OK, I probably won't be able to finish this and it's not because I've been drinking Palm Wine (or perhaps stronger than wine) and eating fertilized duck eggs with the Tuk-tuk drivers across the street from our GH. Just because the Palm Wine is in used water bottles, you really shouldn't turn your nose up at it. And the duck eggs, while the idea of it might turn you off, once you have had a couple of shots of the former, you can easily eat the latter. And as for the company, and as we stumble through English they've learned on the streets, you couldn't ask for any better. We laugh and joke and even ask a few serious questions. When you cross the street, both culturally and economically, that is when you get to know a country and its people. The 5 Star hotel and bus tours just don't work for me.
Now it's Friday; where did the time go? I better get busy on this as we are up in Laos now, and been here 3 days. So I will return to Siem Reap and our visit to Angkor Wat.
We traveled by a six hour bus trip from Phnom Penh and we stayed at a guest house run by an American ex-pat and his Thai wife. They are going to be leaving this comfortable life style in a few months to live in San Francisco. Gordon is a great father, but comes across as being a bit arrogant. The rooms were comfortable enough, with fan, A/C and a TV (the latter is a bonus for me as we don't have TV back home... I am too easily addicted to it). The all Cambodian staff spoke a little English, but not well. All things considered, it was a good location and the price fair and it was away from the tour buses and big hotels.
Dan and Joanne had just come back from a walk when the four of arrived. Dan went for a rest while the rest of us walked down to the National Museum, a quite recent addition and a beautiful one at that. The displays were well laid out with good descriptions and explanations. Very briefly, the 144 square kilometers that make up the Angkor Wat complex, was started back in the 800's and once had a general population of several hundred thousand people. The "City of Stones" that were left behind were largely religious, Hindu, which over the centuries became a Buddhist center. The "wat" is a religious temple and they weren't satisfied with one large one, no, they are scattered over a large area, some of them are over 20KM from the central wat.
The next day we planned to go to Angkor and the surrounding wats with a guide. However, my cough was still bothering me and I was concerned about it dropping into my lungs, that I would crack a rib or it would start a new hernia. So I spent most of the day in our room while the others got a tour of about eleven hours for $30 and $15 for the tuk-tuks. For me, it wasn't a great days.. The rest of them returned around 5:30, hot and tired as the temperature was in 90ยบ's. The guide was a university graduate in anthropology, so he was a great source of information and added a great deal to their visit.
The next day, cough or no cough, I was determined to see this wonderful site. We were going out in two tuk-tuks (yes, some of the same drivers referred to in the Palm Wine incident up top) to a couple of wats about 15KM out of town. We drove by the the main complex and the moat that surrounds it, a square mile, all dug with the people's labor for the king, plus all of the stone that was brought in from the quarries which were 30 miles away. It is hard to believe that all of this was completed in just 30 some years! We drove through small villages that sustain themselves through the tourist industry, farming and the typical small town business of the merchants and repair shops. There seem to be certain villages that have one speciality or another. One that we stopped in was the making of palm sugar. The men climb these impossibly high palm trees, aided by a single bamboo pole, 30 to 45 feet long, that are tied to the tree. Once up there, they make a cut in the palm flower and after a couple of days of this the sap begins to run and they collect 3 or 4 liters which their wives boil down into the sugar.
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