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Our Fantabulous Trip Around the Globe
Day two at the Angkor Temples:
We got up for the sunrise at the Angkor Wat. Sadly, it was cloudy so we didn't get the magnificent photos we hoped for. In fact, I was expecting to see God that morning, needless to say, I was a little disappointed when s/he didn't make a cameo appearance. On the plus side, we were up before the throngs on tour groups showed up so we visited several temples with being the only people around. It was a serene and wonderful experience. The couple we were touring with, Joe and Ama, were very much of the same wavelength as us in terms of what we liked so it made it easy fully enjoy ourselves. At one of the temples, the sun finally came out and gave us the warmest light to capture the beauty of the temple in front of us. At the same spot, we were hounded by the smallest of children selling beaded bracelets and cheap wooden flutes. Most of the temples had their armies of child vendors and most of the time we could repel their offers. For some reason (pity? shame at how incredibly cheap their wares were?) we bought bracelets. Sadly, after we bought from one, another kid would chastise us for not buying from them. The Khmer seem to have mastered using guilt as a sales tool with the barang (foreigners).
We opted to return to base in Siem Reap for naps and lunch to return to Angkor in the afternoon again. This time, we were well rested and chose to visit some of the quieter locations. At one spot, we even managed to sit down for 5 minutes without being bothered to buy anything. We even managed to put our cameras away to reflect upon what was in front of us. What I saw baffled me; how could one of the most prosperous civilizations could descend so low only 900 years later. To go from the beauty of Angkor (which was a city of 1 million people at around 1000 AD) to the horrors of the Khmer Rouge regime of the 1975-79 is an absolute tragedy.
The highlight of the day happened another temple where we passed the time not looking at the temple but rather talking and playing with the child vendors. They have that unspoiled innocence that we found in the children of Africa; sadly they all have jobs from the time they are 4 years old. Some of the children could count in 6 different languages as a necessity for their jobs. Some parents use their children to make the family money, but, like in Africa, some of their parents are dead from HIV and landmines (well that's not like Africa). We let the children take our photos and photos of each other. Ama had a great time picking up the kids and twirling them around. I was teaching them secret handshakes and telling them we were friends. And in the end, the temple was yet another temple.
Day 3 at Angkor:
We slept in a little to be in a good state for the day. We left the biggest for last-the famous Angkor Wat. It is reputably the largest religious structure in the world and I believe that claim is true. It's massive! There's a 200 m wide moat surround the outer walls, then the outer walls are about 4 km square. The temple itself is extraordinary! Each wall of the base sports a 200m long bas relief depicting mythical war scenes in Khmer and Buddhist history. They were covered by a roof so they were in pretty good condition. The climb to the top of the temple was difficult as it was extremely steep (to fend off potential invaders). Once at the top, we had a magnificent view of the Angkor area as we were 10 m above the trees. There were many people praying in front of the many Buddha statues as Angkor Wat is still a functional temple (unlike the others which are mostly for tourists). Up top, we saw many monks in their bright orange robes. Being atop of Angkor, it had this great positive energy to it-we could tell that it is a special place for the Cambodian people. It is the symbol of the country and it is what unites them after the horrors of the Khmer Rouge.
We spent the remainder of the day delivering photos to the children we had met the previous days. Ama especially had made some special rapports with some of the children and it was obvious that they didn't want her to leave.
We finished our tour of Angkor by visiting a temple on the tallest hill to watch the sunset. With several thousand other tourists, we watched the sun descend. That was the end of our time at Angkor.
Our last day in Siem Reap, with Joe and Ama, we visited a school for street children on the outskirts of town. The children had the greatest of energy and spirit when they were at school. The night before, we had supper at the night market, where several children came begging to us for food. We bought food for the kids and they were absolutely grateful. It was cute watching an older brother (maybe 8 years old) was feeding his 1 year old brother noodles with chop sticks. The next day at the school, we saw many of the kids again and they recognized us and thanked us again. Once again, we let them place with our cameras and take photos of what ever they pleased. This brought them lots of joy.
To end our time in Siem Reap, I gave blood for the first time at the children's hospital. It felt good as I know that clean blood is definitely needed here as HIV is a serious problem in Cambodia. In some respects, Cambodia brought back a lot of great memories from Africa and we fell very much at home here. We like it tooo much!
-j & m
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