Laura, Laos and Cambodia
Some may know that I've been seeing a girl named Laura. She's from Trinidad and moved to Malaysia this June to teach math at Sunway college. It is with her that I spent my two weeks in Laos. She's a great girl and a lot of fun! We had previously done a few small weekend trips, but Laos was our first real travel experience together.
Of the three week holiday I had this December, Laura and I spent the first two in Laos after which she flew back to KL (she needed to be in Malaysia for tax reasons) and I spent the third week in Cambodia.
Laos is really a lovely place. The country is so calm, peaceful, serene; the Lao people are fantastic, gentle, geniune. It is very easy to see why, time after time, travellers emphatically reply "Laos!" when asked about the highlights of their Southeast Asian tour.
We flew into Laos' capital, Vientiane, rented a motorbike and spent the day touring around. Our first impression was that there's not a lot going on there for it being the nation's capital. Returning to Vientiane after the two weeks travelling through Laos, we could, now with a basis for comparison, clearly see it as the capital city.
Spending the next 20 hours on buses we arrived in the town of Xam Neua. We headed out in search of a waterfall, our directions: find such and such rice paddies, cut through them to the forest, find the path, follow it to the river, follow the river. As you may imagine, this turned out to be quite an adventure that involved getting lost numerous times, crossing a river that didn't need crossing, only to cross back...good fun! We did find the waterfall, and thankfully made it back to our motorbike as the sun set.
The next day we rode out to Vieng Xai, a town built around the many limestone karsts that jut out of the ground. This is a town with a lot of history. What had been civil war in Laos turned into CIA-supported fighting against Vietnamese-supported Communist Rebels, the Pathet Lao (now the government). A lot of the action took place in Vieng Xai (the land is littered with bomb-craters) as the Pathet Laos moved their operations to the immense network of caves in the area. People lived in these caves for years as the war waged on!
The next day we got on a bus heading to a town called Nong Khiaw. Somewhere along the line I screwed up and what I thought was to be a 5 hr bus ride turned out to be 14. The ride in itself proved to be an adventure. The bus stopped at every small town and more and more locals got on. I counted 50 seats and 80 people at one point -some of them sitting on stools in the aisle, most of them standing, a bunch of the crowding the driver and the doors.
Nong Khiaw is a quiet, small town on the Nam Ou (river) -a tributary to the Mekong. We spent two days there, relaxing in a really nice place with a suberb room and view. One of the days, we walked along a trail for about an hour and arrived at a little village. We had planned on moving quickly through the village, if at all, as we really felt like we were intruding, but as we entered the village, a 15 year old boy who spoke a few words of english approached us and asked if we wanted a ride, in his boat, back down the river to Nong Khiaw. At $4US, the price was a bit steep, but we agreed as, not only would it be a nice to take his longboat down the river, but more importantly, being with him justified our presence in the village and we walked slowly through it feeling slightly less intrusive. Though we did not spend much time there, it was a great experience to see how these villigers lived. No cars, roads, or electricity. A few water buffalo grazed near the harvested rice paddies. Chickens and ducks clucked running free under the thatched-roof homes built on stilts. A few dogs ran out to greet us with ferocious barks. a group of women bathed behind a bamboo fence, while a few men washed up in the river. A group of men and boys played Kataw, a volleyball-like game played with a rattan ball, and use of the feet to get the ball over the net. We joined a group watching the game.
In this village, as was a common sight in many (I would venture to say all) villages we'd passed, almost all the women, and many girls, some as young as 8 or 9 were carrying babies. A couple children the age of 4 or 5 were tending a fire, while a few others, no older, hacked a way at a pile of wood with machetes -these too were ubiquitous scenes in Lao villages.
The river winds from the village to Nong Khiaw, through fantastic limestone karts, jungle-clad hills, and small beaches where residents of nearby villages come to bathe. The sun set as we arrived in Nong Khiaw.
Ancient Laos is know as the Land of a Million Elephants, and we made a trip to Hongsa, in Sainyabulli province, an area of Laos where the concentration is highest. This was quite a 2-day ordeal and unfortunately we didn't get to see any elephants.
We spent a few days in Luang Prabang, once the capital of Laos and the major tourist destination in Laos. The entire city really is built for tourists: cafes and restaurants catering to tourists, shops and markets selling art and souvenirs to tourists, massage parlours on every corner, guesthouses and hostels in beside the massuers.
Hanging out in Luang Prabang, I would not say is experiencing Laos, but with a significant french influence, it was still nice to hang out for a few days. Becuase we didn't get to see the elephants at Hongsa, we signed up for a tour out of Luang Prabang. We were driven out to an elephant village just outside of the city, went on a 90min elephant trek through the jungle, hung out a waterfall and kayaked down another tributary to the Mekong.
Saying bye to Laos, Laura flew back to KL and I into Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh.
Flying into Cambodia's capital from the Laotian capital was like entering New York city. In comparison, Phnom Penh is a vast metropolis -bigger, denser, louder.
My first day in Phnom Penh started out ok: I avoided all the touts at the airport, walked out to the road, bargained for a decent price on a motorcycle taxi into town, hooked up with a place to stay and rented a motorbike for the next few days as I was planning on doing a 2-3 day road trip out of town. As I was planning to drive 500km, some over some not too nice roads, I paid a bit more for a proper 250cc dirt bike.
I asked the girl at the shop to let me take the bike out for a quick test drive before agreeing to renting it. Taking it out, I took off down the road and, as I made a left turn, was promptly pulled over by a cop. He spoke super-quick and said that I'd made an illegal left turn; whether this was true or not, I'm not sure -I didn't see a sign and I'd just turned left with about 30 (this number really is not an exaggeration) other motorbikes. I was worried that he was going to ask for a drivers license (which I don't have for a bike) or papers for the bike (which I didn't have as I had just pulled it out for a test). He asked for neither of these. Instead, the first thing he said after telling me that I had turned illegally was that he was going to haul me to the station, confiscate my license and impound the bike and how much would I pay him not to do this? Because he talked so fast, I wasn't 100% sure that I'd heard correctly, so I asked him to repeat himself. Yep, that was it. I was quite nervous and probably didn't deal with the situation as well as I should/could have, but anyway, I bribed my first cop. He wanted $10, but I bargained him down to $5. I certainly do not support this type of thing and under different circumstances I may not have bribed him, but the entire thing happened in about 3 min, I didn't really have time to think things through, and compounded with being nervous...there you go. I know people that have lived in countries where the only way to get things done is with bribes (my folks in Romania, for one), and maybe it is necessary in some situations, but I don't think the dude was seriously gonna drag my ass to the station. And if I'd argued with him for a bit, he possibly may have let me go...on the other hand, it maybe would have aggravated him enough to really put me in a pickle. Either way, I'm not pleased that I so readily supported this corruption -particularly with the law (although having said all that, I can definitely see where they're coming from).
I took a shower in my guesthouse that evening, and as there was no place to put the towel in the bathroom, I had left it on my bed near the bathroom door. Finished my shower, I hopped out, grabbed the towel and went to hop back into the bathroom where I could dry myself off without getting water all over my floor. Now, what I had forgotten in that instant was how low the (concrete) bathroom doorway was and, yep, I cranked my head on it. Pretty good too. After falling to the floor cursing, I noticed all the blood and grabbed the towel, pressing it to my head. Three hours later, after inspecting the would, cleaning it, dressing it, and taking another look, I decided I needed to go to a hospital. I went to what was recommended by LonelyPlanet as one of the best hospitals in Cambodia.
As Phnom Penh has quite a large, dense population, what immediately struck me as my motorcylce taxi pulled up in front of the hospital, was how small it is. I entered and after letting the girl at the counter know that I just wanted a doctor's opinion on whether or not I needed stiches, she ushered me into a room with 6 or 7 beds on wheels -patients in each, and 2 doctors moving about the room. Removing my dressing, the doctor, without hesitation said that I needed stitches. After agreeing on a price (he asked if I could afford to pay $20 and -I didn't think I was in a good bargaining position, and didn't know if it was appropriate to bargain here- I agreed). So, we went to another room where they shaved part of my head (as the wound was above the hairline), injected me with anasthetic (which until they did I was unsure about whether I would get any), and put 6 stitches into my head. All the while I tried to remain stationary as I swatted away the flies from my legs and wondered about the cleanliness of the needle that had just been jabbed into my skull. As I walked out of the hospital, the clock struck midnight. Thus was my first day in Cambodia. (Eventually I did find a hospital in Angkor that would look fancy even in Canada -but they wanted $120 just to register me! This, before they would even discuss how much it would cost to remove the stitches!! I found another place that did it for $18).
While in Phnom Penh, I visited the Tuol Sleng Museum and the "Killing Fields Choeung Ek". Tuol Sleng (aka S21 -Security Office 21) was a school turned prison/torture/interrogation institution by Khmer Rouge Regime. The Killing Fields are one of many areas where, during the genocide, thousands of Cambodians were killed and buried in mass graves. It was chilling to see the prison -the actual beds that prisoners were chained to while being tortured, the shackles, torture devices, pictures of thousands of victims that passed through (as the regime had been meticulous with their documentation). At the killing fields, a monument has been raised. Inside are hundreds of skulls from a few excavated graves. Reading about and seeing these places certainly leaves a mark. That humans are capable of such horrific acts is profoundly upsetting. More so, is that this happened now! Not 500 or 100 years ago, but less than 30 years ago. That Cambodians have been able to rebuild and lead somewhat normal (and by this I mean normal in a third world sense) lives, is a testament to their strength and character. It also explains why I see Cambodian children that could not be more than 12 years old on motorbikes and alone managing counters in shops and at markets -At that age, some of these children's parents were wielding firearms, forced into labour camps, saw friends and family taken away for quetionning, saw death. And this is perhaps one of the saddest aspects of Cambodia's misery: the concept of childhood is lost on many.
Given this recent history, there is however, a remarkable warmth and friendliness to the people, and a will. On one of my 200km drives to the south, I saw the streets lined for miles with schoolchildren on bicycles. I never saw a school, but forever there were children in their uniforms riding their bicycles, I'm not sure if it was, to or from school. It was on my drive home, after leaving Phnom Penh for two days to visit Kirirom national park and Bokor national park, that I had the opportunity to see these unending waves of children.
I had gone to Kirrirom to climb a hill which ,unfortunately, I could not find. I ended up leaving the park and heading to Bokor to see is an abandoned hill station, complete with abandoned hotel, casino, church. The 30km road up to the hill station was perhaps the most interesting part of the park. The road was absolutely horrid. I met an Israeli who had fallen off his bike and injured his arm, an english dude who had tried to get up it in a Honda CRV, but after doing some "big-time damage" to his car was turning around. It took two hours to get up that road. They way down, I expected to be much worse, but (maybe I had become more comfortable on those roads) it was only 1 hour down. The abandoned town was neat, but not overly impressive.
Also while in Phnom Penh, I had the opportunity to shoot an AK47. This was a an experience, albeit a quick one. I had met a dude that asked if I wanted to shoot some weapons. I had heard that Cambodia had had shooting ranges but had read conflicting reports about the legallity of these ranges. I had also read about ranges where rather than firing at targets, you purchase and fire at livestock, something that sounds utterly unappealing. I was also concerned that he may be setting me up: take me to some underground range where I'd do some shooting and then his police officer buddy would pop out from around a corner and threaten to put me in jail unless I paid him enough. I hopped onto the back of his bike (I decided that I'd at least go over and take a look at the setup and then make a call) and half an hour later we pulled into what appeared to be a military base. We rode in passed the guard and onto the compound. There was a unit being put through drills, one guy throwing up on the side; a bunch of guys doing some gardening, and a few dudes hanging around a shooting range. I haven't quite figured out the implications (on Cambodia) of firing this weapon, but I didn't have a whole lot of time to decide; and figuring it would either cost me $30 right there and then or enrollment in the military to shoot that type of weapon, I forked out the cash. It was a scary experience. While set to semi-automatic, it was strong but didn't seem so bad. Once flipped over to fully-freakin-automatic, its power was intense. You pretty well aim for the first shot and the rest of the bullets leave the gun as it jumps wildly in your hands pointing only in the general direction of the target.
Leaving Phnom Penh, I made Siem Reap my base from where I spent the next few days exploring the temples of Angkor. Naturally, I checked out the mother of all temples, Angkor Wat.
It's size truly is astounding (the moat alone is hard to believe -hand-dug, it is 190m wide, I'm not sure how deep but certainly a few metres, and forms a 1.5km by 1.3km rectangle around Angkor Wat). And the intricacy and detail of sculpture in every inch of stone is stunning. Two things really stand out here as I walked through this and other temples. One is that humans had the creativity, ability, patience, and perseverence to built things like this -things that would seem an incredible feat were they built today. And two is how little-valued human life was at that time; thousands of people slaving away at these things for a lifetime, many dying in the process, all for the glorification of one man's ego -devaraja (god-king) though he claimed to be. (This is my interpretation of why these things are built; there are other, more scholarly analyses).
And so ends my time in Cambodia. Back to the daily grind...
Of the three week holiday I had this December, Laura and I spent the first two in Laos after which she flew back to KL (she needed to be in Malaysia for tax reasons) and I spent the third week in Cambodia.
Laos is really a lovely place. The country is so calm, peaceful, serene; the Lao people are fantastic, gentle, geniune. It is very easy to see why, time after time, travellers emphatically reply "Laos!" when asked about the highlights of their Southeast Asian tour.
We flew into Laos' capital, Vientiane, rented a motorbike and spent the day touring around. Our first impression was that there's not a lot going on there for it being the nation's capital. Returning to Vientiane after the two weeks travelling through Laos, we could, now with a basis for comparison, clearly see it as the capital city.
Spending the next 20 hours on buses we arrived in the town of Xam Neua. We headed out in search of a waterfall, our directions: find such and such rice paddies, cut through them to the forest, find the path, follow it to the river, follow the river. As you may imagine, this turned out to be quite an adventure that involved getting lost numerous times, crossing a river that didn't need crossing, only to cross back...good fun! We did find the waterfall, and thankfully made it back to our motorbike as the sun set.
The next day we rode out to Vieng Xai, a town built around the many limestone karsts that jut out of the ground. This is a town with a lot of history. What had been civil war in Laos turned into CIA-supported fighting against Vietnamese-supported Communist Rebels, the Pathet Lao (now the government). A lot of the action took place in Vieng Xai (the land is littered with bomb-craters) as the Pathet Laos moved their operations to the immense network of caves in the area. People lived in these caves for years as the war waged on!
The next day we got on a bus heading to a town called Nong Khiaw. Somewhere along the line I screwed up and what I thought was to be a 5 hr bus ride turned out to be 14. The ride in itself proved to be an adventure. The bus stopped at every small town and more and more locals got on. I counted 50 seats and 80 people at one point -some of them sitting on stools in the aisle, most of them standing, a bunch of the crowding the driver and the doors.
Nong Khiaw is a quiet, small town on the Nam Ou (river) -a tributary to the Mekong. We spent two days there, relaxing in a really nice place with a suberb room and view. One of the days, we walked along a trail for about an hour and arrived at a little village. We had planned on moving quickly through the village, if at all, as we really felt like we were intruding, but as we entered the village, a 15 year old boy who spoke a few words of english approached us and asked if we wanted a ride, in his boat, back down the river to Nong Khiaw. At $4US, the price was a bit steep, but we agreed as, not only would it be a nice to take his longboat down the river, but more importantly, being with him justified our presence in the village and we walked slowly through it feeling slightly less intrusive. Though we did not spend much time there, it was a great experience to see how these villigers lived. No cars, roads, or electricity. A few water buffalo grazed near the harvested rice paddies. Chickens and ducks clucked running free under the thatched-roof homes built on stilts. A few dogs ran out to greet us with ferocious barks. a group of women bathed behind a bamboo fence, while a few men washed up in the river. A group of men and boys played Kataw, a volleyball-like game played with a rattan ball, and use of the feet to get the ball over the net. We joined a group watching the game.
In this village, as was a common sight in many (I would venture to say all) villages we'd passed, almost all the women, and many girls, some as young as 8 or 9 were carrying babies. A couple children the age of 4 or 5 were tending a fire, while a few others, no older, hacked a way at a pile of wood with machetes -these too were ubiquitous scenes in Lao villages.
The river winds from the village to Nong Khiaw, through fantastic limestone karts, jungle-clad hills, and small beaches where residents of nearby villages come to bathe. The sun set as we arrived in Nong Khiaw.
Ancient Laos is know as the Land of a Million Elephants, and we made a trip to Hongsa, in Sainyabulli province, an area of Laos where the concentration is highest. This was quite a 2-day ordeal and unfortunately we didn't get to see any elephants.
We spent a few days in Luang Prabang, once the capital of Laos and the major tourist destination in Laos. The entire city really is built for tourists: cafes and restaurants catering to tourists, shops and markets selling art and souvenirs to tourists, massage parlours on every corner, guesthouses and hostels in beside the massuers.
Hanging out in Luang Prabang, I would not say is experiencing Laos, but with a significant french influence, it was still nice to hang out for a few days. Becuase we didn't get to see the elephants at Hongsa, we signed up for a tour out of Luang Prabang. We were driven out to an elephant village just outside of the city, went on a 90min elephant trek through the jungle, hung out a waterfall and kayaked down another tributary to the Mekong.
Saying bye to Laos, Laura flew back to KL and I into Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh.
Flying into Cambodia's capital from the Laotian capital was like entering New York city. In comparison, Phnom Penh is a vast metropolis -bigger, denser, louder.
My first day in Phnom Penh started out ok: I avoided all the touts at the airport, walked out to the road, bargained for a decent price on a motorcycle taxi into town, hooked up with a place to stay and rented a motorbike for the next few days as I was planning on doing a 2-3 day road trip out of town. As I was planning to drive 500km, some over some not too nice roads, I paid a bit more for a proper 250cc dirt bike.
I asked the girl at the shop to let me take the bike out for a quick test drive before agreeing to renting it. Taking it out, I took off down the road and, as I made a left turn, was promptly pulled over by a cop. He spoke super-quick and said that I'd made an illegal left turn; whether this was true or not, I'm not sure -I didn't see a sign and I'd just turned left with about 30 (this number really is not an exaggeration) other motorbikes. I was worried that he was going to ask for a drivers license (which I don't have for a bike) or papers for the bike (which I didn't have as I had just pulled it out for a test). He asked for neither of these. Instead, the first thing he said after telling me that I had turned illegally was that he was going to haul me to the station, confiscate my license and impound the bike and how much would I pay him not to do this? Because he talked so fast, I wasn't 100% sure that I'd heard correctly, so I asked him to repeat himself. Yep, that was it. I was quite nervous and probably didn't deal with the situation as well as I should/could have, but anyway, I bribed my first cop. He wanted $10, but I bargained him down to $5. I certainly do not support this type of thing and under different circumstances I may not have bribed him, but the entire thing happened in about 3 min, I didn't really have time to think things through, and compounded with being nervous...there you go. I know people that have lived in countries where the only way to get things done is with bribes (my folks in Romania, for one), and maybe it is necessary in some situations, but I don't think the dude was seriously gonna drag my ass to the station. And if I'd argued with him for a bit, he possibly may have let me go...on the other hand, it maybe would have aggravated him enough to really put me in a pickle. Either way, I'm not pleased that I so readily supported this corruption -particularly with the law (although having said all that, I can definitely see where they're coming from).
I took a shower in my guesthouse that evening, and as there was no place to put the towel in the bathroom, I had left it on my bed near the bathroom door. Finished my shower, I hopped out, grabbed the towel and went to hop back into the bathroom where I could dry myself off without getting water all over my floor. Now, what I had forgotten in that instant was how low the (concrete) bathroom doorway was and, yep, I cranked my head on it. Pretty good too. After falling to the floor cursing, I noticed all the blood and grabbed the towel, pressing it to my head. Three hours later, after inspecting the would, cleaning it, dressing it, and taking another look, I decided I needed to go to a hospital. I went to what was recommended by LonelyPlanet as one of the best hospitals in Cambodia.
As Phnom Penh has quite a large, dense population, what immediately struck me as my motorcylce taxi pulled up in front of the hospital, was how small it is. I entered and after letting the girl at the counter know that I just wanted a doctor's opinion on whether or not I needed stiches, she ushered me into a room with 6 or 7 beds on wheels -patients in each, and 2 doctors moving about the room. Removing my dressing, the doctor, without hesitation said that I needed stitches. After agreeing on a price (he asked if I could afford to pay $20 and -I didn't think I was in a good bargaining position, and didn't know if it was appropriate to bargain here- I agreed). So, we went to another room where they shaved part of my head (as the wound was above the hairline), injected me with anasthetic (which until they did I was unsure about whether I would get any), and put 6 stitches into my head. All the while I tried to remain stationary as I swatted away the flies from my legs and wondered about the cleanliness of the needle that had just been jabbed into my skull. As I walked out of the hospital, the clock struck midnight. Thus was my first day in Cambodia. (Eventually I did find a hospital in Angkor that would look fancy even in Canada -but they wanted $120 just to register me! This, before they would even discuss how much it would cost to remove the stitches!! I found another place that did it for $18).
While in Phnom Penh, I visited the Tuol Sleng Museum and the "Killing Fields Choeung Ek". Tuol Sleng (aka S21 -Security Office 21) was a school turned prison/torture/interrogation institution by Khmer Rouge Regime. The Killing Fields are one of many areas where, during the genocide, thousands of Cambodians were killed and buried in mass graves. It was chilling to see the prison -the actual beds that prisoners were chained to while being tortured, the shackles, torture devices, pictures of thousands of victims that passed through (as the regime had been meticulous with their documentation). At the killing fields, a monument has been raised. Inside are hundreds of skulls from a few excavated graves. Reading about and seeing these places certainly leaves a mark. That humans are capable of such horrific acts is profoundly upsetting. More so, is that this happened now! Not 500 or 100 years ago, but less than 30 years ago. That Cambodians have been able to rebuild and lead somewhat normal (and by this I mean normal in a third world sense) lives, is a testament to their strength and character. It also explains why I see Cambodian children that could not be more than 12 years old on motorbikes and alone managing counters in shops and at markets -At that age, some of these children's parents were wielding firearms, forced into labour camps, saw friends and family taken away for quetionning, saw death. And this is perhaps one of the saddest aspects of Cambodia's misery: the concept of childhood is lost on many.
Given this recent history, there is however, a remarkable warmth and friendliness to the people, and a will. On one of my 200km drives to the south, I saw the streets lined for miles with schoolchildren on bicycles. I never saw a school, but forever there were children in their uniforms riding their bicycles, I'm not sure if it was, to or from school. It was on my drive home, after leaving Phnom Penh for two days to visit Kirirom national park and Bokor national park, that I had the opportunity to see these unending waves of children.
I had gone to Kirrirom to climb a hill which ,unfortunately, I could not find. I ended up leaving the park and heading to Bokor to see is an abandoned hill station, complete with abandoned hotel, casino, church. The 30km road up to the hill station was perhaps the most interesting part of the park. The road was absolutely horrid. I met an Israeli who had fallen off his bike and injured his arm, an english dude who had tried to get up it in a Honda CRV, but after doing some "big-time damage" to his car was turning around. It took two hours to get up that road. They way down, I expected to be much worse, but (maybe I had become more comfortable on those roads) it was only 1 hour down. The abandoned town was neat, but not overly impressive.
Also while in Phnom Penh, I had the opportunity to shoot an AK47. This was a an experience, albeit a quick one. I had met a dude that asked if I wanted to shoot some weapons. I had heard that Cambodia had had shooting ranges but had read conflicting reports about the legallity of these ranges. I had also read about ranges where rather than firing at targets, you purchase and fire at livestock, something that sounds utterly unappealing. I was also concerned that he may be setting me up: take me to some underground range where I'd do some shooting and then his police officer buddy would pop out from around a corner and threaten to put me in jail unless I paid him enough. I hopped onto the back of his bike (I decided that I'd at least go over and take a look at the setup and then make a call) and half an hour later we pulled into what appeared to be a military base. We rode in passed the guard and onto the compound. There was a unit being put through drills, one guy throwing up on the side; a bunch of guys doing some gardening, and a few dudes hanging around a shooting range. I haven't quite figured out the implications (on Cambodia) of firing this weapon, but I didn't have a whole lot of time to decide; and figuring it would either cost me $30 right there and then or enrollment in the military to shoot that type of weapon, I forked out the cash. It was a scary experience. While set to semi-automatic, it was strong but didn't seem so bad. Once flipped over to fully-freakin-automatic, its power was intense. You pretty well aim for the first shot and the rest of the bullets leave the gun as it jumps wildly in your hands pointing only in the general direction of the target.
Leaving Phnom Penh, I made Siem Reap my base from where I spent the next few days exploring the temples of Angkor. Naturally, I checked out the mother of all temples, Angkor Wat.
It's size truly is astounding (the moat alone is hard to believe -hand-dug, it is 190m wide, I'm not sure how deep but certainly a few metres, and forms a 1.5km by 1.3km rectangle around Angkor Wat). And the intricacy and detail of sculpture in every inch of stone is stunning. Two things really stand out here as I walked through this and other temples. One is that humans had the creativity, ability, patience, and perseverence to built things like this -things that would seem an incredible feat were they built today. And two is how little-valued human life was at that time; thousands of people slaving away at these things for a lifetime, many dying in the process, all for the glorification of one man's ego -devaraja (god-king) though he claimed to be. (This is my interpretation of why these things are built; there are other, more scholarly analyses).
And so ends my time in Cambodia. Back to the daily grind...
posted by Leon at 6:53 PM
6 Comments:
wow, the khmer rouge regime torture museum. always had been fascinated with that. i mean like Hitler, it is quite intriguing how the influence of only one man, Pol Pot and his vision could allow such massacres to be justified.
P/s; cute girl ure seeing. ;)
dude....wtf is with that beard!? :P
hey leo,
just stopping in to see how you're doing. sounds like you had a great trip! recently a friend of mine came back from laos and he had the craziest of crazy stories. you really wouldn't believe it if it weren't for his pictures. it involved crazy buses, witnessing smuggling and being interrogated a million times along the way.
it's official. i'm an old married lady now. mexico was a blast and i so wish i was still there. back now to the school grind. can't believe it's already january! and i'm starting to officially give meds and stuff. SCARY!!! i know, i know, those poor patients.
drop me an email when you can and take care!
kat
Leon,
Do you ever visit a place without an adventure?!!!
I must say that your insight into Cambodia sent a shiver thru me whilst the loss of childhood seen in the daily repsonsibilities of the kids is heart rendering.
Here's to more travels.
Cheers
Ranee
Hey, i have almost the same photo with Laura in the tea plantations (just with the slight difference that "LAura" is "Steffi"). But we took in in cameron highlands in Malaysia!? Where did you get the tea plantations in Laos? All we found was plenty of nature, coffee plantations and landmines?! ...
I layouted a book and printed it with the contents of my blog. I inserted also your "Stunning Sumatra Cont´d" article ... so if i ever get famous with that book you´ll get famous, too... i hope you can deal with that! :-) -till now the books are just for personal use. It´s in german, so once you´ll make your "almost german native speaker-exam" i send you one!
If i start to gain the big money with it i´ll send you some, for some more bribes! Its so sad to live in a country where you dont even can bribe the police!Or bargain for a bottle of water. Its much less personal interaction! Maybe this is why the people all feel so alone! Bribing and bargaining is the base source of social contacts, i think ;-).
Greetings from far away
Stephan
Mr.Varga..
update ur blog..!!!
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