Cambodia, Southeast Asia
A trip of service, food, ancient temples, 17 teenagers, HEAT and new perspectives.
Cambodia is an amazing country. Just under 40 years ago (1975-1979), the country suffered a genocide that wiped out, literally, half their population. Pol Pot, the high school history teacher, decided to take a political stand and he was one of the "master minds" behind the genocide of the Khmer Rouge regime during those years. But now, you can go to Cambodia and find a happy little Buddhist country filled with hundreds of smiling facing, a bustle of city life, people working their fields, fascinating ancient temples and of course, you can go and visit the terrorizing sites of the Killing Fields and Torture Prisons.
Food in Cambodia:
Um, WOW! I loved the food in Cambodia. Everyday was a wonderful surprise of lamb, beef, and pork mixed with local vegetables, amazing rice (and for those of you who don´t know rice- YES, rice can be very varied and wonderful- even if it is all...well, white) and spiced with cinnamon, garlic, saffron, pepper, ginger and other wonderful things that grow from the ground. OOOOOOOH, I was in love...take a peek.
lots of veggies and rice.... the fuzzy strawberries are "rambutans"
Blueberry Ice Cream flavored Oreos, coffee and "cream" and a welcome coconut drink!
more delicious main course action, funky jelly candies (don´t forget- I´m still in Asia) and sugar cane boiled sticky rice- YUM!!!!
in the middle is a fish soup dish cooked and served from a coconut
Here is our Angkor Wat tour guide teaching us how to eat the fruit of a lilly pad. Kind of like snap peas.
Service: As one of our main goals of the trip- we did some service work at a local school through an organization called Camps International. Their newest (and first) site in Cambodia is called Camp Beng Maelea (May leah) and we "camped".... which was very interesting with adolescents who only stay in 5 star hotels with their parents.
Camp Beng Maelea, the oxcarts that came to get out luggage and carry it from the bus to the camp and then me- walking through the small jungle/farmland to get to our service site.
Fixing up a water storage shed, and two pics of a school room where we were working
Painting (the "fun part") and sifting cement to mix.
The Sites: Siem Reap is a "small" city. Well, not small (it is the 2nd largest in Cambodia, I think) but in comparison to Seoul you can really tell it is as developing country. Their largest road is a two- way highway that was built in the past decade connecting Siem Reap and Phnom Penh. The amount of oxcarts and motorcycles you see is awesome and about every minute down the road you could stop and buy a fish or chicken from someone right on the side of the road. Siem Reap was great for the markets- I did a little bit of shopping and a lot of bargaining. FUN!
The Sites: Siem Reap is a "small" city. Well, not small (it is the 2nd largest in Cambodia, I think) but in comparison to Seoul you can really tell it is as developing country. Their largest road is a two- way highway that was built in the past decade connecting Siem Reap and Phnom Penh. The amount of oxcarts and motorcycles you see is awesome and about every minute down the road you could stop and buy a fish or chicken from someone right on the side of the road. Siem Reap was great for the markets- I did a little bit of shopping and a lot of bargaining. FUN!
Here´s a look at Siem Reap.
A roundabout by the river, an intersection and the market.
Phnom Penh- a much larger city with stoplights (haha). Plus they have great places to do things like dinner theatre, the Russian Market (where we lost a student! SCARY!), S-21- a very famous and large, haunting torture prison during the genocide of the Khmer Rouge, the Killing Feilds outside the city and the Royal Palace- which is a beautifully updated grounds- and the king still lives there.
Street view. Below: The Royal Palace.
The temples: The temples in Cambodia are amazing. Really, really amazing. The majority of the temples we visited were in Angkor, Cambodia. Here´s a look:
Bayon: Bayon is the temple of "triple faces".... to put it pretty simply. Bayon is at the center of the Angkor capital, Angkor Thom and was build in the late 12th or early 13th century by a Buddhist king named Jayavarman. When he died, succeeding kings transformed the temples to match their own religious beliefs. Today, when you enter, one of the first things you see is construction and a big sign about conserving the temples. The Japanese government is helping them out with the conservation and what I think is particularly awesome is that they have entrusted some of this work to university archeology students. Sweet project!
Bayon: Bayon is the temple of "triple faces".... to put it pretty simply. Bayon is at the center of the Angkor capital, Angkor Thom and was build in the late 12th or early 13th century by a Buddhist king named Jayavarman. When he died, succeeding kings transformed the temples to match their own religious beliefs. Today, when you enter, one of the first things you see is construction and a big sign about conserving the temples. The Japanese government is helping them out with the conservation and what I think is particularly awesome is that they have entrusted some of this work to university archeology students. Sweet project!
Surprisingly, lots of statues without heads is a common sight- religious in-similarities have been the root of many decapitations.
Ta Phrom: Have you seen Tomb Rader? Maybe Ta Phrom will job your memory... it´s an over-grown temple in the jungle that has been mostly left in the condition in which it was found. It´s really quite amazing to see how the roots of cotton trees and plants grow right out of the rubble and broken rock even though you can still see the exquisite details of an ancient palace.
Anuj and the children waiting outside the temple for the tourists... they followed us for at least 500 meters. He bought a whistle and I bought bracelets.
Angkor Wat: Angkor is the name of the city and Angkor Wat is "the temple" and for a good reason- it´s simply amazing.
No comments:
Post a Comment