We all got up early this morning to catch the bus for a six hour bus ride to Siem Reap Province in northern Cambodia. The ride up was uneventful except for the one quick stop where Chelsea, Emily, and I tried fried crickets. We have pictures to prove it! Once we were settled in our hotel, we had a relaxing lunch at the Blue Pumpkin restaurant. After lunch we made our way to the temples to watch the sunset. We have never seen anything like these temples before. They truly are the Eighth Man Made Wonder of the world. We climbed the mountain in true Asian style– on the back of an elephant!
After the sun set we went to the Temple Club for dinner and to watch Khemi dancers. The group favorite was the coconut dance. All of the costumes were elaborate and beautiful. The dancers twisted and bent their hands and fingers in ways none of us have ever seen before. The dancing was so elegant and graceful.
The next morning was an early wake up at 4:30 so we could see in the sun rise over Angkor Wat (the main Buddhist temple). Angkor Wat is even featured on Cambodia’s flag. Seeing the sun rise in such an enchanted and sacred place gave me chills. I imagined who else in this temple’s 900 year existence has seen that exact same sun rise. Angkor Wat was full of history and stories carved in detail on the walls. The next temple was called the Temples of Bayon (Bion). This one featured smiling Buddha faces and ancient carvings of men. I believe this temple was everyone’s favorite because it just looked happy. I described it as an adults Jungle Gym complete with steep staircases and fallen rock. Ta Prohm was breathtaking with trees growing out of the temples. This was the location for Tomb Raider with Angelina Jolie.
Author Archives: brookss
Eye Opening
Today was a day full of new and heart wrenching experiences. We began our day at a support group meeting for HIV patients. I volunteered to be the spokesperson for our group. We stressed the importance of taking their medication and taking it on time. Apparently, it meant more coming from us because we are foreigners, and we were wearing scrubs. The meeting was very eye opening to me to see how devastating the effects of HIV are physically, mentally, and emotionally. For example, this was some patients first time to visit because they were ashamed, and others were completely abandoned by their families. After the meeting we split off to go back to the hospital (Chelsea, Emily, and Victoria) and to HIV home visits (me and Stephanie).
The social worker led us to the “newer” slums that were mostly made of concrete. There was dirt, filth, and graffiti everywhere. The first room we came to was a 10 by 20 single room that had about 13 people living in it. We moved down the hall so we could see an aerial view of the “older”slums. It literally looked like a dump with trash haphazardly thrown everywhere. Stephanie and I wanted to take more pictures, but we were too focused on where we were walking. We stepped over every piece of trash imaginable each in a different state of decomposition. Two things that stuck out in my mind were the smell and the noise. It smelt like a trashcan, sewer, old food, and body odor all at once. It featured the sounds of a busy city, babies crying hysterically, people yelling, and food cooking in grease. The “houses” were small, made out of tin, and had at least one wall missing. Others were made out of concrete four stories high. There was no clean water or electricity, and water and wastes ran off from the floors above us.
“Tell me why”
We began our day meeting three young University students from Hanoi: Heng (Hung), Hong (Home), and Linh (Ling). They served as our tour guides and guardian angles for the day by negotiating everything from taxi rides to shoe prices. They took us to the University of Literature that served as the first University of Hanoi that began over 1000 years ago. Today, it serves as a museum and temple where students come to pray before their final exams. If prayer is not enough, some students will rub the head of one of the ancient stone turtles for luck and good fortune. We then made our way across town to Salt Lake to visit another temple. This temple was unique because it was in the middle of the lake and featured a cremated turtle. Taking in the culture of the temples was truly a unique experience, and one I am sure we shall never forget.