Angkor Wat and Siem Reap weekend of dreams!!!!

Sorry it’s been so long, but life has gotten very busy of late. But I know I need to write about everything before I forget.

So Thursday night before our tests and departure from Phnom Penh I was hanging out downstairs in the restaurant and bar with a couple friends, when the karaoke started up. Apparently every Thursday the past languagecorps students still in the area all get together and have a Cambodian night out. That involves a lot of alcohol and even more singing. So my friends and I were just hanging out when they shackled us and tortured us into singing! Ok, so maybe we volunteered after a while, but it’s pretty much the same thing. We ended up stealing the show! We were a hit. We sang everything from Spice Girls to Backstreet Boys and other various terrible music. It was fantastic. But perhaps the best part was when our favorite teacher, who is just the sweetest, lankiest nerd you ever did see, decided to sing Dancing Queen in all falsetto. It was so good! So Thursday was a pretty bomb night!

Friday we had class at the hotel and then 2 tests. They were relatively easy, so I finished pretty early and got to eat a real lunch before heading out on our 8 hour bus trip to Siem Reap. Oh man, was that an experience! Apparently, someone who runs the airport has paid off the government so that they won’t pave a part of the road from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap in order to encourage people to fly. Let me just say that for an entire hour of going about 5-10 mph over giant rocks and gravel with enormous pot holes, I wish I would have flown! It was terrible and you really felt like the bus was going to fall apart. Luckily the whole road wasn’t like that. We did stop at this tourist place where they sale deep fried tarantulas to eat, as well as real ones that you can hold. I did neither because the day before our beloved nerd teacher had told us all these great stories about them, details of their texture in your mouth, etc. So needless to say, I couldn’t muster up the gumption to do that.

We got in kind of late, so we just went to get food and hit the sack since some of us were getting up early to see the sunrise at Angkor Wat. The next morning I woke up at 4:45 to be on the bus at 5 to head over to the wat. When we got there it was still pitch black outside, but our guide led us to the best viewpoint around the pool in front of the wat. He told us not to move from there, which didn’t make sense until about 30 minutes later when we turned around and realized that a heard of about 300 people had shown up! We all were adjusting our cameras and taking test shot as the light began to illuminate the sky. There were people there with their fancy tripods and expensive cameras getting some really beautiful shots of the temple and its reflection in the pool. I’m pretty sure that I took about 85 pictures within the hour and fifteen minutes we were there. But they were really pretty! After the beautiful bucket list morning activity, we went back to the guesthouse to pick up the lazy people for the rest of the temple experiences of the day.

We went all over the surrounding temples during the first half of the day. We say the beautiful hand carved murals, the intricate detail of the stonework, and even the elephant fighting ring. It was kind of the same concept as the coliseum where men would fight lions and other wild animals, except here it was just elephants. The royalty of course got the highest viewpoint, while the lower classes sat on descending platforms. Poor little elephants! In all of the temples, the beautiful gems and gold have been long robbed, but the holes where it once was remains. There was a temple with a thousand holes in one small space big enough for about 4 people in snug, and each hole once held a diamond! And I don’t mean like a measly one or two carat sized diamond, but I mean like as big as half of my fist! (Insert no small hand joke about me here! That means you, Q!) I only wish I could have seen that room when it sparkled! Also, the trees!!!! They are amazing! They grow on, in, around, out of, all of those preposition words, of the sandstone. So here you have a giant 38 foot high wall, with a tree growing out of the top and its roots poking through the space between the bricks. It’s stunning. Giant spaghetti roots that could possible give someone nightmares if the roots turned into boa constrictors! Uh-mazing! The trees also wind around everything. I saw one tree, that was really two trees intertwined, but the coolest part about it was that one tree was deep, dark wood, and the other was a white ashy color so the tree looked like a really awesome natural candy cane! So cool!

After lunch we got to spend the rest of our time at Angkor Wat proper. Let me tell you, that bad boy is beautiful! It was very busy because it is tourist season, but after you got over then pushy Japanese tourists, it was ok. There was this super cute little kid whose father was taking pictures of him, but every time his dad would go to take his picture, he would pop his hip out and throw up a peace sign to pose. It was ridiculously cute. The gates to the temple grounds would designate your social class, there were 5 entrances used anciently. The middle, and most elaborate gate, was used by the king and his family. It is also the gate that most people use today. The two gates just outside the king’s gate were used for those of high social status. The last two, on the edges of the temple grounds were used for lower class people and elephants. As you walk down the pathway the king would have walked down, you encounter two libraries flanking the sides as you approach the pool outside the wat. Each would have been filled with records carefully and elaborately written on a degradable natural surface, and thus nothing remains of what was meticulously kept in the libraries. But there are some beautiful views of the wat from the library windows. One interesting architectural note were the door frames and walkway support frames that linked spaces together. They were constructed like picture frames, so there were raised areas on the floor every time there was a doorway or a space in the hall that connected it to another room. The raised areas were at least a foot high. It was interesting, but also gave some nice framing to a bunch of pictures!

Inside the wat were huge empty spaces, that appeared as if they anciently held water. Most of the stone is still tight and in place, but the water obviously has since vanished. There are hallways, and tunnels and peaks that flow in and out of each other. But the highest peak is the part that is still an active temple. So monks and nuns are still spotted within the complex, but mostly in the highest peak. To get to the highest peak, they have constructed a very steep set of stairs that allow people to enter the temple. Funny thing though, the stairs that are ridiculously steep were set up over the natural steps that are probably 3-4 inches wide, and about 10-12 inches high! The only thought I had about the steps called me back to Maya theology in which they as we’ll revere snakes because they can pass between worlds (land and sea). So the Mayans would build similarly scaled steps to force the person to walk with their foot lengthwise up the steps in an S pattern, or in a snake-like pattern to enter the temple and into the other world. So I’m not sure if its similar in Buddhism, but I could see it being a similar reason. So, entering the active temple space, you must be covered from shoulders to knees, and nothing covering your head. You ascend the crazy steep stairs and have some of the most breathtaking views of the Angkor Wat grounds. You can see for miles! Such a vantage point to change your perspective! It’s no wonder the temple is so sacred.
All in all, Angkor Wat was a beautiful place to experience. Bucket list item for sure!

After a long and exciting day, we took off to the night markets to get some food and see the city. We ate at a place that had traditional Cambodian dancing for entertainment. It was fun to see how similar traditional Cambodian attire is to Thai. We came to a consensus as a group that it really was a mix of traditional Indian and traditional Thai attire that made Cambodian attire so unique. The food was good, the entertainment was fun, the company was great! Not much more you can ask for in one day! But we walked through the night markets on our way back to the guesthouse for the night. We saw all the shops with clothing, household items, postcards, trinkets, knock-off name brand items, local made products and all sorts of street food. I really wanted to try getting a fish foot massage, but I had some open sores on my feet that I didn’t want to get infected by who knows what. But a fish foot massage are these giant clear basins that they put tons of little fishes into that nibble on your dry feet until you’ve got soft, smooth feet. It sounds very ticklish to me, but I still want to do it sometime.

The next morning, we packed up the bus for our return trip home. On the way we stopped at one more temple. It was the original Angkor Wat that was made hundreds of years before the final Angkor Wat. The final Angkor Wat was made by a later king who wanted it to be bigger and better than the measly rough draft, so he had it made waaay bigger! The smaller wat hasn’t been restored at all, so there are walls fallen down everywhere, but the reason a lot of people go there is because you get to crawl around everywhere and play on everything. You kind of get to be a fake little Indiana Jones for a while. They have ferrel kids that you can follow on an adventure for a small fee, or they have guides that can take you around, or you can venture off on your own. It was really fun to explore, get lost, and climb all over this ancient temple. I mean, sure I got lost and thought I’d never get out, but what’s a pseudo-spelunking adventure without a little panic?!

After the temple, we ate at this tiny place across the street where there were 3 super cute puppies! The cutest was so cute. He would sit outside the open air restaurant, and every time someone would walk past, he would start wagging his tail, but nobody ever stopped to pet him. So I did. As soon as I walked over to him, his tail started wagging. As soon as I crouched down to pet him, he rolled over on to his back so I could scratch his belly. But his poor belly was covered in flees 😦 I felt so bad for the little guy. So I pet him anyway, mostly on his face. But he loved me! Probably more because I have fake nails, and that probably felt really great on the fleas. I really wanted to take him home and love him and take care of him. But I couldn’t. It’s actually a very serious problem I have over here! There are a disproportionate amount of cute puppies to the amount of love they are given…. So I want to adopt them all!!!!!

Well, after an annoying 8 hour ride back to Phnom Penh, our weekend of dreams was over. Back to the daily grind of class work, homework, and teaching practice. Ho hum.

First week of class and tests.

Doesn’t sound much like a fun vacation anymore, does it?

Well all week we had classes for 8 hours a day, because remember how I have to get TESOL certified? Well that requires some schooling, but mostly hours-144 of them actually. So this week hasn’t been super exciting as far as adventures go. I have liked going back to school a little bit though. Guess that makes me a nerd! I especially liked one of today’s lessons because it was all about phonetics. It was cool for me because I took a really intensive Spanish phonetics class a while back and while it was different, it was also similar. Best part is translating sentences and writing them in phonemic script!!!! Sounds like a blast, right?! Well I liked it!

We have two tests tomorrow, one on grammar and another on phonetics. They shouldn’t be too bad. But after tests tomorrow we head out for Siem Reap and all the Angor Wat has to offer! Beside the 8 hour bus ride, it should be BOMB!

So, this is really short, but there isn’t really anything to report. Although I feel a lot more comfortable walking through traffic, but strangely enough a little nervous in the tuk tuks. Meh. Go figure! Hopefully I’ll have some sweet pics and stories to tell from my trip this weekend!

Wat Penh and dinner

Sunday adventures!

Around noon we took off for our tour of the city. We hopped in the tuk tuks and took off into traffic, which I am told is even crazier in Bangkok! We rode around the city, past the central market, past diamond island, past the royal palace, and through Cambodian Time Square. One of our stops on the tour was at Wat Penh.
The story goes that Lady Penh, a wealthy lady who lived is the village which has now grown into Phnom Penh, found a statue of Buddha floating on the flood water. She picked up the statue to find Buddha a new home clear of the flood waters. She took it to the highest Phnom, or hill, in the area (which is only about 400ft above sea level), and has now become a temple, or wat, in the middle of Phnom Penh. Thus we derive the name of the city as well, hill of lady penh, or Phnom Penh.
At the temple site, we went inside and saw all the beautifully painted murals, guilded statues, musty incense, and offerings made by locals. Everything was so interesting. Our guide told us about the type of Buddhism that is practiced in most of Southeast Asia being a hybrid of Buddhism and Hinduism, called Therevada Buddhism, which was seen in the murals on the walls and in some of the smaller details. So I’ve been trying to recall all that I once learned about the religion from back when I took my World Religions class…. But things are rusty. I will need to for certain do some more refreshing work on the theology. Outside of the temple proper, was a statue of Lady Penh, who is seen as the patron spirit of women. Historically there had been a life-size statue of her in town that people would come visit, but people kept breaking the legs of the statue and stealing her to take her home with them, that after the 4th or 5th time, the government decided to relocate her to the temple site so she wouldn’t get stolen. So women would visit her in tough times, when they were looking for luck or guidance, or any other necessity or desire. While we were there, there were a number of women praying and venerating at her feet, but there was also this cute little girl, maybe 5 years old that kept wanting to be in everybody’s pictures with the statue. Not only in the picture, but with big smiles and of course holding up her Asian peace sign. It was cute.
While on the note of pictures, apparently Cambodians, perhaps all southeast Asians, believe it is bad luck to be in picture of three people. They believe that the person in the middle will die soon! So, no taking picture of locals in groups of three.
Also while on the temple grounds, we got to see some wild monkeys! The monkeys used to be in greater numbers, but a number of years back the problems got to be so bad (monkeys sneaking up to people’s houses, stealing, attacking people, etc.) that they rounded them all up and shipped them out of the city and into the wild. Fortunately for me, they have been making a come back! So we saw about 7 or 8 of them hanging out in the garden areas. The women there who were selling fruit would periodically throw some fruit over to the little guys to peel and eat to keep themselves entertained. One of the little guys was too busy for fruit or an audience because it was picking the fleas or lice or whatever out of his friends’ fur.
After Wat Penh we headed over to the Silver Pagoda and the Royal Palace. Sadly, they close the Royal palace down for 3 months after the king dies, and we were there the day before it reopened. Shucks! But we got to see the great art and architecture of the Silver Pagoda. There were a bunch of small little temples within the site, each with different deities portrayed as well as other artifacts that has significant meaning. They had beautiful gold and silver Buddha statuettes, and even one made of diamond! Needless to say, the diamond one was my favorite! Strangely, one of my favorite things about the Silver Pagoda was the colorful roof tiles and the elaborate door ornamentation! The roof times were beautiful peacock colors trimmed with golden Asian architecture. They were stunning. Then the doors were intricate patterns with hidden Buddha figures, or they were elaborate floral designs carved from wood. That was a really beautiful place to get to see.
Next we took more time to tour around the city and see what Cambodia was all about. Things here are just such a unique mix of old french, old cambodian, modern and forgotten buildings, it seems. Old French influenced buildings kept in pretty immaculate condition mixed with new and modern buildings alongside rundown, poor homes kept together by sheet metal, all within the confines of ancient Cambodian style buildings. So unique!

When we got back to the hotel we had a little bit before dinner to hang out, so a bunch of us headed over to the seven story mall that’s not too far away. On the way we stopped and bought some fruit from a delicious fruit stand! Yummy! It’s funny how similar malls are around the world. While there are unfamiliar stores and brands, it’s a very familiar setting and model. Young teenager are also quite the same worldwide. There was a group of girl laughing and giggling at one of the girl’s phones, no doubt a boy was on the other end of the conversation there, no need for Khmai translation! On our way back to the hotel we had to cross this big road. Remember how I talked about traffic, and how every time I’m in a tuk tuk there is at least one time where I feel like someone is going to die? Well, now I had to traverse it on foot. It was scary! But I came out on top! And I didn’t cause any accidents 🙂
Back at the hotel, we hung around at the restaurant and bar that is in the lobby, until our food was ready. I ate some Thai Pork that was D-lish! I learned at dinner that if you eat more entree than rice given to you, you are looked at as greedy. So you have to eat in a balanced manner, or just eat it all! We did introductions and then got some welcome information about the program and starting classes the next day. 8 hours of class! Yippee! Luckily our instructors are really engaging and make what could be super boring, entertaining! I guess that is what we are asked to do as well when we are teachers.
After dinner they were showing a video about the Killing Fields, which I wanted to stay and watch, but was so dang tired because I’m not used to the time change yet, that I had to go to bed. But I really would like to watch that video and go to the memorial site, but maybe when I’m more emotionally prepared for something that heavy. For those unaware of what the killing fields are, they are sites where thousands upon thousands of people were killed and buried during the Khmer Rouge regime in the mid 70’s. During their regime, Cambodia lost about 2.5 million of its 8 million in population. They outlawed education, religions and business. They wanted to create a completely agrarians based civilization. In so doing, they kicked most people out of Phnom Penh to work in fields. Anyone associated with the previous government was killed. Anyone who did anything outside of what the Khmer Rouge wanted, was killed. An interesting fact about Angor Wat and Wat Penh and why they still are standing after the Khmer Rouge regime: U.S. diplomats would periodically visit when hearing of the harsh conditions and treatment of the Cambodian people by their government, so in order to make things seem alright, the Khmer Rouge would take their own government officials, dress them up as monks, and have them walk around these temple sites to prove to the diplomats that what they were hearing about banning religion was false. Another terrible fact about that dark time,was that so many from the mid folder age rangers were murdered, that Cambodia doesn’t have much of an older population. There aren’t very many elderly folks around anymore. I mean, talk about a genocide! Interestingly enough, Monday the 7th of January is the holiday to celebrate the end of the Khmer Rouge reign and a celebration of the survival of a genocide.
Well, that was a lot of heavy info. Sorry! But it’s important to know this kind of stuff when you live somewhere!

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Made it to Phnom Penh!

That’s pronounces Nom Pen, here!

Ok so I made it here without any problem at all. It was very quick and easy! So upon landing, I got off the plane and stood in the “line” to get my visa. The way “lines” work are you walk up whenever you want no matter how long anybody else has been waiting. So I caught on quickly and handed my passport over then went to wait in the other “line” to pay the fee and get my passport stamped. So everyone jumbles together and they call your name, or what you must interpret to be your name since they have thick Cambodian accents. I grabbed mine and headed to customs. That took a whole 2 minutes to scan all my prints and the girl to look at me suspiciously a few times. Off to the baggage claim and BOOM! my bags were off like within the first 15 bags. Then I was off on my own out of the airport…well to find the guy who was picking me up to take me to the hotel. Everything was so lickity split. Then I met with Steve from LanguageCorps and we hopped on a tuk tuk. Ok that means a carriage hooked on to a motor scooter. Then off we went thought the streets of Phnom Penh!

Let’s talk about traffic for a minute here. It’s crazy! People are driving either cars, motorcycle/scooters or tuk tuks. And they just weave in and out of each other and honk if they want you to move outta the way. But people are so patient and accommodating! If someone wants to back out somewhere, they just go and everyone waits for them. If you want to pull a U-turn, just go and people wait. It seems very disorganized, but apparently there are very few accidents!

The city is sooo cool! It’s an interesting hybrid of old and poor mixed with new and colorful. The streets are lined up with building smashed together like really tall townhouses. The garage area serves as a place for businesses as well as the place to enter the home. Businesses vary from massage spots, food sales, to beautiful woodwork and metal shops. The metal shops have the workers sautering right there on the street with the sparks flying everywhere and nobody is wearing protective gear, actually most of them are just wearing shorts or shorts and t-shirts. The newer places are bright and colorful! Corals, greens, yellows, blues, all sorts of colors that are trimmed with alternate bright colors. The older places more often then not are pieced together with sheet metal squares. Then mixed in with all the townhouse shop houses occasionally there is a gated area that is a lot nicer than the rest of the places. One place was a country club, another private residence, international schools, etc. They are always gated and gardened and brightly colored. But they tend to have a little more Cambodian flair to the architecture. Overall, it’s a lot like a step back in time, but it’s so fun and interesting. It actually reminds me a lot of the poor Spanish areas of my mission, so I almost feel a little bit at home away from home in that aspect.

So when I arrived at my hotel, I got to my room and although its smaller than typical hotel rooms in America, it’s adequate. I’ve got air conditioning, a tv with some English channels, a mini fridge, and a bathroom. If you’ve ever watched Househunters International you know how a lot of foreign bathrooms don’t have shower stalls or curtains? Well, this is the same kind. The shower head is just hanging out on the wall of the bathroom. So I’ll have to get used to that.

So after exploring my room and checking into the wifi, I needed to take a nap. I know, I know that I’m not supposed to because of jet lag or whatever, but I guess it all worked out because when I woke up, it was midnight! Oh yeah, when I got into Phnom Penh it was 10 in the morning! Sooo maybe I was really tired. So I forced myself back to sleep til about 5 so that I could be more on the local time.

Today on the agenda we have a tour of town at 12:30 for who knows how long, and then a welcome dinner at 7 tonight. Other than that, I’ve got no idea. Hopefully I’ll get to meet some of the other peeps doing the program today for the tour. Well, that’s mostly it for now. I’ll report back with more after the tour and dinner!

Feet 4 sizes too big!

Two flights down, one to go.
(SLC to LAX, LAX to Taipei, Taipei to Phnom Penh)

But man, that 14 hour flight was a doozie! I have many complaints:
1. When the heck did plane seats get so dang small? Or maybe my question should be, when did my hips get so big? I swear! Those seats give you zero extra room unless you are Asian size… Oh wait, maybe that’s the reason why they were so small; I was on an Asian airline flying to Asia. But still! I know there were bigger people than I on the flight, and I have no clue how they fit.
2. Ok, another gripe about size. I know I’m kinda tall (5’10”), especially in Asia, but seriously the leg room! My knees were touching the pocket of the seat in front of me, and if I wanted to put my seat back, I got my knees smashed into the seat in front of me! Then, there was some sort of metal box thing under the seat in front of me so I got like 6 inches of space to try to extend my legs. Woof! So I couldn’t stretch my legs out or cross them, only sit with my knees cozied up to the magazine pocket.
3. Not a complaint- I was very grateful that the seat in front of me was unoccupied! I mean think of the leg room issue multiplied by someone laying their seat back! I guess it could have been worse.
4. My feet!!!! Holy moly I could hardly get my Toms back on! Then again, my bad ankle that is normally ugly and fat…. Forget about it! My ankle is about the same size as The Hulk’s! I guess I was too spoiled on the only other long flight I’ve ever been on. Back in 2005 I flew to Australia via New Zealand. The flight to NZ was 16 hrs, so longer than this flight, but the bonuses on that flight were important: the seats were bigger to accommodate giant white people, and the two other people that were supposed to share my row didn’t show, or I guess the tickets never sold, either way I got to lay down the whole time! So no swollen feet or smashed knees.
5. The food. Ok the quality wasn’t bad, but I felt like they gave me soooo much of it. I mean, I have been sick and not eating very much, like maybe a meal a day, but I feel even more sick now that I forced down two meals in 14 hours.
6. WATER. I asked for water every chance I got, but they would give it to you in cups that held like two tablespoons of water! Ok maybe more than that, but it was barely anything at all. I really just wanted to say, “Give me ALL of your water. You heard give me a lot of water, but what I’m saying is give me ALL of it.” (Maybe I paraphrased that from Ron Swanson from Parks and Rec.)
7. This is more specifically about the Taiwan airport, but it smells funny. Musty in fact.

Ok, I’ll quit complaining now. I guess it really wasn’t that bad. Compared to taking a steam ship for six months, this was cake! I wish I could say something positive about Taiwan, but so far I’ve seen lights in the dark from the plane, and a smelly airport. Maybe tomorrow morning I’ll see prettier views on my departure. For now, I get to kick it like a vagrant in the airport. Luckily, there is a super cute little girl running around being loud! No, but really she is super cute, so it’s not as bothersome. As for the rest of the noise, most of it is Mandarin so I can’t understand it anyway. So sleep I will until about 6 A.M. when I get to find out from which gate my flight is departing, because apparently they won’t know until morning.

So, this is the start of something new

January 3, 2013
7:30 A.M.

Although I’ve known for months that this day would come, it came much sooner than I expected. Spending an entire day packing my whole life into two 60 pound suitcases didn’t settle the facts into my head that I was moving, not just vacationing, to a foreign country. Alas, the time came and there I was checking in at the Delta counter.

“That’ll be $75 per bag.”
Well crap! I’ve got 2 bags!

So maybe being overweight with BOTH of my bags isn’t the best start. Hopefully that will be the only financial surprise on this 2 day trip to Cambodia.

Not only am I still a little in shock at the fact that I’m leaving, eh hem, I mean moving, to a far off land, but I also have residual side effects from the flu shot I got yesterday. This is just shaping up to be one very interesting day! I’m hopeful that the mexican cock fight in stomach doesn’t last the whole day because I’ll be THAT guy on the plane that gets up every 5 minutes and has to ask 2 other people to “excuse me” each time. I mean, I’m already going to be THAT guy who everyone else is afraid is going to give them SARS. Yeah, I’m the germy guy! Apologies go out to whoever has to sit by me on the planes today and tomorrow!