Holiday in Cambodia Part 7

Welcome back to our Holiday in Cambodia series. We last left our 3 heroes as they came to the end of thier exploration of the ancient Angkor temples. Haveing daylight left and not wanting to waste it they asked their trusty guide for ideas on what to see next. He said they should go see the floating village. We rejoin our protagonists as they board the boat.

The area around the docks did not look very promising. There was construction surrounding us (im not sure what for) and the water was stained with the mud. Although we were on a lake, this part of it was a long skinny bay and seemed like a river to and from nowhere untill we entered the lake proper. along the shores were many houseboats. At first I thought that this was the 'floating village' and was mildly disappointed.

As we neared the end of the bay a small boat, which looked like a canoe with an outboard motor attached pulled along side our boat. A little girl was standing in it with a basket full of soda while her father drove the boat. Then she lept, soda in arms, onto our boat to sell it to us. We were all duly impressed. Steve and Johnny were impressed enough to buy soda from her.

We were boarded by another kid not long after. We had to turn him down however, despite his impressive jumping from boat to boat.

By this time the lake had widened and we saw what looked like a village on the far shore. But the lake is too big and we shouldnt have been able to see the shore....That was the floating village.

There were actually two villages, one for Cambodian citizens and the other was made of illegal Vietnamese immigrants.
We floated into one of the villages. It was compleate with houses, gardens, convenience stores, gas stations, and even a resturant/gift shop which we stopped at to look around. While we were there, we saw they had a fishery full of catfish and an area that they raised alligators in. A young boy paddled up in a large basin and had a snake around his neck. It was adorable, but he was charging for pictures.

We didnt eat at that restaurant, however, it was turtle meat night.
After the boat ride, Panna took us to his favorite turtle meat shop. It took a while to prepare, but it was quite a treat when it arrived. It was as if just the shell had been removed and all the innards cut up and cooked. The legs and head were still there also. Everything on the plate was edible and tasty. I would compare it to that of frog legs.

Back in Bangkok

At 5am today I arrived back in bangkok. I'm not sure if I'll ever catch up on the blogging, but I will do my best as I am continually surprised by how many people read my posts. I am currently having a bit trouble with Internet here, for my NETbook refuses to connect to the NET. Luckily for me Steve has destroyed any semblance of haveing a normal sleep schedule durring songkhran, and is still asleep at 4:30pm, leaveing his computer open for me to peruse Windows tech forums online. My frustration is mounting, however, and the klong that our balcony overlooks is a more and more tempting destination for me to send the laptop.

I must appologize in advance for my lack of pictures of the songkhran holiday. Please understand, it is a water festival, and its nearly impossible to get pictures without risking the camera--and i just got a new one.

I went down to the money changers on Khao San Road today (none of whom changed Kip (lao money) into baht) and the effects of the red shirt violence were clearly evident in the emptyness of the road. what was usually a bustling pain in the ass to walk through was a leisurly stroll. Even the usually annoyingly eager suit salesmen seemed resigned to the fact that business was going to be tough. I only had one approach me (usually i get about 5 or 6 durring a walk down the street).

While I was in the area I thought I would stop by the Democracy Monument and see what damage had been done. When I got there there was a small press conference going on with the Deputy of Fine Arts talking about what restoration was needed. Although I couldnt understand what he was saying, he pointed out all of the graffiti and bullet-holes on it. Ill have pictures to post if I ever get my netbook working again. Which I am losing hope for rather quickly given that I just ran every applicable update I can find and its still nothing more than an expensive paperweight

"This cold war just got hot"

Im sure many of you have seen the news coming out of bangkok about protests turning violent and at last count 20 people haveing been killed. Unfortunately this is no exaggeration.

Luckily both Steve and I are safe.

I am currently in Chaing Mai celebrating the songkram festival. It is ridiculous. At one point I got chased down a soi by novice monks with buckets and waterguns as they yelled warcrys. Taking the bus from Pai to Chaing Mai caused me to become drenched in water as children in the villages set up checkpoints to splash the buses from all sides. Note, i was near the door of the bus, which is usually left open due to the heat.

Steve is still in Bangkok, but our side of the river still hasnt seen much violence. The day of the killings he was at the mall and ran into one of our Ajans (professors). Ajan took him and Johnny out for beers. One of the main bridges that we would use if going to school by motobike or taxi has been blocked off because of the violence. This nicely isolates the area we live a little bit.

Its definitely an odd feeling to know that the place that you live is considered relativity unsafe. Luckily theres a whole lot more country to explore, but even if it did get bad enough that i would have to leave early (which i dont think will happen, and i really hope doesnt happen) id still have to go to bangkok to get all my stuff and fly out of that airport.

Contest: 20 Baht note to whoever can name the movie, starring a cast member of Friends, that i quoted in the title of this post.

State of Emergency

Today the redshirts stormed parliament and the Government declared a state of emergency. This will affect me and Steve very little for three reasons
1) the state of emergency just gives the government slightly more enforcement power. But really, they havent been using all the power they had to start with with the Internal Security Act. The state of emergency could just be more posturing by the government.
2) both red and yellow shirts love farang. Unless we were to actively enter some fray it would take some serious bad luck or stupidity to put us in harms way for now.
3) A week off school is comming up, and that means traveling. Right now its looking like im heading back into the northern mountains and then to laos. Steve is looking at possible island options and then also intends to meet in laos.

So really the question will be what kind of Bangkok will we return to.

(and yes i know im way behind on the cambodia posts, but eventualy ill catch up...but likely not before this next bout of travel)

Holiday in Cambodia Part 6

Day two of seeing the Angkor temples started off with the namesake temple Angkor Wat. We arrived a bit after all of the sunrise photographers left and before the main tourist groups crowded in.

Almost as big as Angkor Wat was the walkway to the main building. Upon entering and delving deeper and deeper we soon became surrounded by nothing but gray stones in varying shades.

Exploring Angkor Wat was a fun experience because I got to see all those pictures from National Geographic come to life.
Hours more were spent looking at many of the minor temples surrounding Angkor Wat. Unfortunately i dont have time to write about them all, so here is a selection of pictures.

Holiday in Cambodia Part 5

As we were hiking through the temples and talking with Panna I mentioned that there were less stray dogs in Siem Reap than there are in Bangkok. He joked that it was because Khemers eat dog meat. I said id like to try it. He offered to take us to a dog meat shop. So after we were done seeing the temples he took us to his favorite "Sai Besse" (Khemer for 'special meat') store. We sat down and were handed small platters of cut up cooked meat, and bowls of gravy.

Not knowing what to expect, we jumped in head first, grabbing our chopsticks and tossing the bits of meat into our mouth. For me, at least, the taste was very unusual. It took a few bites before I could even describe it. All 3 of us described the taste in wildly different ways. Steve says its a gamey red meat. I say its a cross between turkey and deer. It took a bit of acclimation to the taste before I could enjoy it, but halfway through the meal I was as happy as if I was eating a nice juicy hamburger.

Panna ordered a second plate, and this one had dog intestine on it. I joked that this was an actual hot dog. This I did not care for.

Steve noticed that the other tables were drinking some dark liquid as shots out of a water bottle. When he inquired Panna explained that its local rice wine. We ordered a bottle, as I always like to try the local homebrew (The lahu whisky from chaing mai is still my favorite brand, and I'm saving the last bit for a special occasion). The rice wine was surprisingly smooth, and surprisingly high proof. It had an almost coffee like taste to it, and went down with very little burn. The fact that I could soon feel the effects makes me certain that its alcohol level is deceiving high. All of the other patrons of the resturant got a kick out of seeing a trio of Barang (as forigners are called in khemer) eating dog and saying the traditional Khemer cheers 'Jul Muy' as we took our shots of rice wine.

When we finished Panna invited us to his house to meet his wife, child and neighbors. The thought of turning down such an offer did not even cross our minds.

Panna lives in a modest apartment that consists of a main room (for living and sleeping) and a utility room and a bathroom. Cooking is done in the small yard of the apartments. He has a lovely wife and an adorable little daughter. He introduced us to his friend Nhit, who sat down with us and through Panna translating asked us some questions about America during dinner. Oh yeah, dinner. yes, we did just come from the Special Meat shop, but that didnt stop Panna's wife from going to the store to grab a bag full of beers for those who wanted to drink and then proceed to cook a delicious spread of curries, and fish, with rice, of course.

We sat and ate and chatted for a while. Panna and Nhit showed us a car that they use to smuggle teakwood. They had reinforced it and modified the shocks so that it could haul 200 kg of wood. He said it was the easiest way to get ahead because it can run a profit of a few hundred dollars for a load. They use the car rather than a truck because it costs less to pay the bribes. Interestingly Panna didnt know that Teakwood was a valuable and popular wood from everything from tables to floors.

Eventually we felt it became late and Panna drove us back to the guesthouse with our stomachs quite happy.

Holiday in Camboida Part 4

After lunch it was off to see...MORE RUINS!

First stop, the Elephant Terrace. Its about 100 yards of immaculate carvings on the side of a raised ritual platform. The predominant motif is elephants. Panna told us that once a year the population would gather at this structure and clean it from top to bottom. In the following picture you can see a bit less than half of the length.

Then we continued on to another of the more famous temples: Bayon.

Every tower of the Bayon temple has the kings face looking out in all 4 of the cardinal directions. Bayon definitely was able to create an otherworldly feel. The temple was made out of a very light colored stone, and the temple lacked any overgrowth. This gave it a very different feel than the previous temples we explored. Walking through the ruin everything is bright, and yet the colors are cool, in defiance of the actual temperature. The enigmatic smile of the Bayon towers is everywhere and at every turn, looking out in a fatherly way. Eventually every part of the temple blended into one and it was conceivable that as we walked through it we were only spinning in a circle taking the same view in again and again, but it was not monotonous, only majestic.

While we were leaving the town (Bayon, along with a few other minor temples is in an ancient city called Angkor Thom) we went through the south gate, which is done in the style of the Bayon temple with the road lined with demons on one side and gods on the other.

Next we went to an outlying temple called Banteay Srei. Banteay Srei is a temple dedicated to female deities of Hinduism.

The temple was made of a red clay colored brick. The carvings were very well preserved, and was a deeper engraving than most. The entire time we toured the temple we heard tradition Khemer music coming from somewhere. It really added to the atmosphere of the place. There were number on some of the blocks on the ground for the reconstruction process.

As we finished walking through the temple we found at the back a group of musicians playing the music that gave us such an authentic feeling atmosphere during our exploration. These bands are found around a few of the Angkor temples, and are comprised of landmine victims. We put some money in their bowl to end our templeing for the day with good merit.