Wat We Saw in Cambodia

To whom it may still concern,

Faster than we could imagine possible, it was time to say goodbye to the land of Pad Thai, and start our 24 hour long bus ride to Siem Reap, Cambodia. Some attentive readers might wonder how it could possibly take 24 hours to travel approximately 1,000 km (just over 600 miles), but one can easily rectify their faulty reasoning in this matter by accounting for the fact that 1) six different buses and a tuk-tuk were actually used to transport us from point A to point B, 2) the bus route took us back through Bangkok for the third time where we spent a couple wee hours of the morning drinking coffee at Burger King and watching a frog hop around the gutter, 3) we had to navigate past three different scam "visa offices" at the border, and 4) the current condition of the roads in Cambodia. Good times were had by all though, and it would not be exaggerating to say that both Carol and I were in very good spirits when we finally arrived in Siem Reap well after nightfall. We were alive, we were in Cambodia, and we had avoided the classic border scams. Needless to say we were very proud of ourselves, and it kept getting better.

Carol and the world's largest religious religious monument (Angkor Wat)

Carol had found a wonderful place on the internet ahead of time, but the problem with the internet is that everything looks wonderful. Anyone with a digital camera and a computer can turn their shack into a veritable sparkling diamond resort for potential wayfarers. But, that's just the way it is, and I'm as guilty as anyone (most photos I take are timed to just barely avoid a pile of garbage, powerline, or dreadlocked tourist). Tangent. Anyhow, the point is that we liked The Golden Mango Inn very much, and it was equal to its slick website in every way imaginable. The pool, included breakfasts, and free tuk-tuk rides into the city center were very much appreciated.

Siem Reap is home to about 170,000 people, and is namesake of Ang Chan's victory against a Siamese invasion back in the 14th century. However, it has become a tourist destination primarily because it sits just a few kilometers from the incredible Angkor Wat temple complex, originally built in the 12th century as a Hindu temple, converted to a Buddhist monastery, abandoned for a few hundred years, and the re-discovered by the West in the mid 19th century. Aside from being a photographer's dream come true, Carol and I found ourselves deeply intrigued by the history of the Khmer people that engineered and built Angkor, Thom, Bayon, numerous other Wat, and nearby temple cities, as well as the massive network of canals and waterways that supported the Khmer empire agriculturally in the dry seasons.

Joe at the Land Mine Museum

Our stay in Siem Reap was far too short, but included a visit to the Cambodian Land Mine Museum, a tour of the Angkor National Museum, a date night on Pub Street, an evening at Phare (the Cambodian Circus), and of course a day of visiting the various temples of Angkor by bicycle. From a PT perspective, Carol especially enjoyed watching several musical groups comprised of men who had lost limbs to land mines play traditional Khmer music. We won't attempt describe every detail here, but each experience was unique and impressed us in its own way. Hopefully the photos will speak for themselves a bit.

On a parallel line of thought, I think Carol and I may be getting better at being 'tourists'. It was a somewhat new experience for us in Thailand, and one that left us feeling a bit washed out because there was no 'work' to keep our minds and hearts directly occupied. But, as strange as it seems to put into words, we're steadily learning to value our time together and with God no matter what the circumstances; good or bad, busy or restrained, frantic or relaxed. We like ourselves when we are 'useful' or 'busy', but relying on usefulness to generate or dictate our identity is simply not an option. We reject the notion that once our perceived value diminishes (whether through our own choices or according to some social or cosmic definition), we become less worthy of invoking self-love and might as well give into despair. Not that we give up discipline and responsibility while outside of our daily routine (for instance, while traveling), but instead practice defining these aspects of the Christian life outside of adherence to a specific routine or cultural context so that when circumstances shift later in life for better or worse, our core behaviors do not. I may be repeating old ideas (hopefully not old heresies), or simply justifying my own existence, but it seems to me that this is all part of the process of learning to "be still and know that I am God".

Reviewing what I've written in this installment thus far, I must concede that it is rather preachy, and sparse on specifics and details. This is always a danger when so many new experiences transpire between journal entries and conglomerations of entertaining stories once remembered vividly blur into vaguely academic sounding prose. But, since it is the myriad of day-to-day happenings that Carol and I value so much about this trip, I'll leave off with two specific, but random and possibly trivial examples of how we are being blessed along the way.

Bayon Temple... bring extra memory cards for your camera

First, just this morning as we were leaving the Saigon Backpackers Hostel (one of thousands of places to stay in Ho Chi Minh City), Maddy walked in the door. This is only weird because Maddy is a friend that we met over a month ago while walking late one afternoon in the middle of the Himalayas. That night the three of us had shared a room in the only 'hotel' for miles around, and heated ourselves tea to keep warm which we drank out of plastic Coke bottles cut in half. But, suddenly the three of us were chatting again in Vietnam and sharing stories about post-trek blister recovery. Unexpectedly good times.

Tuk-Tuk Ride

Second, about 4:00am while waiting for our Bangkok bus transfer (midway through the aforementioned epic 24 hour bus ride to Cambodia), Carol noticed that one of her favorite earrings was missing from her ear. Bummer, but nothing serious, and after retracing our steps once we gave it up as a bad job and went back to trying not to fall asleep face-first into our Burger King hash browns (it had been a long night on the bus). It wasn't until an hour and a half later that Carol and I were sitting on the curbside a half mile down the road, that I 1) mumbled something about wishing we had looked harder for the earring, and 2) looked down and saw the earring about three feet from us (it was only one foot from where the frog had been) with not even a scratch on it. It was a good moment, and to spice this up with some deep spiritual truth, I'll put a link to the story of the widow and the lost coin.

Anyway, it's time to put this episode to bed now so that we can move on to even more ridiculous stories that will probably involve yet another really long bus ride. Until then...

Peace,

Joe