200 Days and the Countdown Begins

Just like the first 100 days, the last 100 days have evaporated before my eyes. I hit 100 days away while we were travelling the North Island of New Zealand on our term break roadie...and those memories seem so long ago. A lot has been accomplished in the past three months, and now there are only 7 days until I'm back on Canadian soil, and 11 days until I'm back on Mountain Standard Time.

I have one week left in Asia and I'm finding it hard to come to terms with the end of my travels. I'm very excited to be home to see all the friends and family that I miss so much (and sleep in a decent bed!), but I am pretty blue about ending my explorations. However, I think I will continue to travel in my heart as I annotate my photo albums to any keen ear.

I'll be thinking of words to write my final blog as I enjoy the next week in Vietnam and Hong Kong, and then gather my reflections while I'm in Vancouver for a few days. One thought that has weighed on my mind the whole time I've been away -- from Los Angeles to the Cook Islands, through New Zealand and across Asia -- is that the biggest culture shock might very well be my return to Canadian life. We've been laughing about how cheap we will be, especially after 2 months of asking, "is that your best price?" or inquiring about "happy hour" deals and such. Paying $5 for a meal is going to be a BIG splurge. I've consciously enjoyed the fact that our biggest stress has been organizing bus rides and choosing fabrics and leathers for our tailor-made goods.

At this point, the things I am looking most forward to when I get back home are:
1) catching up with family and friends
2) an Ice Capp from Timmy's
3) organised traffic and a LACK of honking
4) showers that do not soak the entire bathroom floor
5) home-made perogies

Things I am not looking forward to:
1) unpacking
2) a drained bank account
3) paperwork
4) enormous Gull Lake mosquitoes
5) a lack of ocean

More to come. Heading to Halong Bay.

Thanks for reading.

L.

Sprinting Around Vietnam

Capturing Cambodia

It was a long and winding road to Siem Reap, in fact, this memorable bus ride took nearly 16 hours! There are a lot of transport and accommodation scams operating in Thailand and Cambodia, and it seems as though our bus ride was one of them. We departed Bangkok at 8am, and after about 40 minutes our bus started driving about 15km/hr on the shoulder of the busy highway, raising a few eyebrows on board. In broken English our driver told us something was "wrong" with the bus and that we'd pull over at the service station to get it fixed and wait for a new bus. So we got off and before anyone could even look at the bus we were herded back on for another frustrating snail-paced drive. Finally, after much commotion among passengers, another bus DID show up to take us to the Cambodian border. We were now 3 hours behind schedule, which meant that we'd be seeing a lot of Cambodia in the dark.

The border between Thailand and Cambodia has a bit of a reputation among traveller's as being a bit dodgy. Thankfully, after our exhausting ride to the crossing we didn't have any hassle with our paper work and got onto the next bus which was, to say the least, interesting. Basically, we'd been spoiled with cushioned seats and air-conditioning thus far, but now we were back to the basics. The bumpy ride along the potholed dirt road was an appropriate reminder that we were no longer in a developed country. After the sun went down I was fixated on the lightning storm that filled the sky ahead of us, and although I was certain we'd run into it, it stayed at bay, filling the sky with enough light to illuminate the countryside of western Cambodia.

It was nearly midnight when we arrived and I was really glad that we'd made accommodation arrangements prior to arriving in Siem Reap because the place our bus stopped was infested with crickets and all sorts of other undesirables. However, it was at this drop-spot that we met Mr Kinal, our Tuk-Tuk chauffeur for our 4 days in Siem Reap.

In the morning we loaded our wallets with local Riel ($4000 Riel = $1USD), and also made sure we carried an ample supply of American $1 bills for all the little things -- drinks, Tuk-Tuks, and fresh fruit. However, we realised that a smile goes a long way in Cambodia, a kind of universal currency.

Some of my most vivid memories of this trip will be of Cambodia. The fine details in the carvings at Banteay Srey, the breath-taking view of Angkor Wat's grandiosity, our kind Tuk-Tuk driver, the fresh baguettes that stand as a reminder of French colonization, the smell of burning incense, Pepsi bottles of petrol along the side of the road, the heat of the sun and the dust on my skin. The children -- and everything about them: walking or biking the long road to school in their navy and white uniforms (equip with a backpack and determination); their smiles and persistence; the way they successfully ride adult-sized bikes; their memorization of the capital cities of main tourist countries, and their laughter.

We decided that we didn't travel all this way to make a sweep of Angkor in one day, and that we really owed it to this historical site to stay a while and absorb all that we could with a three-day pass. Here's a break-down of our sightseeing, with notes on religious affiliations and building dates (and some thoughts on our explorations):

DAY 1:

Bayon (Buddhist, late 12th, early 13th)
Five entrances to this moated city fortress, each gate is crowned with 4 giant faces. The faces were likely crafted by separate artists, one specialising in the left-side, the other specialising in the right-side.

Baphuon (Hindu, mid 11th)
Huge temple-mountain, largely collapsed and in a state of restoration. Unique animal carvings, and a \n impressive walkway to the entrance.

Phimeanakas (Hindu, late 10th, early 11th)
Laterite and sandstone, the tallest scalable temple in the Angkor Thom area. Served as a king's temple, but few carvings have survived the weather and looting.

Terrace of the Elephants (Buddhist, late 12th)
2.5 metres tall, 300 meters in length, this terrace has scenes of warriors and dancers, along with impressive carved elephants on display across the front of Bauphon, Phimeanakas, and the Royal Palace areas.

Ta Keo (Hindu, late 10th, early 11th)
Plainly decorated temple-mountain dedicated to Shiva. Constructed completely of sandstone.

Ta Prohm (Buddhist, mid 12th - early 13th)
A sprawling complex covered in jungle growth, with lots of corridors and passageways. Massive fig and silk-cotton trees grow from the towers and corridors which creates some fantastic photo ops. It was originally constructed as a Buddhist monastery and was enormously wealthy in its time, boasting control over 3000 villages with thousands of support staff and vast stores of jewels and gold. This was definitely one of our favourites, and it is one of the shooting locations for Tomb Raider.

DAY 2

Banteay Srey (Hindu, late 10th)
Translates as "Citadel of the Woman," and there are lots of delicate and intricate carvings in pink sandstone, which makes the exploration of this temple a very unique experience.

Banteay Samre (Hindu, mid 12th)
Large, relatively flat temple with extensive restoration and its towers resemble Angkor Wat.

Pre Rup (Hindu, late 12th)
Architecturally and artistically superior temple-mountain, with an impressive view (you can see the middle tower of Angkor Wat from the top). Believed to be a funerary temple, and the main courtyard has a room that was likely used as a crematorium. A nice breeze at the top!

Banteay Kdei (Buddhist, late 12th early 13th)
Another sprawling monastic course, largely unrestored, and also overgrown with magnificent trees. Undergoing restoration, so a few areas are blocked off or propped up with scaffolding.

Angkor Wat (Hindu, early to mid 12th)
Visually, architecturally, and artistically breathtaking. A massive three-tiered pyramid crowned with five lotus-like towers rising 65 meters from ground level. It was built to be dedicated to the Hindu god, Vishnu, and the three peaks bear symbolic significance to Hindu mythology. The incredible moat around the premise has both aesthetic and symbolic significance. Can't remember the proper names at the moment, so I'll have to come back and fill in the gaps.
The bas-reliefs (frieze, or extensive carved storytelling walls) pack quite the visual impact if you are patient and walk the perimeter.
The climb to the top is challenging, and I had to take a deep breath to overcome my hesitation with the steep height. But the view from the top was, as expected, spectacular.

DAY 3

Angkor Wat
Back to see all that we missed yesterday.

Taking a break during our exploration of the temples to curl up in a window frame and enjoy the view and a cool breeze will be one of those places I escape to in my mind during times of noise and haste. So peaceful.



The story of Cambodia is told in the temple carvings, the modes of transport, the political affiliations boasted at residential entrances, the heaps of fried crickets for sale by the dozen, the wrinkles that line the faces of the monks, the desperation in the voices of those who beg or ask for help, the haunted hallways of Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum and the heavy presence of loss hanging in the air at the killing fields at Choeng Ek. Both stories alluded to here -- the ancient history and the recent genocide -- are stories that the world doesn't really know, and the Cambodian story is one that needs to be told. More than 2 million Cambodians were massacred by the Khmer Rouge during Pol Pot's regime, and over 243 killing sites have been identified in Cambodia. If you're interested in learning more, check out the film "The Killing Fields" or pick up "First They Killed My Father," a memoir by Luong Ung, a child during the revolution in the late 1970s.


part of the Cambodian diet - fried crickets

pondering life

a humble abode

This brings me to the Lotus flower, a natural presence in Asia. The lotus flower starts as a small flower down at the bottom of a pond in the mud and muck. It slowly grows up towards the waters surface continually moving towards the light. Once it come to the surface of the water the lotus flower begins to blossom and turn into a beautiful flower.

Within Hinduism and Buddhism the lotus flower has become a symbol for awakening to the spiritual reality of life. The meaning varies slightly between the two religions but essentially both religious traditions place importance on the lotus flower.



I was reminded of this as I admired the lotus flowers in many of the ponds around the temples of Angkor. Despite the violent and horrific not-so-distant history of this country and its people, it has entered into a state of admirable recovery. After a few days of subconscious pondering I realised that the lotus is a perfect symbol for Cambodia -- after such pain this country is moving in a better direction, slowly but surely. There is an understanding that education is a key and although it is out of reach for some, this may not always be the case. Cambodia is already a beautiful place, but it is rising into something even more remarkable.

I suspect that a trip to Cambodia in ten years would be an entirely different experience. This country is beginning to develop and there are signs of a budding oil industry that will most certainly increase the economic stability. It's hard to say what a boom in the economy might do for this country -- there is a fear that it might not end up in the right hands.

I'll fill in more thoughts as they spark. Thanks for reading.

L.