With minimum access to internet here in Cambodia, our main outlet has been through cafés, and I must admit that when that special time comes that I can finally open mozilla again, I become so giddy that I shove aside the need to blog and embrace facebook, e-mail, and other such blissful pastimes. There are those who would accuse me of going blog-soft, and tell me I'm not the blogger I used to be, hoping to shame me into a post, but it won't happen! Or it wouldn't have if I hadn't just been served an infection that keeps me bedridden…thanks, Life. Anyways here is a quaint bedtime story detailing the past three weeks of adventures in Cambodia. I don't remember where I left off last time, and since I don't have the internet to check, I'll start my story where I want to, and you can just be refreshed, dear reader!
Week one: We had met Dr. Kyle at dinner the night we arrived, and he seemed like a really great guy, intelligent, interactive, and quite helpful. During the week we learned more about him and his style, and found him, like many anthropologists, to be an in-the-field guy. We went to a local market, where no foreigners [barang] ever go, and after he bought us breakfast at a delicious stand [for me just the barbecued meat on a skewer, for he, Skylar, and Tim the meat was put in a traditional soup, not too unlike Thai soups] we engaged our market-navigating skills and embarked on a scavenger hunt for the list he gave us, also getting the prices of our favorite fruits. I took over as cartographer and mapped out the market as we went along [A+ material, I'm told *Note: normally here I would wink and use a sarcastic tone to indicate the true nature of the map, not as cartographic genius, but as the work of a girl who still uses stick figures]. We only couldn't find one thing on the list, but no failure resulted there. Meanwhile our Khmer classes began in the afternoons [Kyle's class was scheduled 8-1o:oo, although it generally ran until 1o:3o in the classroom or later on an excursion, and Khmer was 1:15-2:45]. It was hard to get Thai out of my head when I had been used to it for so long! I got the weirdest looks for saying thank you in neither English nor Khmer, although the rest of what I was saying was in American English, which more Cambodians speak in relation to Thais, especially in the service industry. But other than separation issues, Khmer was a world of its own, and with no tones it is easier to speak [although some sounds are hard to pronounce], however it is much more difficult to read and write. [Future note, I'm in my 3rd week and still don't even know how to write my name]. We learn generally 2 letters per lesson and 2 vowels, for there are many, and then for homework we write sentences with the new verbs we have learned and do combinations of the letters and verbs we know, to make sure that we can draw them properly. As in Thai, the vowels circumambulate the consonants, so its important to know how they connect, because sometimes one could end up drawing the wrong combination and your word would make no sense!
There were more excursions with Kyle, including a trip across the Tonle Sab to the peninsula, where we saw a lot of what looked at first glance to be poverty, but closer looks at a neighborhood show deeper into the Cambodian Façade, as I call it. Not to be confused with a blatant trick, but the Cambodians, in many areas, are much better off than they are portrayed. When Westerners look around they see the picturebook definition of poverty - aka they don't have what we have, how unfortunate. They mean well, but without looking deeper these visitors don't understand that there is a new car or 2 new motorbikes in the garage, and grandma's silk weaving is successful, and that the money they don't throw at materialistic goods is still there, just used for other purposes. In the Khmer Rouge, the Cambodians learned to take what they could, hide it, and work their way from there. That mentality still runs today; Cambodia is one of the richest poor countries in the world. During our peninsula visit we also visited a temple, which is built in the shape of a boat. As with the Hagia Sophia, this is the 3rd rendition of the boat temple, for various reasons, all explained by the Venerable Sophea, a very kind monk who promised to teach us Khmer if we had the chance to come back, and who had such a good sense of humor. We took pictures with him and he would look at them and say, "I can't believe it! Do you see how good looking I am here?!" Needless to say we had become quite fond of him when we left, although we hadn't been there long. Our next adventure was to Phnom Chisor. 'Phnom' means 'mountain' in Khmer, so needless to explain, we climbed a mountain [okay fine, a big hill] to reach Wat Chisor. But that's skipping ahead.
We left Phnom Penh around 4am in hopes of watching the sunrise from Wat Chisor, set up high on its phnom. Unfortunately, it was the end of the rainy season, and the water had weakened the dirt roads out there, and after a while we came across a semi that had been stuck in the ditch. Another big truck was there, and between some of our men and their men and truck-power, the semi was pulled out of the conclave, and luckily they didn't leave right away, because right after, our van got stuck while picking its way across. The trucks had a much easier time pulling us out, but by this time the sun was rising, and we still had quite the trek to our destination. We had to take an alternate route, and missed the splendid rays awakening. Despite the anticlimactic result, we still had a big day ahead of us! We found our way to our destination, then hiked through rice paddies and such to arrive at the temple that marks the gate to Chisor. This temple was ruins, of course, but beautiful! You could still see the lintels and laterite rock, as well as sandstone. Walking through it, you feel inherent Indiana-Jones-esque powers being absorbed, and everyone becomes an adventurer! After peaking around, we moved down the road to see the rice paddies, engineered hundreds of years ago in PERFECT rectangles. The road leading from the paddies to the gate-temple is as straight as any Roman road, and has lasted that way through the centuries. It was incredible from the ground, and later on more so from Chisor. We walked back up to the gate, and then took the winding path from the temple to the mountain base.
Along the way, Sok-ta, a pottery expert, showed us the different bits of pottery strewn everywhere and dated them for us, just by glancing! Kyle had the same talent, and since the path was greatly composed of ancient pottery shards and dirt, it took us a while as we explored Chinese influence, and pre-Angkorian pottery from the Funan and Chen-la periods of Khmer history. No worries, readers, I have a nice collection tucked away in my backpack!
When we did make it to the base of the Wat, the sight was daunting. The sheer number of steps is unknown, made worse by the fact that they were laterite [which is a porous rock that cuts really easily, making it difficult to just rock climb these stairs], and that the higher you got, the steeper and skinnier the steps got, until I was side foot-stepping and clinging to the next steps to keep from toppling backwards. Where was my harness and pads? My only comfort was the little old man perched on the rock at the top, who thinks its hilarious that a barang is coming up the front, instead of the "tourist stairs" that we later found out approach from behind. Not that they see many tourists, anyways, Kyle reckons only about 6o people visit Chisor a year, including researchers and grad students, not just tourists. ADVENTURE!
After we regained our breath and poured copious amounts of water down our throats, we got up and explored the ruins of Chisor, seeing the lingas/yonis [I'll explain in the next paragraph], visiting the temple [still in use, of course], and just wandering. It's so interesting to see the Buddhist temples synthesized with Hindu traditions and images.
The linga and yoni I mentioned are of Hindu origin. The linga is a representation of Shiva, and represents masculinity. It resides on a yoni, which is generally square-ish and has spouts for the run-off of libations - the yoni is the female counterpart to the set up. In times of worship, brahmins [Hindu priests] or others pour milk, water, and other libations over the linga to bless them, and the libations then run through the yoni and run off the spouts to be collected and bathed in, drank, etc. The linga is seen in the West as a phallic symbol, and depending on who you talk to that can be considered quite offensive to some Hindus. At the same time, it represents Shiva's sense of control as an ascetic, because the linga are never limp, implying that he has the ultimate control over his desires. Linga and yoni can be found all over Cambodia, in temples and out.
After climbing all over the ruins, we stopped for a picnic! I had brought peanut butter and jelly, but traded them for a ham, cheese, mayo, and mustard sandwich courtesy of Kyle. His wife and daughter, Mina, had come, and had prepared an almighty picnic, including homemade sushi rolls [delicious!], the sandwich ingredients, flaming hot cheetohs, and the works. We also ordered a chicken, and had the pleasure of watching the village women pick it out and prepare it for us. Delicious! After completely stuffing ourselves with seconds and such, we walked around a little more before starting the descent down those self-same death rocks. Fear not, I have come to realize that I was a mountain goat in another life, and easily picked my way down without falling or stopping!! We were all shaking from the muscle tension by the end, but kept walking to take a different path back and even passed by a village and many palm trees and other beautiful sights! The country is so beautiful, beyond what people could imagine when they think of Cambodia. Commonly, and I have been guilty of this myself, the Western mind instantly think of landmine-ridden fields when they imagine the Cambodian countryside, but there is really so much more here. Yes, there have been tragedies, but Cambodians are beautiful people who have made the best of their situation and are some of the happiest people I've ever met!
Beyond the classroom, which we arrived to and departed daily on our bikes through the crazy roundabout of Independence Monument and through the ferocious streets teeming with motorbikes speeding past, going the right way AND the wrong way, we don't have much to do. Homework and naptime, definitely, and generally we seek out an internet café to connect with the world. Unfortunately after only two weeks in Phnom Penh I managed to come down with something nasty, and that ends most of my fun adventures. Before I tell that story though, I have one more really exciting one.
The Saturday before I got really sick Kyle took us on another adventure, although this time he let us sleep in a bit longer! Our route took us off the beaten path to see many Khmer homes and a few new temples, and we stopped at a bakery for breakfast before we headed halfway to Vietnam [and I'm not even exaggerating!] up the Mekong River to an off-the-road site filled with, you guessed it, rice paddies! But there was so much more to be revealed! In addition to more crumbled pottery, there were fields of lotuses and the occasional farm field with families. We made our way along the path until we came to a lovely tree that I named the Christopher Robin tree, for it seemed to have popped out of the Hundred Acre Wood, and there we left our took took and Mina and went on a hike. This hike took us past Cambodians hollowing out a palm tree to make a boat [photo op!], through the wooded area, and out into a field where a friend of Kyle's keeps his eye out for archaeological artifacts. He had recently found WHOLE pots in the fields - small, but rare and a great find! After meeting his family, we continued our walk around until we came to a series of Chinese burial grounds. Further along we came to one of the many natural basins, which were still full of water from the rainy season, but when the water is lower it is a gold mine of bones [human and animal] and pottery - this area was an archaelogist/anthropologist's dream, and here I was! I even found a femur! Human, to be exact, and dated to be about 2,5oo years old. For reference, it's the year 2553 by the Buddhist calendar, which means my femur and the calendar started the about the same year. Boo-yah!
After that, we went through the paddies [mudbath for the feet!] to another area, where Kyle showed us the foundations of what was probably one of the oldest temples in Southeast Asia. Unfortunately the ministry in charge of archaeological digs and stuff is broke, and so this goldmine of Khmer history remains untouched and unknown, a travesty really! We waded back through the paddy rows, and naturally I slipped off the mud path and one leg fell knee deep in, but thanks to 3 months in Asia, I'm a squatting pro and was able to catch myself before I became a mud pie! The water was also relatively clean, so I escaped unscathed. We squished back to the Christopher Robin Tree, where we unpacked yet another fantastic picnic. This time, Kyle had made a chicken salad worthy of kings! We had buns, french bread, and sliced bread to choose from, Kettle chips, more flaming hots [Kyle's favorite], fruit, and other goodies to accompany our feast. So. Delicious! After much face-stuffing, we found a little pond to wash off our feet before preparing to head back. The trip had been exhausting, and we spent most of the hour + ride back passed out in the back of the packed tuk-tuk. An amazing day all in all!
The next Monday was Skylar's 21st birthday, so we celebrated, and then celebrated more because the next day was a holiday! I turned in early from exhaustion, and then the next day was a holiday, so we had no classes and went to the russian market, a market full of everything you could ever need! This is when I really started to feel sick, so unfortunately I missed most of the shopping, but had a great nap when I got back!
The rest of the week was easy-going, but by Friday I was still really ill and started my clinic visits. The weekend was spent in bed, and I missed out on meeting some new Cambodian friends and adventures, which stinks. The next week i still made it to classes, but unfortunately didn't do much otherwise. I really like Phnom Penh and am disappointed that I didn't get more time to be out and enjoy the city. Before we were ready it was time to leave, and we had a weekend planned on the floating village of Prek Tole before we started our Siem Reap part of the semester. Packing was a drag, made better by one last bicycle ride through town to see Independence Monument lit up by night and to bike around the fabulous parks they have in the middle of the city! Families often go there to play with their children, or joggers/walkers, youth playing their games, etc. It makes for great scenery! Plus with the big water festival coming up the mood was quite jubilant!
The next morning we were up early to head to the bus station with all our gear, Kyle stopped by to say goodbye and Maryann escorted us to the station, and was kind enough to bring us breakfast! We got there plenty early, and eventually the rest of the group we were meeting up with arrived, a team of 6 students from primarily the West Coast doing ecological studies for 6 weeks. They had been through Vietnam, and were also going through Cambodia and Laos before ending in Chiang Mai. The bus trip was long but not uncomfortable, and before long [about 5 hours] we were in Siem Reap. Natasha met us at the bus station and took our suitcases and stuff to the guesthouse to check us in while we proceeded with the group to the lake to begin our homestay! The boat ride was just over an hour, and they explained the ecology of the Tonle Sab River, as well as bird watched and just enjoyed the ride. The Tonle Sab is unique in that it is a tributary for both the Mekong and Tonle Sab Rivers. The Tonle Sab River actually reverses its current during the year, and that is what causes the rise and fall of the Great lake. In the dry season, everything that we were floating on is 3o meters lower - so the floating greenery we see are really the tops of trees, and we were floating over an underwater forest! Amazing considering the marine life that is so abundant at this time of the year when the lake is just starting to fall. There are so many different kinds of fish, snakes, etc that live in the lake, even cobras! At one point in the talk we floated into a tree, and I don't know if anyone else felt like Noah in the Ark, but I was definitely getting the vibes!
There are many birds of paradise flying around during the high season, so they passed out charts and binoculars for those who wanted to see, but at that point I was feverish again and chose to just sleep. Nothing like a good boat ride to lull me to sleep like a baby! When we arrived at the company's headquarters we had the chance to look around at the products made by the villagers, and they had some of the best woven materials I have ever seen! No loose fibers to be found! After a bit dinner was served, and then Tim, Skylar, and I just relaxed as the students had their class. I felt bad, apparently it was generally like this, where they would go-go-go and then still have class in the evening when they were exhausted. Thankfully it didn't last too long, and before we knew it we were heading off to our homes for the night. Unlike in Mae Chaem, there wasn't any social interaction expected here. The homes were just there for sleeping. The director dropped us [Tim, Skylar, and I stayed together] off and showed us the facilities [squatter and bucket shower!] before heading off to drop off the next group at their home. These homes aren't connected [usually], they are literally floating houses. They are kept up by a series of hollowed out bamboo poles under the house that are replaced every certain amount of time [I can't remember if its 6 months or 6 years], and there are other sources of buoyancy strapped to the houses, but the key is the bamboo. Incredible! And they must be anchored because they don't just float around willy-nilly either. Permanent structures, usually government buildings and the Wat we saw, are built on high poles to ensure that they will always be grounded. I feel bad for the workers in the dry season, they have to climb all the way up, while the villagers' homes just sink with the lake. It is really quite practical and amazing!
The night was not kind to me, and I woke up not only with a fever but with a rash all over my face and shoulders, indicating that maybe it was time for a new doctor. The company was really understanding and commandeered a boat back to Siem Reap and then a car to take me to the guesthouse where Natasha would come get me. They even offered to take me to the hospital, but I waited for Natasha. The rooms were not ready, as they didn't expect us until the next day, so we just hung out in the lounge until I went to the hospital, and Skylar and Tim stayed behind to get settled and begin exploring Siem Reap. Unsure of the source of the rash [I've never had any allergies, so a reaction to my anti-biotic was curious], they took blood samples and examined my super swollen lymph nodes. After the results came back, the doctor guessed Mono and had my blood sent to be tested, and we determined that a night in the hospital would be best for the rash, my dehydration, and whatever I was dealing with. Lucky me!
The nursing staff was great, and it really wasn't too bad of a night, Natasha brought Tim, Skylar, and even Dr. Harris to come visit, and I had sudoku, TV, and sleep to occupy me. And good food! I spent the night and most of the next day there, until about 5 when I checked out, got my bag of goodies [medicine], and met up with the group for what was left of our Siem Reap orientation - dinner. Dinner was delicious, and after we walked back and I saw a bit of Siem Reap before we got to the guesthouse. The staff helped me with my luggage and I got settled into my tower room for the night.
Monday we started class with Dr. Harris - Hinduism and the Khmer Civilization. It was a class I had been looking forward to all semester, but was daunting for the mere reason of fitting a semester class into 3 weeks! This meant heavy readings and 3 hours of class per day. Fascinating subject though! Cambodia is ninety percent Buddhist now, but much of their history, including the famous Angkor Wat, finds its history in Hinduism. We learn all about the Gods and their incarnates, read Hindu texts, and take field trips to visit the many Hindu temples in the area. Wednesday was our first field trip to Sambor Prei Kuk, near Kampon Thom. Sambor Prei Kuk is home to 280 temples, divided into 3 sections. Not many still stand, but those that do are beautiful, and you can still see some of the foundations of the fallen.
There was so much history [the temples date to the 7th century Chen-la period [Angkor is 11th century, for reference]], and yet at the same time modernity finds its way in. Not in the form of tourists as is common elsewhere, but in the 310 craters found throughout the wood [Sambor Prei Kuk is in a forest], the results of US bombings in Cambodia. I hadn't even known before coming to Southeast Asia that America bombed Cambodia during the Vietnam War, and now I could see not only the craters from bombs and landmines, but the destruction to the few temples that have managed to survive the ravages of hundreds of years.
We were also able to see vestiges of the inner and outer walls that surrounded the complex. Built of laterite, there were parts that were still very much intact. We were also able to see a baray, although the use of which historians are still unsure of. It was possibly used as a source of bath water for the ruler, or for agriculture, although lack of agricultural fields discredits the latter. Either way, it was incredible to see! We wound our way through the forest, which was gorgeous!, and stumbled upon a dig that had been underway since 2001!
We saw so many beautiful structures, but before long it was time to go, and it was back on the road from hell - covered in potholes that made the belly drop every 5 seconds! We had a quick lunch in Kampon Thom before the long ride home, during which we enjoyed a great nap!
Thursday we began Khmer lessons again, and boy was that crazy! In Phnom Penh we had a teacher from a Khmer language school, complete with lesson plan, book, and CD. Here, we had a man who was under the impression we spoke much more Khmer than we did, and he kept speaking to us in rapid Khmer. Yikes! We finally got on the same page, after all we were only here for 2 more weeks and knew the basics, so we agreed to work on our vocabulary in some areas that needed filling in, i.e. family, days of the week, colors, etc.
It was Thanksgiving, and there was turkey to be found, but for a high price, so we went the ironic route and had Indian food. After all, it was India that Christopher Columbus was searching for, and had he found it we wouldn't celebrate Thanksgiving, but we'd sure as heck have naan and mutton curry! Dinner was delicious, and in true American style we stuffed ourselves and then went to find pie. Well, we ended up with cheesecake, but it was delicious nonetheless. We brought the pie back and watched the Hangover, as we were all in the mood for a good laugh, before tucking in for the night.
Friday brought more classes, followed by lunch and then reading/nap time before Khmer class. After class, which went much smoother this time, we found Viva, a Mexican restaurant, and had a yummy dinner [I had nachos!] before wandering back. Skylar and Tim had a big field trip to Phnom Kulen and Bantay Srei Saturday [the doctor didn't think it wise for me to go on long field trips], so it was an early Friday night for us. I spent Saturday catching up on my reading and napping before Tim and Skylar returned. We had dinner and then hit up the Siem Reap Night Bazaar, which turned out to be much, much larger than anticipated, and filled with so much neat stuff! Then back to the guesthouse, where I wrote a month's worth of blogs and packed the night away. I know, its an exciting life!
Stay tuned - this week is Angkor Wat!!!
[Pictures to follow the next time I'm inspired]
