Angkor Wat

We met some med students on the bus to Siem Riep, who had an extra bed in the room, and conveniently, we didn’t have a place to stay yet. Staying with them reduces the price to $6 USD a person per night. Score. Angkor Wat was definitely a sight to behold. Feeling as if you are stepping into a movie, and rightfully so, as many movies were filmed here. We stopped to laugh at some monkeys, as they rolled a few ancient relics off a rock, breaking them, and then running away like a teenage boy who just egged his crush’s house. Around every corner you can see the poverty in this nation in the people. The dirty kids who are selling trinkets for their parents, who are keeping a watchful eye from afar. Two boys were stick fighting on the ledge of an ancient temple and we struck up a conversation. Even the kids in this area can rattle off phrases and hold a conversation in languages such as English, Spanish, Thai, French, and Korean.  The boys of course asked for candy, we only had bread, which they gladly sat on the ledge of the temple and shared, while dropping their gum wrappers on the grass. As you walk into nearly every temple complex, there is a band of land mine victims with a sign saying they want to live in dignity, please make a donation, or buy a CD. They were actually pretty great musicians, regardless of if they had no hands, one arm, or were blind. Aside from the beggar kids who harass you for hours trying to sell postcards and bracelets (I asked them each time why they were not in school, where their mother was, always getting a response of, “I go school in morning” when I reminded them it was morning, they got a little flustered and one girl even said she didn’t like me) there was one boy who caught our eye. He had his school bag, and was wearing shoes, which was not typical for this area. I said hi and we passed which led him to follow us from behind. “I know a good photo,” he said timidly. His eyes lit up when we asked him where, he quickly took us to various placed in the temple and told us a little history. A hidden headless Buddha. “Khmer rouge take the head,” he told us as he got behind the Buddha, putting his head where the Buddha’s was supposed to be. He showed us hidden elephants, and many great photo spots. He was 11 years old, and when I asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up, he said, “Tour guide.” Usually the kids, who show you around or want a photo taken, will ask for money. This boy settled for English conversation, saying it helped him for his future. If you ever go to Cambodia, it is better to play a card game such as Uno, give food or candy, and make conversation with the peddlers, than to buy their good. The majority of the time, the money doesn’t go to feel or clothe them, it goes straight to their mothers and fathers drug and alcohol addiction.  If you really want to help, get them some food, or play a game, kids are kid no matter what their circumstance, and that little game you play, or the short attention you give them by conversing will last them a lot longer than the money you pay for a cheap bracelet. These kids are working, and are not free to play. So if you can give them a little bit of that freedom to be a kid, and play, or joke, it will benefit them.

The ride back to Phnom Penh was torturous, a woman crouching on the floor puking from the bumpy ride and constant horn honking did not help as we traveled to the city to go back to Bangkok on a 5-hour, one lane, primitive road. My friend got sick....really sick. I kept telling her not to eat the street food but she was trying to be "cultural" and "adventurous." The next day her meals would consist of 711 peanut M&M's and a cheese toasty.