I Guess I'll Have to Stay Another Day

I like Cambodians. There is just something fascinating about them. It is truly difficult to put a finger on it, but I think it's something in their smile. They really love to smile and especially like to smile at foreigners. And we're not talking a half-hearted smile, these are big toothy grins. I didn't really know what to expect from the people when I came. I supposed a suspected generally sad and down-trodden folks because of this country's no-so-distant bloody history, but I have been pleasantly surprised.

I struggle with what I should write in this blog. I don't feel it is in my (or your) best interest to read a minute-by-minute recollection of my days but rather a summation of my observations and experiences. For instance, I could go on and on about how magnificent the temples at Angkor Wat are, but my words don't really do it justice. Angkor Wat, for those of you who aren't familiar is the greater name for a collection of temples re-discovered in the 19th century near Siem Reap, Cambodia. Most of the temples had been lost for centuries, engulfed by the surrounding jungle. I spent most of my day Wednesday touring these temples and really came away with some amazing pictures. It's quite expensive, really, at $20 per day for entrance. Eric and I hired a tuk tuk driver to haul us around all day and act as an unofficial tour guide for $15. Not a bad deal at all.

I had heard that Cambodia was ridiculously inexpensive, but so far I have found that to be a myth. It is cheap, to be sure, but not as much as I had imagined. It's difficult when paying in US dollars for anything to be a huge bargain. So far I haven't purchased much here in way of souvenirs, a t-shirt at Angkor Wat ($2!), a fridge magnet (although I paid for two because I accidently broke one. Let's just say I was testing its untensil strength) and a guide book. Funny thing about guide books here as I only paid $4 for the newest edition of the Lonely Planet guide to Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. Of course, closer inspection reveals that all the pages and pictures have been photocopied and bound together, but it's all the same to me.

As a side note, let me remark about how good of English the children speak here. Of course, they don't deviate much from "Hey mister, postcard one dollar" but you can have a small conversation with them and they truly uunderstand. One particular girl started harrassing me as I ate lunch near Angkor Wat. She was hawking several books about the Khmer Rouge and wanted me to buy one. "Ok, what is the capital of Madagascar? If you don't know, you buy book." Tough little cookie. But, unfortunately, she didn't know who she was dealing with and I spouted "Antananrivo" before she could say much else. She looked dejected. Then mad. Then she left. I guess I trumped her trump card.

Yesterday Eric and I hired a couple of motorbike drivers and they took us to the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, a converted schoolhouse where thousands of innocent people were slaughtered during the reign of the Khmer Rouge in 1975-1979. We then took a little jaunt down the road to the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek. The Killing Fields are home to several dozen mass graves where thousands of bodies were buried. It is estimated that there are up to 12,000 more bodies yet to be unearthed, but it doesn't seem at this moment that the Cambodian government wants to. What's really eerie is that as you walk along the footpath, you can visibly see parts of bone still sticking up from the ground and clothes strewn about. Much is left as it was 30 years ago. I must say that it all still pales in comparison to what I saw at Auschwitz in Poland, but that's not to trivialize the magnitude of the Cambodian genocide.

Ok, enough heavy stuff. Eric and I met an Aussie CSer for dinner last night on the riverfont. She is a delightful gal and we had a great dinner and great conversation. It's funny, but even as the cultures of the USA and Australia seem to be similar (which they are) there are still vast differences. We had a great view of the Pontoon, which is supposedly a popular nightclub on, as the name implies, a pontoon. The only reason I mention this is because we heard later in the evening that the pontoon sank. Too many people on board maybe? Several people could be spotted with pants wet up to the ankles. I kid you not. I have a smile on my face as I retell this story. I can't help but to find humor in the situation.

So this is a strange weekend to be visiting Cambodia. Tomorrow they have a general election and there is a strange vibe in the air. I'm not sure what to make of it, really. All the bars stopped selling alcohol at 11:40pm on Friday night and will not sell again until Monday. Apparently the whole country shuts down for this event. The Aussie CSer I mentioned is a nanny for a employee of the UN who is in Phnom Penh working on investiagtions for the genocide trials and apparently the UN has told its people to avoid all uncessesary travel tomorrow. Unfortunately for me, tomorrow I had planned on traveling to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam by bus. I had my decision made for me. No buses tomorrow. None. Can you believe it? I guess I'll have to stay another day in PP, but tomrorow everything will be closed. What am I going to do? I guess I'll have plenty of time to work on my summer readings for Patterson (I've been informed that some Patterson professors may be reading this so I felt I needed to throw that in. Make a good first impression, you know? :) )

I did get my Vietnam visa, though. After all the stress and worry about getting it and all it took was giving the little guy at the front desk my passport and let him shuffle it over to the Vietnam embassy. Eric and I part now. He returns to Bangkok and I'll go to Vietnam. I guess I'll only for to spend two days in the HCMC now, but tight schedules like that are the American way. Or so I'm told. Wednesday I'll leave for India. More to come!