Troy Archie – Everybody Knows This is Nowhere

Angkor
For a year while working at Mastco I had hanging on the wall of my cubical a picture of Angkor Wat.  It was there partially for symbolism and partially because I really wanted to go there.  Angkor is a huge ancient city built from about 900 ro like 1200AD.  The place is huge and is a masterpeice to a kingdom long forgotten.  You can read more about Angkor here as I’m not writing an essay on it.  

All those hours spent in my cubical being miserable have paid off and that time has come.  I bought myself a 7 day pass to the temples and all the temples in the area and have been slowly chipping away at a good portion of them.  I’ve been taking my time in them and in some cases spedning two hours in them.  The place is huge and I can’t really describe the vastness of it all.  There’s temples seemingly everywhere.  Lots are pretty beaten up and others are still being taken over by the jungle.  Restoration seems like a pretty slow process and because there’s so much to restore I can imagine it’s pretty overwelming.  Add in the fact that profit seems to be a little bit more important than restoration due to the entire plus up untill about 10 years ago this place was still in the grips of civil war you really get a feel of why things are where they’re at.

The amount of toursits here is quite insane but I guess that’s to be expected, Angkor is quite the thing to see.  Mainly Korean and Japanesse tourists with a mix of French.  The tour groups and the sizes of them are ridiculous.  Lot’s of French in Laos too, I guess because they both used to be under French “Protectorite”.  There’s been a couple places where the amount of people has been a joke and other times not another soul to be seen.  I kind of think that a lot of the tour groups are told what to like and appreciate.  I went to Angkor Wat for a quick stop to look at these carvings that I somehow missed earlier.  There was a line up going in but everyone was just going straight in and climbing to the top, which is what I did my first time in there too.  This time though when I got into the main door I went down one of the side halls to where these carvings were and was astonished as to what I saw.  All the way around the entire complex was some of the most detailed and beautiful carvings in most likely the world and the only person there was me.

Wall to Wall Carvings

Turning of the Ocean’s Milk

Judgement

I am the best self-photographer in the world.

I was a bit confused as to how I could have missed the carvings but how the tour groups missed all this I couldn’t believe.  Mean while at another temple with some OK art work, people were flocking in droves to see them.  The ones on the outside of Angkor were nsane though and was the highlight.  The detailing was amazing, the fights and battles etched on those walls were epic and the accient Buddhist and Hindu stories breathtaking.  If you’re ever passing by Cambodia, stop on by and check this place out.

I was a bit confused as to how I could have missed the carvings but how the tour groups missed all this I couldn’t believe.  Mean while at another temple with some OK art work, people were flocking in droves to see them.  The ones on the outside of Angkor were nsane though and was the highlight.  The detailing was amazing, the fights and battles etched on those walls were epic and the accient Buddhist and Hindu stories breathtaking.  If you’re ever passing by Cambodia, stop on by and check this place out.Yeah so Angkor Wat is freaking cool.  I spent a lot of my time there just pissing around, getting lost and general wandering.  I really can’t put it in words and explain any of the things in writing in words only really breath taking.  I took crap loads of pictures of the place but they give little or no justification as to what I saw there. 

Cambodia
Siem Reap is the town just south of Angkor and therefore has become the base for massive amounts of hotels, restaurants and spas.  It’s really quite sureal to see some of the nicest 5-star resorts I’ve ever seen next to some of the poorest people I’ve ever seen.  The disparity here is pretty huge.  The rich are rich and the poor are dirt poor.  Everyone in Laos on the other hand was much more close together.  The people weren’t, on a whole as poor as they are here but they’re not as rich either.  That’s communism for you I guess.  I read that something like only 20% of the country has power and I’d believe it, when coming from Laos all of the farms and small farm towns had no power, unless they generated it themselves.  I also read that like 90% of the country is substance farmers, meaning that what the people grow they use for their own use and don’t take it to market.  The place is pretty dam poor.  Fair amount of beggqars and even worse amputies from all the mines and UXO’s left over from years of fighting.  Meanwhile you look across the street and see luxury items and shops and imported items from back home all over the place.  I had this expat that lives in Phenon Phen, the capital telling me things weren’t all that bad and that things were actually really good.  I brought up the lack of power in the rural areas and fact that most of the houses I passed on the way from Laos to Siem were in pretty rough shape and made from just about anything from plastic bags, feedbags and cardboard.  He said they prefered it that way, that they liked houses that were breezy and open, it was there style.  Sure, whatever you say.  It’s pretty easy to think that when all you see is city and it’s inhabitants.  I saw another side which I have written of down more.

Schedual to Asia Time
One thing about traelling here in Asia is that it’s nearly impossible to sleep in past 7am, as they’re all early starters here.  I’m often up at 6am  and in some places as early as 5 depending on the mood of the town.  The more of a market town it is the earlier the people are up and doing there thing.  In Nam Tha you could go down to the market at 6:30 and the place would be packed and the streets would be buzzing but once 8 rolled around it was a ghost town.  It also doesn’t help that there’s fame animals meandering in the streets and nearly everyone has a couple chickens kicking around.  Even in the large centers like Chiang Mai with a popullation of 1 million I was often woken up at 6 by roosters.  In Siem Reap, a city of about 160 000 with an economy based around tourism I saw a guy herding cattle in the main street.

Ordering food in Asia
I have the this re-occuring problem here in Asia where when I order a meal I’ll often get something more than I ordered.  In Pakse I enquired about the steamed fish and was told it would take 20 minutes to cook so I decided on the red curry.  I got my curry and was about to pack up to leave when I was given the steamed fish that I enquired about but didn’t order.  Good thing I was still hungry as I ordered the curry without rice and was going to go down to the market for some nibbles.  In Siem Reap I was asked if I would like another coffee, I said I was good.  2 minutes later I was handed another coffee.  Again in Siem Reap I saw this Japanesse Cafe and my coffee sences were tingling, telling me that they might pour a good cup there so I went to look at the menu.  They had the lunch special on display and I looked at it a bit enquiring about how much it was.  I then sat down, looked through the menu andordered an espresso.  Minutes passed by and I still hadn’t recieved my coffee but this is Asia and everything takes forever and I’m used to it now.  Plus I thought it must be a really good coffee to be taking this long.  Along comes the waitress with the lunch menu set.  I guess espresso is Japanesse for lunch set.  In this case I was just about to go for lunch after my coffee so it kind of worked out plus it was dam good.  Same with the steamed fish incident and the coffee one too.  Again it happened just the other night when I was having dinner with a couple from Ottawa, Ryan & Julia.  We all ordered a set meal and all ordered the same soup but when the soup came they gave us all the wrong soup.  It was still dam good though.

Also, when eating in Asia it takes a really really long time.  They don’t do any pre-prepping the food so when you order something they gotta go and chop it all up and then cook it.  Getting your food quickly just doesn’t happen.  I’m used to this by now and don’t even notice it, meanwhile I have to feel bad for the people that come in here for 2 week vacations or in package tours and expect the same speed and hospitality because they just don’t get it here and most don’t seem to understand it.  Asking for something to be a little different, have something held or have more of isn’t going to happen and you’re going to get it the same as they always cook it.  It’s not that the people are being rude it’s just that most of the time they don’t understand and just smile and nod out of politness.  It’s sad to see the people get chewed out by some fat tourist and there’s lots in and around Angkor, as the people just don’t understand and they try so dam hard at the same time too.

Buying Stamps
So after my Japanesse espresso incident I asked where them where the post office was and made my way off to buy stamps to the lucky few who get postcards from me.  Along the way I started chatting with a young Cambodian guy and he asked me if I wanted to sit down and talk a while.  Sure I said, having no having no where of any real importance to be plus talking with him might open up an interesting insight to the country and people of Cambodia.  We chatted for a bit and learned that he was a student studying English and at night vollenteers to teach young children at a school for kids who are too poor to go to school during the day.  Pretty honorable I figure.  Soon he asks me if I could give him money for the school aka a donation.  He pulls out this crumpled piece of paper that has some information on the school and on the back a list of names, a short list albeit, of people who have made donations in the past.  He tells me a bit more about it all and points out his friends nearby that they all help at the school.  They’re the typical looking Cambodian teen and there’s lots of them here as the average age in Cambodia is 20.  I’m thinking that this is a bit fishy and decided to call the guy out asking him if we could take me to the school.  He says yes and that it’s not far, we start walking down the street and he hesitates saying that it would be better if I went with his friends on their motorbike.  I say sure and jump on with two other guys on this little scooter and we take off down the road.  We drive the length of Siem Reap, which isn’t that big, and start to get to the outskirts of town, vear off the main road where all the traffic is heading out to Angkor and continue on.  I can feel the guy behind me holding on to the seat of the bike and can swear he’s feeling out my wallet.  I think great, another strange one I could be getting myself into.  I’m starting to get a bit uneasy and we soon pull off down a dirt road, while we do one of the them points out a beaten to crap old, or appears to be old, sign on the side of the road that says something about a school for empoverished youths.  It’s pretty rustic and am eased a little by it.  We drive past some artists carving statues and such and pull into a little area with some regular looking straw huts and they proclaim we’re here.  They take me into what appears to be the main office and sit me down.  There English is not that great and they and explain what they’re about and that the director will be here soon.  Sure enough a young monk pulls up on a bike, orange robes flowing in the wind and a greating smile.  He introduced himself, Nn Rathana and told me about the school and all it was about.  I’ll save the typing and link their site.  I thought it was pretty cool and made a donation.  What I really liked about the school and his operation was that it is grassroots.  I get the feeling that here in Cambodia, with so many charitable organizations, NGO’s and international funding that much of this money is not getting to the people and tackling their problems directly but instead is disappearing into the blackhole of bureaucracy and corruption that is Cambodia. 

After we talk for about an hour or so he asks me if I’d like to help out by teaching English at night from 5-7.  I tell him I’ve never taught before but he says that I can speak English and that’s all I need to know.  It was about 4 and I thought sure, maybe tomorrow I’ll stop on by and check it out.  I kind of stutter a “yeah sure” and as I say that I’m shoved into a classroom and suddenly from around the corner a stream of young kids come ushering in and take their seats.  For the next hour I teach English, going through my name, where I’m from and lists of words that many of kids produce that they want the pronunciation for and the definition.  One girl had what appeared to be a list of words she took from a keyboard and mobile phone.  Words like “Anykey”, “Delete”, “Text Alert”, “Instant Message” and so on.  Defining “Anykey” was fun with me drawing a keypad from a mobile and going from there.  It was good fun and an hour passed by pretty dam quick.  I’ve ended up going back a couple times now to help out at nights.  2 hours passes by really fast in those little wood thatch huts and I leave with a good feeling inside, which is a nice change from how I feel when going around the town of Siem Reap.  I helped out there a couple more times, it was good fun and rather insightful.  Talking to one of the guys was really interesting and had some interesting things to say about the furture of Cambodia and it’s many young people.

Arbitrary Thoughts and Happenings
Coffee Laos – I miss Laos coffee big time.  In Vientaine I found this little cafe that roasted there own beans and served nothing but coffee.  In the cafe they these big bins of raw beans and while I was there after the owner had served me she began sifting through the raw beans meticuously picking out the top beans for roasting.  Good coffee there.  Someone mentioned I should open my own cafe.  Someone else mentioned I should write a coffee guide book.  hmm…. 

Ryan and Julia – Two Canadians that I kept running into all throughout Laos and now a into Cambodia.  They’ve taken off to Nepal now so I guess that’ll be the end of chance meetings with them.  Here’s a small worlder for you; Julia was in New Zealand and Australia for a month or two before Thailand.  She flew from Sydney to Bangkok on Oct. 31st.  So did I.  She flew with Thai Airlines.  So did I.  She flew on the evening flight landing in Bangkok at 10pm.  So did I.  Don’t get too much smaller then that.

A shout out congrats to Kate and her new baby Slater.  Wish I was there.

That’s all I can think of typing for now.  In Battambang now and just finished taking a Khmer cooking class, good stuff.

Troy

Tags: Cambodia

This entry was posted on Friday, January 12th, 2007 at 4:29 am and is filed under Cambodia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.