Another day in Siem Reap

Before knowing any details, I had wanted to see the floating villages. After doing some research, it sounded like it's just an expensive tourist scam with little authentic anything to enjoy. We had hired a tuk-tuk driver a few days earlier so we didn't feel we could entirely duck out. We had the guy drive us out to the boat landing and then decided not to go. We told the guy we'd still pay for the full day's agreed upon price. The ride was interesting. The village by the tourist attraction is dirt poor. The boat landing area is big and is being expanded. And is, evidently, entirely foreign money. The money from that place isn't making its way back to the people of the village.

Cambodia's so darn dusty!

The village right before the newly built boat dock.
Those are actual houses.

We ended the day as we did most of the time in Cambodia - with ice cream. I was faking the pout.

February 21, 2011 Visiting the Big Daddy, Angkor Wat

We stomped all over ruins yesterday but were so tired by the end of the day we put off the big one until today.

Raisin' the roof for Angkor Wat - woot woot!
(This is not at Angkor Wat temple, though.)

We hit a bunch and then went to Angkor Wat at the end of day. It is everything people say it is. Truly amazing.

Xn hiding in a nook at a temple whose name I do not know.

All over the ruins there are these kinds of
trees growing through/into/from the buildings.

 

There were so many amazing things to take pictures of at Angkor Wat and my skills are so weak, I decided to pick only a few that I really like. Check out Xn's photos for much better ones of both days of temple tromping.

This detailed carving is about 4 inches tall. 

I love temple dogs and even Angkor Wat has one. This
is the only one I saw. He seemed pretty happy.

This is the Hermit, an image that can be found all over the
Angkor Wat. 

There's a huge bas relief of heaven-earth-hell on one side of the temple.
This is a scene from hell - demons dragging people by the hair,
which was not the worst that hell had to offer by a long shot.

Xn's and my shoe prints.

February 20, 2011 ANGKOR WAT!!

So excited to go to Angkor Wat area today! 

It's infinitely photographable. I got squirrelly after a while - couldn't figure out what to take pictures of since it was all amazing. Instead I decided to just take pictures of Christian taking pictures.  Most were taken at hip level so he didn't know what I was doing.  (Look at Christian's Facebook page for some good photos of the actual locations.)

And here's me.

February 19, 2011 To Siem Reap

Got a bus to Siem Reap. We had made reservations for a hotel that was promised to have a swimming pool and wi-fi. When we got there we learned that we were at their second location and that if we wanted to use the pool they'd give us a free tuk-tuk ride over. We had prepaid $15 and were speding $20/night for this, which was quite expensive for our budget compared to what we could be paying, but we had decided to treat ourselves so this switch wasn't acceptable. I did the assertive tourist (bitchy tourist) thing and insisted we weren't going to accept that. The people at that place were very nice and found us another hotel that had a pool, the Mekong Angkor Palace Hotel. It's a really nice place and included breakfast so it wasn't a bad price considering.

I don't have any photos of the place from the 19th.  This is the only picture I got that day that wasn't of Christian putting on his socks.

Enjoying the bus ride to Siem Reap

February 18, 2011 City chillin' in Phnom Penh

As we often do these days, we didn't do much of anything.  Or at least that's how it feels.  Went to a mall again today.  I think we had a reason but I don't recall - it didn't have anything to do with wanting to pick up some inexpensive movies or exchange some inexpensive software that wasn't working.  In Asia (possibly everywhere) the best floor in the mall is on the top.

Me at the top of the mall

At this one there was a movie theater, an arcade and a roller rink where the kids use inline skates and were really good.  We went on one of those 4D rides, the haunted one. Shook and rocked us in our 3D glasses so we felt like we were flying through a graveyard for about 8 minutes. Worth almost all of the $3 we paid for each ticket.  The arcade had video games that looked like they came from 1992. Seriously.  It actually made me sad until I realized the kids were enjoying themselves thoroughly.

Can you tell the graphics are 20 years old?

Here's a great view of Phnom Penh from the top of the mall

For dinner we had some uninvited guests.  This little girl, Theavy, was walking around selling books. We didn't want one so instead she offered to draw us a picture. We agreed so she sat down at the table and drew some flowers and butterflies.  She took great care to draw and color in well.

Theavy, the enterprising artist

While she did this, two other little girls came by. We gave them some pens and they started drawing also. They all seemed to be enjoying themselves, which was wonderful since I'm not sure how much of a childhood these kids get.

We asked Theavy if she goes to school; she does. We asked her how late she has to work; she said 11. But then she added that it was OK since tomorrow wasn't a school day. We asked how late she works when she has school; she said still 11, but then she has to wake up at 7 in the morning to get to school.
A nearby cop kept a close eye on the situation. I'm pretty sure it was to make sure the girls were safe. I was glad to know that people on the street watch out for them since there's such a big, illegal sex trade here.

Theavy inspired us. We want to be able to give the kids some money, but don't want to gather stuff. We'd also like to think that they get to keep some of it even if that's naive. We now ask kids to draw pictures for us and then give them a dollar.