The Holidays In Cambodia, It Is Odd

Living in the States and always spending the holiday season in a shopping crazed and family oriented environment has made the past few months a bit different.  I never realized just how consumer driven and commercialized the season had become until I was removed from the madness.  I also never realized how much seeing family at this time of the year was refreshing to my soul.  It is difficult for me to form an opinion on all this.  Never being a huge fan of the hectic season, I do not miss some aspects of it at all.  At the same time, I do oddly miss some things.

No crazed holiday sale stampedes.  No black whatever day lines.  No irritating radio and TV commercials.  No kids screaming at the sight of a mall Santa.  No traffic jams at the shopping centers.  No tacky ties and sweaters.  No pulling out and putting away of decorations.  No long drives on I-55.  No struggling to find proper cards and wrapping paper.  No feeling guilty for not sending holiday cards.  For these reasons, I don't miss the havoc of the season.

At the same time living half way around the world from family is more challenging than I ever expected.  Not seeing my parents house lit-up like a winter wonderland is different.  Catching up with family and friends will have to wait until June, not cool.  I do miss the holiday food and eating until I need to nap.  I really miss the season change and the cold air that can take your breath away, especially in Chicago.  I miss proper dark, malty beers that warm my belly.  Even though I am not a big fan of ice skating, I miss the sight of the outdoor rink in downtown Chicago.  I miss snow.  For these reasons, I do miss the holiday season.

It is more of a struggle than I expected to properly articulate how I feel right now.  Skype, Facebook and email are just not proper replacements for the physical interactions and banter that I am craving.

Something I did not expect to see while living in Cambodia are over-the-top light displays.  The light displays in Siem Reap are really fun.  Some make no sense.  Most are bright as hell.  At a hotel down the street there is a old VW Beetle covered in lights in the middle of a sea of white lights.  Lights in palm and coconut trees look odd but I kind of like it.  I've never seen so many blinking lights.  Heading into town is almost like a drive through the Shrine.  Despite the lights there are no nativity scenes, emphasizing the commercial aspect to the holiday here.  I've never felt Christianity was for me, but is that religion not the reason we have Christmas?

I don't know.  Maybe one day I'll be able to properly explain myself, or maybe not.

To everyone back in the States, know that I truly miss you and will do my best to spend the proper time with all of you in June that I cannot right now.

Driving a Moto is Not Recommended

If you're looking for a thrill ride, come to Siem Reap and drive a moto (or as I affectionately, or ignorantly, call them, scooters).  Take a cruise around town for just five-ten minutes and obtain that edge-of-your-seat feeling.  Every time, and I mean every time, I either ride in a tuk tuk or drive our scooter in town I think I am going to die or get injured at some point during the trip.  I've done some dumb shit in my life, but driving a scooter where there are no discernable rules of the road means you risk serious injury every time you head out.  The absolute lack of rational driving laws is beyond explanation, even for someone who barely earned a C in drivers ed twenty years ago.  I'll try to explain what it is like to drive and own a scooter in Cambodia, please bear with me.

Every time we take the scooter out, something goes wrong.  This is literal, or at least was for a good amount of time when we initially owned this red and white dream machine you can see below.

Our 2008 Yamaha Fino, 115cc automatic

Neither of us, that's me and my wife, had ever driven or even ridden on a scooter before moving to Cambodia.  After living here for a month or so we thought it would be "fun" to have our own scooter.  You see them everywhere and they do not look difficult to operate.  In hindsight, that was our first misstep, that simple misjudgment of driving.  Without a test drive, we bought a used scooter and that was that.  When I started it and began to head toward the nearest gas station, the scooter really took off as I had seriously misjudged the power of a 115cc engine.  The people at the shop started yelling that I slow down and take it easy at first, it was obvious I had no clue what I was doing.  The shop is on the busiest road in town and navigating the traffic was one of the most nerve-racking events of my life.  Big trucks, tour buses, SUVs, sedans, other scooters and bicycles were everywhere - it felt like I'd never seen traffic before.  After filling up the gas tank for $3USD, Kathy jumped on back and we headed home, slowly.  With sweaty palms, we made it to the grocery store and home.  This began our great scooter adventure. 

Successful as we were on that initial drive, things didn't go so well after that.  We go out for one of our first jaunts downtown to visit our favorite French sandwich shop and we wreck two blocks from our destination.  Within the first week of pre-owner scooter ownership we add some glorious road rash to the flawless paint job.  I was lucky and able to avoid serious injury, but my wife had the deceptively heavy scooter fall on her leg and she scrapped the hell out of her foot.  Yes, I did, and still do, feel bad.  Let me explain the scenario.  When I was trying to turn right, which should not be an issue, I was confronted with a driving situation I had never faced before.  I panicked when I saw a SUV heading toward me very closely on the left, multiple scooters/motos and tuk tuks also approaching also on the left but there were also more scooters cutting between me and the curb to my right - what do I do?  Well, I chose to slam on the breaks and then I cut the wheel too hard, so we subsequently fell over.  (It was almost as much fun as picking up my wife on our second ever date. - haha)

One Saturday we take it on the eight kilometer ride to work.  For this trip we must take a paved national road and then a red dirt road, 4km each.  It was a pleasant morning and the blue sky was begging for us to take a ride.  The trip to work was great.  There was little traffic, because we work in a rural village, and we were making great time.  We parked it at work and talked about how great the trip out was and how we'll do this more in the future.  After work we eagerly jump back on the scooter and head down the bumpy dirt road toward our home.  The engine sounded a bit odd, but what do I know about scooters.  Once we are on the national road and we picked up some speed it breaks down, it simply stopped running.  This situation provided a very unique experience.

As we were standing on the side of the road blankly looking at the scooter, a man on a much more reliable scooter, a Honda Dream, stopped to ask if we needed help.  He spoke fluent English and told us he "was on the way home from worshipping" and thought we looked in need of assistance.  I explained that the engine just stopped and that it would not start.  He showed me how to use the kick starter, but it wouldn't work.  When this failed he offered for me to drive his scooter and he'd hold on to the back of the seat and help tow it to a shop.  I do not know how to shift on a scooter so that idea faded quickly.  He then asked if I'd like to push it back to a "local" mechanic that is near the dirt road and see if he can fix it.  I said yes, so he pushed his scooter next to me and we headed to the local mechanic.  Since I do not speak Khmer, this guy translated for me and the mechanic started to work.  Sadly, he could not fix it.  As frustration set in, this stranger produced another great idea.

He headed toward town and convinced a tuk tuk driver to come out and load our scooter in his carriage and take it back to the shop where we purchased this pile of crap.  After about ten minutes he was back and we were loading our scooter in the back of this tuk tuk.  I never thought I'd be in a tuk tuk with a scooter inside.  Once we finally arrived at the shop on the far side of town and unloaded the moto, this mysterious guy left following the tuk tuk back across town.  We exchanged phone number and he would not take anything for his time, not even a beverage.  When he rode off, it felt like he was some cowboy in a movie.  It took over four hours to fix the scooter and I think they had to replace a major part.  It is a bit louder now, but it does run.

When I say that it runs, I mean that it will eventually start and that it sometimes takes off when you don't want it to go.  It takes a few tries to get it started.  You turn the key and then press this button for it to turn over.  Sometimes you press this button seven-eight times before it starts.  Then you generally have to try to turn the accelerator four-five times, restarting it each time, before it really wants to go.  It is quite a pain in the ass.  You have to get to the scooter five-six minutes before you actually want to leave.  After one of our little spills it now has the tendency to pull you forward when idling at a stop.  You'll release the break and slowly start to move forward.  It was scary at first but now it just makes it easier to get going again.  I have developed quite the love-hate relationship with this scooter.

One afternoon we were driving down the dirt road in from of our apartment and my wife said her leg was getting wet.  About this same time, I started smelling gas.  We immediately stop and see that there is gas pouring out of the engine.  Our thought was to try and make it back to the shop so we took off across town.  Part of the way there it just stops.  As we are stopped a few guys working as guards at a nearby hotel walk over to see what's the problem.  They see the gas and start encouraging me to stop trying to start the scooter and they all step back.  Even though we do not speak the same language, it was clear what they meant.  My wife got in a tuk tuk and went to the shop where we got this god forsaken scooter.  The mechanics followed her back and replaced the gas line right there on the side of the road.  Again, it works now, but driving while leaking gas is not something I'd recommend to anyone.

We had a tire blow out while heading to breakfast one morning so we had to get it fixed.  Since we were close to the restaurant  Kathy said she'd walk and meet me there after I had the tire fixed.  Driving a scooter with a flat tire sucks, trust me.  As I tried to turn into the shop, the scooter fell on my leg and I completely fell on my ass and added more road rash to the red fenders.  The guys from the tiny shop came out and helped me up and got the scooted in the shop.  They fixed the tube very quickly and charged me 2000 riel, or $.50 in USD.  After that the scooter has ridden much smoother.

Everyone I know who owns a scooter has two things in common, the speedometer and the odometer do not work.  I've never seem anyone pulled over for speeding so I guess this is not an issue.  As long as the gas gage works, who cares about the odometer, right?

Something else fun, if you're driving down a bumpy road, the key might fall out.  The engine keeps running but the key is on your foot.  This seems to be a common issue as I have observed many people connect the key to the handle bars for safety.  When I take it to work, the key falls out repeatedly.  At first I constantly felt the need to put it back, but then I finally realized that it does not matter and I now wait to replace it until I need to turn off the engine.

Rules of the road do not exist here.  I cannot express myself properly when I say there is a serious need for even the most basic of rules here.  As tourist season approaches in full force, the traffic becomes crazier and crazier.  There are several stoplights at the major intersections, but until now only a few have actually functioned.  I'll be curious if more are used as the traffic increases.

Here is a fun fact of reality.  Headlights on scooters, not everybody uses them.  The same applies to blinkers.

People do respect the horn, if it works.

Helmets are mandatory.  Yes Illinois, helmets are mandatory in CAMBODIA!!!  The fine for not wearing a helmet is, I believe, 5000 riel or $1.25 USD.

Do you need insurance?  No.

What about a drivers license?  Yes.  No test is required, but they cost $35 USD and the fine for not having one is, again, I believe, 5000 riel.  I have one because I want to try and rent a car in America with it next summer.  It feels more like a novelty to have one.

Not long ago we saw a scooter hit our tuk tuk driver on his way to pick us up.  Yes, it was quite the sight.  I saw a man slide headfirst into on coming traffic and survive.  How others avoided him, I'll never know.  Our driver was hit in the leg and his carriage nearly turned over.  Crazy.  Needless to say, we had a different driver that night.

We've also seen two scooters collide.  Out tuk tuk kept going and all I saw was two guys staring at each other - it's not like you're going to "trade info" and pray they don't sue.  I do like the fact you don't hear people say "I'm going to sue you" here.

When driving in Siem Reap, size matters.  The bigger the vehicle, the more of the road you can dominate.  Tour buses dominate.  SUV's and sedans blow their horns a lot and like to drive very close to tuk tuks.  They are generally so close you can reach out and touch them.  I want to start a  series of pictures of me touching cars and buses while in traffic.

This post coud run forever.


For all of the aforementioned reasons, do not drive a scooter in Siem Reap.

The Power of Education: Communication Breakdown, Part II

A few posts ago I mentioned how the lack of proper a education system has seriously impacted the people of Cambodia.  Many adults, especially in the more rural areas, are functioning illiterates and it is the younger generations that are paving the road to the future, quite literally at times. (source: Chomnan, my regular tuk tuk driver, who is forty-two years old and has witnessed some wild scenes in his life.)  When you talk to anyone over thirty years old, it is rare that they speak any English, French, Korean, Thai or Russian at all - they mainly speak in what I have been told is "country" Khmer (ku-my).  As an American, I can confirm that most of my fellow countrymen also only speak one language so I cannot rail Cambodians for speaking only one language.  Siem Reap is a major tourist town and most travelers to this exotic location do not speak Khmer.  Tourists mainly originate from Australia, France, South Korea, Thailand and Russia.  Before moving here, I boldly assumed the people working in the service industry would have some basic communication skills in one or more of these languages.  Day in and day out, I see, and hear, the tuk tuk drivers, the waiters and the shop owners with superior language skills working more than those with limited language abilities, reinforcing the need to establish a solid education system throughout the country.

Students at the school where I work tell me that it would be difficult for me to ever have a proper conversation with someone my age no matter how good my Khmer becomes.  Each village has a slightly different dialect and I'd always sound like a barang, which is "foreigner" in Khmer slang.  The students know that developing proper language skills via a proper education is vital to their progress and the progress of Cambodia.  Since they need to rely so heavily on foreign powers, learning English, French, Korean, Thai or Russian is almost necessary.  The guards and maintenance men in the building where I live speak Khmer (obviously), some Korean (since a lot of people in the building are Korean) and very little English (my wife and I, along with one guy we work with are the only English speakers in the building) to help them communicate with the residents.

An actual student's home with a traditional red roof

Where I work, all courses are taught in English (PreK-12).  This school is modeled after a proven American curriculum from an urban prep school that focuses on educating students from the west-side of Chicago.  The goal here in Siem Reap is to help prepare the next generation to properly develop Cambodia into a country reflective of its SE Asian neighbors.  The mission states that the school is "dedicated to educating academically talented and motivated students from low income families in Siem Reap, to maximize their potential and their ability to build a better future for themselves, their families and their country."  This is no small task.  Nearly every student comes from a mono-lingual home and they are generally the first person to receive a formal education.  Simply stated, Cambodian state schools are not properly funded to provide an education on par with what we offer as a very well-funded NGO.  Many of our students live in houses on stilts and are the children of rural subsistence rice farmers working and living in the same fields constructed by the Khmer Rouge.

Another student's house

These students understand how fortunate they are to receive the education they are provided.  At the end of summer school, the middle and high school students participated in a science fair, where they worked in groups.  Their projects were amazing, most of them anyway.  Students worked on experiments that relate to their lives, it was truly science in application.  Projects focused on topics such as building wind turbines to provide electricity to everyone in the village, designing and building a well that will help prevent contamination of the water source during flood times, another focused on a shaman remedy for healing lacerations that they applied to the reduction of bacteria growth on surfaces - these projects were quite impressive.  The group that worked on the wind turbine are in the current senior class and they said that their plan is to go to college and study engineering or law so they can come back and build small power stations and fight the legal battles that ensue when you want to develop rural villages.  These students obviously understand the power of education and what education can do for people - this is why people want to teach.

A senior hamming it up

The current seniors recently took the ACT, likely for the last time.  The class is small, only sixteen students, and, on average, they have been formally studying English for just six years.  Subsequently, this is also the first class to graduate from the infant school and head off to a college that can truly develop them into the leaders we, and they, eagerly hope they become.  Despite the language barrier, some students have earned respectable enough test scores to gain admittance to colleges in America.  If any student in this class is interested in tackling a western college is still uncertain, but knowing that they can head in that direction is wonderful.  As the students move through the grades, they are more and more likely to gain admission to some top colleges and they are more open to studying and living abroad.

A view of the high school campus

Now that the school year is well underway, the science, literature, history and math taught to these students and their responses to the material is beyond any of my expectations.  Their ability to comprehend a novel like Heart of Darkness surprised me.  When I was hired to work here, I was brought in as the grades 9-12 English Language Arts teacher, the discipline and grade levels I taught for the past twelve years.  Now, circumstances at the school have changed, and I am developing a 13th Year Program to help transition the students into western colleges and prepare them for life outside their villages and Cambodia in general.  Helping them plan their futures is an incredible, yet daunting, task.  The student's desire to develop into global citizens is going to have a major impact on their lives.  Breaking out of the stereotype of an uneducated, illiterate Cambodian farmer and providing westerners with a face of the 21st century Cambodian is a very necessary step in changing how the world views the country and the citizens.

It seems that everyone has heard the adage "knowledge is power" and knows that there is a good amount of truth to what is being said.  The students here also know this is about as true of a statement as one can make, but do not really understand how much power one can derive from their knowledge.  The concept of questioning authority and the idea of living life as an individual are new to the students.  They were not raised like Americans where our ability to question and act in our own articular idiom are celebrated with frequency.  People like Orson Welles, Elvis Presley, Jack Kerouac and Jackson Pollock would not have emerged in Cambodia.  Possessing the desire to break the mold is an almost alien concept to some students.  My observations and interactions have led me to the belief that females will blaze the trail forward, not males.  The Cambodian females I have come to know are very strong women and will not stop until they are satisfied - they remind me of my grandmother, Elsie, a woman determined beyond belief.

A Student Council member helping at admission testing

With the recent passing of King Sihanouk I do expect some changes to come about in the coming years.  It goes without saying that I'd like to see some serious education reform, but time will tell what changes take place.  The remaining ties to the Khmer Rouge are fading and new leadership can propel this wonderful country into the 21st century.  It is this opportunity to install new leaders that should motivate these students to go off to college and bring back the knowledge they gain to help in this transformation of a developing country.

Another reminder of how my student's live

Yes, I ate that

The longer I live in Cambodia, the broader my palate becomes.  I can honestly say that I really enjoy eating Khmer food.  The flavors and freshness is amazing.  It can be a bit bland at times, but it is always good.  Khmer food, I recently learned from my wife, is one of the oldest and most balanced cuisines in the world.  I'm glad that it is not as spicy as Thai food, but it does have some very similar flavors and ingredients.  We frequent a restaurant in Siem Reap called Khmer Kitchen.  It is small and has amazing food.  The menu is a bit long but everything I have eaten there has been something I crave within a few days.  All I want is some pork or chicken with basil and chili - and they have that.  God be praised!  They will also custom make a dish for my wife of chicken, pineapple, and cashew nuts, which is her favorite as well.

Not long ago, I ate at a Cambodian BBQ restaurant and tried the ten types of meat sampler.  At that meal I ate: beef, chicken, pork, fish, shrimp, squid, frog legs, ostrich, crocodile, and snake, sadly they were out of kangaroo so we doubled-up on the ostrich and it was worth it.  The ostrich and frog legs were distinctly the best, the snake was tough and the squid was surprisingly good.  At this style of restaurant, they place a large, domed, grill-like device in a hole in the middle of the table.  It is extremely hot and and you can see the orange coals glowing beneath.  The staff then fills the grill with with broth, vegetables, and noodles to create a soup to accompany the grilled meat.  To keep the meat from sticking to the grill, there is a large slab of fat on the top which you rub all the grill and works very well.  If you want to know cooking times, the staff will provide the info you need.  I found this experience rather fun because I doubt I'd try some of these meats any other time.

these were stuck in the various meats so we would know what we are grilling

this is how you grill your food

Since I am my father's son, I love my salty snacks.  Recently I bought a bag of flavored deep fried sea weed strips in the snack food aisle at the market where we do a lot of our grocery shopping.  There are several flavors actually, but I've only tried red chili, onion, and wasabi.  They are great!  The red chili are my favorite; they are not as spicy as I hoped for, but still surprisingly tasty, if you like seaweed.

At the store there is also a snack food that is marketed as a french fry snack and they taste like plain Hot Fries.  The "flavor" for the french fries comes in sauce packets for dipping - they are good, but different.  

I also tried some green beans that are seemingly battered, fried, and then dehydrated, I guess, to create this unique snack.  

Lays sells sweet basil flavored chips here, so I tried a bag and was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed them.  They were a bit spicy, which I did not expect despite the peppers on the bag.

You see flavors for snack foods that simply would not sell in other parts of the world.  If you'd like to try shrimp, lobster, kimchi, or grilled fish flavor snack foods, you can try them here.

One market we frequently shop in has this mixture of chili and salt they package with certain sliced fruits.  It is deceptively spicy and, again, quite tasty.  I am a fan of this on pineapple and watermelon.  This salt concoction would taste great on popcorn or even to season grilled chicken - I want to ask them what it is but I have not.

There is also a large range of food I never plan to try.  In the markets you find dried sausages made of meat that I cannot identify and dried fish of various sizes everywhere.  All over town, you see street vendors selling chili coverd snails, crickets, deep fried chicken feet, soups, noodles, smoked duck, coconuts they will open and give you a straw, random fruits including the seriously pungent durian,  pancakes with chocolate and bananas, bags of some yellowish liquid that smells sweet, and many other foods I just cannot identify. - Below are photos of the food section of Old Market in Siem Reap.  I cannot begin to describe the smells that permeate the air in this section of the market.  It is so strong that many expats we know cannot go near these sections of some markets.

When driving around town, especially in the more rural areas, you see roadside vendors selling fried crickets that are covered in chili peppers, lemon grass, and green onion.  Upon seeing them for the first time, I was a bit tongue tied when responding to the site of a rather sizable mound of fried crickets.  When I started teaching and began to interact more with people who live locally, I asked what the crickets were like, and everyone always responded in a very positive manner. This, admittingly intrigued me because each time I would see them, they looked better and better.  I love three of the four ingredients and I've heard insects taste good - I used to eat ants to quiet a kid in an after-school program (and they weren't bad), so what I figured a cricket is a logical step.

Once I built up my nerve to try them, I asked my students for the location of a good place to buy them and one student offered to bring me some the next day.  So I gave the student $1 and she returned the next day with a small bag of fried crickets.  Upon opening the bag it was a very surreal experience to see crickets covered in diced chili and spices, especially knowing that I was about to eat them.  After seeing the crickets and pulling one out of the bag, I was a bit unnerved but still curious what they tasted like.  I was told to pull off the legs before eating them, which I thought would be no problem, but actually ripping off the legs and popping a cricket in my mouth was not as easy as I told myself it would be.  Eventually I ate a few and was stunned at how good they tasted.  The cricket does not have a lot of flavor, what you taste is the spices and oil in which the crickets were cooked.  These are a little spicy and the lemongrass and green onion were mild flavors but all flavors that I really enjoy.

how the crickets arrived

a peek inside the bag

a bowl of fried crickets

As intrigued as I am by some of the wonderful smells that come from restaurants that cater to local residents, I know that if I eat there I will become ill.  My colleagues at work who are Cambodian tell me to stay away from those restaurants no matter how intrigued I am.  I really enjoy exploring new foods and living in Cambodia is definitely providing me many opportunities to explore foods and flavors I had never thought about back in the states.

Cambodian Landmine Museum

Aki Ra, the founder and curator of the Cambodian Landmine Museum, is a very amazing man.  He has cleared countless landmines by hand, literally, in the Cambodian jungles and has saved numerous lives in the process.  He was a CNN Heroes finalist in 2010 and after visiting his museum, I understand how he earned that distinction.

As a former child-soldier conscripted into the Khmer Rogue army at ten years old, Aki Ra saw first hand the destructive nature of landmines.  Orphaned at a young age, Aki Ra's life was full of struggle - and still is.  While fighting for the Khmer Rogue, he was captured by the Vietnamese army and forced into their army.  During these years as a soldier, Aki Ra placed innumerable landmines while forced into the armies.  Ironically, since he laid so many landmines himself, it made him rather adept in removing them.  Nearly all of the landmines, bombs, hand grenades, and other ordinances at the museum were defused by Aki Ra over the years.  He had to involuntarily suspend his work in the past because the government said he needed to stop removing the landmines using a stick while crawling on the ground.  This did little to deter him, as he soon resumed removing landmines and working toward his ultimate goal of removing all landmines from these jungles.

At this museum, you are educated on how devastating landmines are and specifically how much havoc they have wreaked on the Cambodian people.  There are multiple rooms located around a central lilly pad pond, each room dedicated to a different aspect of landmines and their removal in Cambodia.  You see so many defused landmines and bombs used in the infamous carpet-bombings of the countryside, it is something you will not forget.  There is also a display showing what the different Cambodian and Vietnamese soldiers wore and the guns, grenade launchers, and various other weapons used while fighting - the uniforms and weapons were all found in former camps by Aki Ra and other people in the organization.  While at the museum, we met an American man working for the organization who provided a ton of interesting information about the organization and what they do.  We were there for what came to be an insightful hour on the way to Phnom Kulen National Park.  (little did I know at the time, but the man at the museum goes to the same pub quiz I do, it is the only pub quiz in town - there is a very small expat community here)

the entrance to the museum

a room full of landmines and hand grenades

landmines

more landmines and grenades

bombs

more bombs

and even more bombs

old bombs found in the jungle

uniformed soldier with a .50 cal machine gun

display of uniforms

landmines and...

landmines and...

landmines

The Cambodian Landmine Museum not only aides in the clearing of landmines, but they also aide in sending local kids to school and helping them enroll in and pay for college.  Many of the students they assist are somehow directly impacted by the devastating power of landmines.  Some of the students live in housing provided by the organization and all students receive laptops when they graduate.  Last school year saw them send their first graduate to college in Phnom Penh and this year they will send more.  Their mission to educate the public about the dangers of landmines and educate local children impacted by landmines, in addition to the on-going struggle to clear landmines is something to really admire.

The museum also contained some interesting art.  There was not a lot of art there, but what was there was unique to Cambodia and landmine related issues.  Below are a few pictures of the art there.

a sculpture made from guns, grenades, and a helmet

this painting is huge, you can see the top of a friends head in the bottom left corner

a painting in the museum showing the damage of landmines

As I experience more and more of what there is to experience in Cambodia, which I must admit is rather limited, I gain a better understanding of how the people here have been treated like the bastard child of SE Asia.  For how many atrocities have been committed against the Cambodian people, they are amazingly positive and caring.  This museum really opened my eyes to how ruthless countries behave in war times.  Cambodia has a culture and history that is drawing me in as I never imagined would happen.  Boarding the trans-Pacific flight from Chicago with little knowledge of Cambodia, I must say that this experience has far exceeded any of my expectations.

If you're looking for an organization to support, I suggest visiting the museum's website: http://www.cambodialandminemuseum.org/menu.html

Phnom Kulen National Park

On a recent visit to a national park in Cambodia we were treated to some amazing scenery.  While touring the park, we saw some very beautiful waterfalls and an extremely memorable Buddhist temple.  Phnom Kulen National Park is over an hour away from where we live in Siem Reap so we started the trek in the morning.  In a rented taxi/van, seven people I've met through work, plus my wife and I, rode to the park and hung out for the day taking in the sites.

me, all sweaty, at the top of the temple

Traversing some very bumpy, windy, and more than slightly unsafe dirt roads, we arrived at the waterfalls first.  Having no expectations of the park, I was immediately taken aback at the number of sandstone rock formations and the dense jungle.  The rock looked very similar to the sandstone I used to climb in my early 20s in the Shawnee National Forest in southern Illinois.  There was a moment or two when I was transported to my life several years ago, simply based on the rock and foliage.  If you've ever been to Jackson Falls in July to camp or climb, you have an idea of the oppressive heat and humidity, the brilliant greens, and the cool water of the falls and pool.

Exiting the van and walking toward the waterfalls we saw several rows of souvenir shops and restaurants just beyond the dirt parking lot.  These shops mean that people live here or make a similar journey to ours everyday, neither of which can make for good health decisions.  Despite the fact we are removed from any semblance of a city/town, you could not walk past a vendor with out the seemingly mandatory, "Lay-dee, sir, you buy something?" or kids asking for money citing random reasons - it felt like a rural night market.  It can be heartbreaking to see because this is a way of life for some families and you know the children are not receiving a proper education.

As the group approached the waterfalls, there were several small wooden pavilions with thatched or tin roofs along the river.  Here we stopped and ate some lunch.  You could order food from one of the restaurants, for which the sanitation level is debatable, or you can bring food.  In the group we went with, some of us brought food, and some bought food there.  Luckily nobody became ill from the food purchased so if we go back, that is what I'll do.  The ordered food was delivered and every meal was $5 - kabobs, curry, fried rice...  $1 Angkor cans.  We had to pay $2.50 to rent the pavilion, which included them cleaning up the trash when finished.  It was a fun lunch because it oddly reminded me of camping.

some kids swimming behind us as we ate

our pavilion had a tin roof (rusted) - the guy on the right is our driver

the top of the waterfall

After we ate, we realized we were at the top of the waterfall and needed to make our way to the bottom.  To do this we had to navigate a rotting, wooden staircase that was missing several steps along the way.  Once at the bottom, I was surprised at all the people swimming and enjoying the beauty of the waterfalls.  The scenery was peaceful despite all of the people milling around.  There are changing rooms at the bottom of the waterfalls and you can buy various beverages as well.  Everyone swam and enjoyed the unique opportunity to play in a waterfall in a tropical jungle.  After posing for a few pictures, we decided to tackle the stairs and check out the other sites.

the top of the stairs leading to the base of the waterfall

another bridge that awaited us at the bottom

my first glimpse of the waterfall

the waterfall

my friends climbing the waterfall

another shot of the waterfall

The next place we went in the park was to Preah Ang Tom.  Our driver kept referring to it as "Big Buddha" and his repeated comment made perfect sense once there.  It is a challenge to describe the scale of the Buddha at this temple.  This Buddha was carved (and painted) on the top of a sandstone rock formation.  Not only is this quite the feat of carving, but the fact that you can walk around it is amazing.  It is literally the entire top of the rock formation and it is painted bold colors.  There were a few small shrines on the site that were different from others I've seen.  These shrines were, like the Buddha, part of the natural sandstone and one was tucked under a boulder.  Some monks were praying as we were leaving making for quite the audio/visual experience while descending the long staircase of the temple.  As awesome as the waterfalls were, I really enjoyed the temple.

the entrance to the temple

a small shrine under a boulder

view of a pagoda from the top of the temple

the Buddha carved in sandstone

a closeup of the face

a row of small Buddha statues along the back of Buddha

Our final stop was 1000 Lingas.  It is a spot in the river where 1000 lingas are carved into the river bed.  A linga is used for Hindu worship and represents the god Shiva.  Why they are carved in the river bed, I do not know.  I have seen many rivers/creeks in my life and seeing the same object carved this many times in the bed in one location was really astounding to see.  Not only were there lingas carved, there were also yonis carved in the stone bed, which are the companion carving to the lingas.  It is said that lingas represent male anatomy and the yoni represents female anatomy.  Look at the pictures below and judge for yourself.

you can see all the small round carvings of lingas

a yoni

lingas on the side of the river

closeup of a linga

a local woman retrieving water from the river

On our way out of the park, there were a few stands on the side of the road selling huge bunches of bananas.  They were yellow, green, and red.  I had never seen red bananas before.  Since the vendor spoke no English, our driver talked to her and paid about $2 for all a sizable amount of bananas still attached to the tree - never had I seen this before.  All the bananas grown locally are very tiny, they fit in the palm of my hand, and are a bit sweeter than back in the states.  I was talking with a person from Cambodia who spent some time in up-state New York for college and she said the first time she saw a banana there, she was shocked at how big they are.

the stand selling bananas

the bananas our driver bought us on the way home

This was a fun day in Phnom Kulen National Park.  It was warm and humid in the jungle, but the visual stimuli made you forget the sultry weather.  The drive in is rather memorable, as is the sight of the giant Buddha.  If you visit Siem Reap and have a day to fill, this would be a great trip as you can visit the Cambodian Landmine Museum on the way there - I'll talk about that experience later.

Thanks for reading!