Same Same But Different

So here's the Siem Reap post- sorry for the delay! Miss you all!

We left bright and early for Angkor Wat Friday morning (7/3). Meaning six a.m. Which is actually about when we get up every morning anyway, so it wasn’t that early for us. But as the sun was rising, we were heading to the bus station, about to leave Phnom Penh for the first time since we flew in. I have to say that I was a little nervous about the bus ride itself, more so than about Siem Reap. A six hour bus ride through the back country of Cambodia seemed adventurous at best, terrifying at worst. But the bus was air conditioned and there were other foreigners with us, so we figured it wouldn’t be too dodgy. We slept most of the way and enjoyed watching the farmland, swamps, and rice paddies we passed along the way.

One of the coolest things were the stops along the road. I couldn’t help comparing them to the turnpike stops I take in the States when I'm driving between York and Pittsburgh. It even had food, bathroom, and snacks for purchase. Okay, so the bathrooms were squatty potties that we had to pay to use, and the food was rice and what may or may not have been chicken, and we couldn't read any of the names of the snacks, but still. It was pretty cool. The road stops all looked the same, just like pit stops back home.

We reached Siem Reap at about one in the afternoon, which wasn’t bad- we made decent time. Probably because the driver didn’t give us more than ten minutes rest the two times that we did stop. But we were in a good mood as we got out of the bus and made our way up the muddy, dodgy alley from the bus station to the main road.

We picked up a tuk tuk and he took us to his guesthouse. Since the guesthouse was a still pretty far from where we actually wanted to go, we thanked him for getting us that far and walked the rest of the way. The walk ended up being really nice- Siem Reap is beautiful. All of the trees were green, and people smiled and waved at us, and there was a river with picturesque park benches surrounding it. We also got stopped during this first walk, and throughout our time in Siem Reap, by children. These weren’t your average beggar children, like we’d become accustomed to on our forays outside of Palm Tree in Phnom Penh. These children carried baskets of bracelets and postcards and decorations. They followed us and asked where we were from. I said, "The United States." They said, "Oh. The capital is Washington, DC. Your president is Obama. His wife is Michelle." Every time. We started jazzing it up after the first few times to hear facts about other countries. They knew most European and Asian countries, but they couldn’t tell us the capitals of South Africa or Mauritius. Still, they were sweet kids. And their English was fantastic from practicing on all of the tourists, and from government school since all of them talked about going to school.

We walked around till we found a decent looking guesthouse above a place called Molly Mallone’s, an Irish pub. The rooms were nice and fairly cheap for a tourist town, so we decided to stay. Air conditioning was pretty much our only requirement at that point. We unpacked and found dinner at a restaurant nearby that mixed all kinds of international foods so that we ordered a few dishes from different countries. It was nice to jazz up our diet a bit from the typical rice and veggies.

Sometime between checking into our guesthouse and dinner, I ended up getting the same rash that Alisa and Jessi had a few weeks ago. We assumed it had to be some kind of virus since none of us had eaten seafood, and we had all eaten the same food the past week. Of course I would wait to get sick until we decided to take a trip somewhere. But it ended up going away by Sunday night, and it wasn’t nearly as bad as Jessi and Alisa’s- I didn’t have to go to the clinic or anything for it. But I'm hoping it still counts as getting sick in Cambodia. They say that everyone who comes here gets sick, so I hope that’s going to be my only illness because it wasn’t bad at all. You can’t even tell in my pictures- at least I hope you can’t.

I would also like to take this moment to interject with a few differences between Eastern and Western medicine. When any of us gets sick, the kids tell us to shower twenty times a day. Their response is always, "Oh you should take a shower, you should take a shower." They say that not showering often enough causes the illness. The kids have also blamed everyone from witches to different religious sects each time one of us gets sick. Everyone tells us to stay away from girls who are menstruating- apparently this aggravates the sickness. If someone here gets a fever, they put this ointment on their shoulders and chest, and then scratch it with a coin until it’s red and raw. They say that this helps the fever escape. It distracts from the fever anyway. We always know when one of the kids is sick because they run around with the red marks across their shoulders. We sit in our rooms and take Tylonel cold medicine when we feel ill while they sit outside and scratch with a coin- clearly we have different views about what to do when you get sick. To each his own.

Anyway, back to Siem Reap. After dinner, we went to the night market. I have to say that the night market in Siem Reap was definitely the biggest market that I’ve seen in Cambodia so far, and honestly probably is the biggest market in Cambodia. It was really cool to walk around and see everyone there, and bargaining was super fun. We also found the weirdest foot massage I’ve ever seen. There were fish in an inflatable pool and when you put your hand or foot in, they all rushed over and started sucking at it. Apparently they suck off the dead skin. I stuck my hand in for about two seconds and decided they weren’t getting anywhere near my feet for any length of time. Jessi and Alisa wholeheartedly agreed so we went back to walking through the market and helping each other bargain.

The markets are also where we learned the saying "Same same but different." Everyone in Cambodia goes around saying it, and we have since taken it and made it our own. We use it for everything now- I don't think ten minutes of conversation goes by without one of us saying it. We all bought T-shirts that say it. "Same same but different" refers to so many things here. Like the market stands. They sell scarves and jewelry and pottery- the same artifacts, but in different shapes and styles and techniques. Same same but different.

After the markets, we headed back to our room to dump off our purchases and then made our way out to explore the nightlife in Siem Reap. Which I have to say is much easier to find than the nightlife in Phnom Penh. In Phnom Penh, the night life is all spread out with people going to bars on different streets in different districts of town; in Siem Reap, all of the bars are on one street (conveniently named Bar Street) so everyone ends up in the same place. And we literally found out where all of the foreigners in Cambodia have been hiding. There were so many foreigners in the bars that we no longer felt like we stood out for the first time in Cambodia. It was a bit of a relief. We met a few French guys and hung out with them for most of the night, trying out Temple Bar and Angkor What (yeah the names were a bit cheesy). We didn’t stay out late though- we had to make it out to Angkor Wat early the next morning.

We dragged ourselves out of bed Saturday morning at the oh so early hour of nine a.m. Yeah we were a little lazy during our stay in Siem Reap- we figured we were on vacation so we deserved a bit of a break. We found breakfast and I mean breakfast: eggs, bread, bacon, hash browns, and coffee for three dollars. Paradise in a little restaurant that I don’t even remember the name of. We were so happy to have something other than oatmeal for breakfast that we all but kissed the waitress.

After that we found a driver who offered to take us around for the day for the negotiated price of $12. We probably could have gotten it down even more, but he was driving us several miles- it seemed pretty fair. We went straight to Angkor Wat. I had no idea what to expect, to be honest. I’ve seen pictures, but everything I’ve seen just shows what the temple looks like. I didn’t know what it would be like inside, or what anything around it would look like.

So first surprise: there’s a huge river around Angkor Wat. We had to cross a bridge to get to it. Who knew? The tuk tuk driver pulled up and joined his buddies who were also waiting for their clients to come back. He told us it typically takes about two hours to walk around inside Angkor Wat. We walked across the street and waited to cross the bridge because apparently a wedding had just taken place and the bridal party was taking photos. Getting married at Angkor Wat would be pretty sweet, I have to say. Getting married at any one of the seven wonders of the world would be an awesome story.

We made our way across the bridge, talking to some Cambodians along the way who, after they realized we weren’t going to buy postcards from them, started talking to us about all of the foreigners they met and what life was like in Siem Riep. I feel like the kids selling postcards on the streets in Siem Reap have more knowledge of global culture and languages than most Americans will ever have.

We walked through the entrance to Angkor Wat, which was almost as elaborate as the outside of the temple itself. A monk sat inside and offered us incense, so we knelt and did the "three times bow" that we had grown used to from visiting places in Phnom Penh, then left our incense and a few riel in front of the statue of whichever Buddhist figure gives good luck (if anyone reading happens to know, feel free to share). We made it through to the other side of the stone entrance and got our first glimpse of Angkor Wat a quarter mile ahead of us, surrounded on either side by small stone buildings with single rooms inside.

Angkor Wat is a lot simpler than I had imagined for being called a wonder. There are no frills, no brightly colored wall hangings, no jewels or gems or sparkling lights anywhere. It’s actually so simple that it’s stunning. The architecture is amazing- the rooms were separated by knee high remains of walls that we climbed through as we explored the interior. Monks passed through several times, their bright orange robes contrasting with the deep gray of the ancient temple. We walked through and examined what must have been a grand meeting hall surrounded by levels and levels of passageways. We crossed to the side and saw what was probably a prayer meeting going on: about fifty people sat in the grass in front of one of the idols outside the temple, everyone repeating words in Khmer that I didn’t understand. We spent awhile exploring and then walked around the outskirts, examining the crumbling yet formidable walls. I felt like I could imagine the temple as what it must have once been: strong, sturdy, unyielding. For as well as it looks now, it must have been grand and stately once, a treasure in the Angkor time period.

Angkor Wat was built in the 12th century as a Hindu temple and was then converted into a Theravada Buddhist temple. It is currently open to the public for walking through and exploration. However, rumor has it that the government is closing Angkor Wat after this summer and people will only be able to take pictures from the outside. I feel privileged to have gotten to see the inside, but I understand why they would consider closing it. The inside looks worn and the stone is chipping along the floor and walls and pillars because so many people have crossed through since it was built. The architects were certainly planning a structure that would last as a remnant of religious culture for ages and ages, but with so many tourists walking through daily, it is starting to wear away faster. Not that I have any of this information from a plaque or pamphlet. Angkor Wat and the other temples did not have any information for tourists, not even a little center nearby with handouts. There was no type of history- we came across each temple as if it was just sitting there, waiting to be discovered, and most of them I had never heard of.

We left Angkor Wat and went to Angkor Thom after that. The faces carved in to the temple of Angkor Thom were one of the coolest things I’ve seen, mostly because it made me wonder what kind of status you would have to have in Cambodia to get your face carved in to a temple pillar. I’ll try to put up a picture so you can understand the awesomeness that was this temple; it was literally made of people’s faces peeking down at us as we explored the remnants.

We went through several other temples, but the coolest one was the temple at Ta Prohm. This temple literally had trees growing on top of it, huge trees with roots way bigger than I am that spilled down the sides of broken stone structures. As we walked through, we saw signs warning us of danger from falling rocks. Clearly the temple was falling down daily, but it was so cool to see what remained of it and the fact that the trees were slowly reclaiming the earth that had once held such a powerful structure. It was also there that it began to pour. By this point in our stay in Cambodia, we learned to embrace rain, if only because it cooled off our little section of the world. I have to say that it did not do much for my rash, but it was still a relief to be wet from rain instead of sweat for the first time that day.

Though the rain did make pictures difficult and exploring became dicey. Add rain to the fact that the temple was falling down and I’m a natural klutz, and I was pretty much asking for disaster. So we walked around for a few more minutes and then made our way back through the muddy trail to our tuk tuk driver, who laughed at the sight of us but tenaciously let down straps of plastic around the tuk tuk that would have kept us relatively dry were we not already soaked through. We stopped for watermelon juice at a village that was pretty much a few restaurants and shops, and clearly existed from increased tourism in the area. Watermelon juice is… I don’t even have words. The English major has no words. You know it’s good. And watermelon is so fresh here, it’s the perfect refreshing drink, but Siem Reap is the only place we’ve found it so far- it is hiding from us in Phnom Penh.

We headed back to Siem Reap (Angkor Wat is about four miles outside), and ran up the guesthouse steps to our room. We stood outside the door while one of us fumbled for the key, impatient, soaked, knee deep in mud, and desperately in need of a shower. "Wait," one of us (I can’t remember who) said, "doesn’t that sound like water?"

Cautiously we pushed open the door. I walked in like a police officer entering a crime scene, purse at the ready in one hand. There was definitely the sound of water in our room, and it wasn’t dripping, it was pouring. I looked around- no one was in there. I waved the other two in, and we located the source: the sink had a leak and water was pooling across our bathroom floor. This isn’t quite as devastating as it may at first seem; it wasn’t as if the room would flood. Let me take a moment to describe the way that bathrooms are set up in Phnom Penh. There are no bathtubs. Instead there is a shower hose stuck against the wall with a button next to it that you use to turn on the water, and then turn to adjust the temperature. The water then goes in to the bathroom and leaves through a little drain typically located in one corner. So the water flooding out of the sink in our guesthouse bathroom drained effectively, but the water kept gushing.

I ran down the stairs and let the "innkeeper" (not sure what they're called in Khmer) know. She and a mechanic rushed upstairs after me and immediately set to work on the sink. A half hour later it was in pieces and water still spewed everywhere. An hour later they moved us to another room that was even better: we got our own balcony and got to look out as the sun set over the street that was starting to fill with early nightlifers. We all showered (desperately needed by this point), and changed in to clothes to go out for our second and final night in Siem Reap.
We went to a Mexican restaurant for dinner. I really don’t think I need to say anything besides that it was the best Mexican I have ever had. And maybe that’s because I haven’t had Mexican in what feels like forever, but I don’t know how another restaurant could make better vegetable chimichangas and mojitos.

Afterwards, we went to Angkor What and ordered a few drinks. We ended up meeting a group of Belgians and hanging out with them late in to the night, swapping travel stories, sharing drinks, and enjoying the general ambience of tons of foreigners speaking in all different languages. The walls of Angkor What are covered with marker from thousands of visitors writing messages on them, and we found lots of messages from SASers who traveled to Cambodia on one of the SAS trips. We of course wrote our own messages, played a little pool, and talked to tons of strangers. It was a cool little part of the world where people from all different backgrounds came together to relax, chat, and just have some fun. Almost everyone there was traveling through Southeast Asia, and we got a lot of advice about our upcoming trip to Thailand, and swapped some advice about traveling to Phnom Penh. After we left the bar, the neighborhood kids set upon us again; to distract them from the constant harmony of "money money money" we played games with them, and they stole one of the Belgian guy's shoes and ran off with it, and it was an entertaining walk home.

The next morning we dragged ourselves out of bed at eight, stumbled to breakfast (eggs and bacon again Hallelujah), and then found another market for last minute souvenirs. We went back to our guesthouse and checked out, which was actually really sad because everyone there had been nice and the rooms had been spotless, and all in all we’d enjoyed our Siem Reap experience. Checking out of the guesthouse made it hit home that our vacation was over.

We went back to the bus station by tuk tuk and got on to our bus. Six hours, a few moody arguments about Thailand plans, and a terrible lunch stop later, we made it back to Phnom Penh. Needless to say we were all ready to get off the bus. None of us had gotten a lot of sleep, which made us a little short with each other, though this is bound to happen when three people spend as much time together as we do. Three is also a terrible number to travel with- just throwing it out there. It would be great to have an even number, but Mike isn’t into spending a single dollar more than he has to on this trip.

Getting back to the orphanage was great. The kids were really happy to see us, their faces were so excited, and they jumped around us and tugged at our bags, wanting to know about Siem Reap. Throughout my time spent here, they just keep asking me, "Are you happy? Are you happy?"

"Kinyom s’bai," I say. I am happy.

Seeing how excited they were when we got back made me a little sad that I’m leaving in August. I’m the first one to leave (although Mike is leaving three days later) and I have considered staying longer. I’m just having such an amazing time working with the kids here and I don’t want to have to leave. But I know that I’m just delaying the inevitable because eventually I would have to leave, and there are other volunteers coming in, and I can’t hide from the real world forever. Plus I plan on getting back to this side of the world fairly soon in my life, and hopefully to Palm Tree again, so I have the reassurance that it’s probably not forever. Still… Spending so much time with these kids…. They’re great kids. I can only hope that I have kids that are as great as these kids one day (in the far away future). I almost can’t believe how amazing they are. They’re smart and sweet, and they take care of each other, and they almost never cry, and they aren’t selfish. And they’re all so cute. How do they get that cute?

The rest of this week has been fairly typical, much more so because of our exciting Siem Reap trip. Tuesday was the celebration of the dedication of Preah Vihear (the temple where all of the fighting is going on with Thailand right now), so everyone in the city turned out for a concert in the Olympic Stadium at six. We attempted to go, but there were so many people that we just ended up sitting outside and watching the fireworks. Which was exciting in and of itself because it was only three days after the Fourth of July, so we felt like we were getting to secretly celebrate our own holiday too.

We also had some adventures with renewing our visas this week, and not necessarily in a good way. Jessi and Alisa went on Wednesday to renew theirs, and I stayed at Palm Tree because my visa says it doesn’t expire until August 10th, so I figured I wouldn’t have to worry about renewing it. Nope. Apparently the date on the visa doesn’t matter. When you land in Cambodia, you have to fill out a customs form, which they then staple in to your passport. After one month from the date on that form, you have to renew the visa. We still aren’t sure what the point is of putting a date on the actual visa if it’s not the correct date. Luckily Jessi got to Cambodia the same day as me and had applied for her visa right in the airport, not beforehand, so the expiration date on her visa was the same as on the customs form. She and Alisa came back and we all ended up going back to the Immigration office later that day, and Jessi and I didn’t have to pay any additional fees. But Alisa and Mike had gotten to Cambodia earlier than we had, and they both had a hefty amount in fines to pay since the fee is $5 for each day that you’re late. We also had to pay twice as much to renew our visas as we did to get the visa in the first place. And when we leave the country to go to Thailand next week, we have to get entirely new visas, which cost less than we paid to renew our current visas. It’s actually cheaper to leave the country and get a totally new visa than it is to renew your existing visa. I still don’t get the logic behind it.

So after we got that mess figured out, we had to run across the street from the Immigration Office to the airport so we could get money. And we discovered that Dairy Queen does exist in Cambodia and it is, in fact, inside the airport. Needless to say, we took a pit stop. We also did a little research on flights to Thailand and decided that it was cheap and would save us a lot more time to fly there, so we ended up getting a flight while we were at it.

We had a fairly productive week all in all. Tonight we’re taking the seven kids who just took government school exams out for dinner, so that’ll be good. This weekend is going to be interesting because there is a father and son visiting who sponsor one of the children at Palm Tree. They’re staying until Tuesday and throwing a pizza party Saturday night, so we’re excited for that. They’re also from Ohio, which is pretty funny since we’re all from the east coast too.

My kids could use the break, I have to say. They’ve had a pretty tough week. I’ve been teaching them when to use "there is" vs. "it is", and what countable and uncountable nouns are. These are the children who didn’t know what the word "sentence" meant. It’s like pulling teeth. I know they could get it if I could explain it in Khmer, they’re smart kids and if I wasn’t explaining it in English, it would make sense to them. Unfortunately I can’t- our Khmer lessons have been teaching me a lot, but come on, they’re not working miracles here. But luckily Nita has been in class to translate every day- the teachers didn’t have as many meetings this week, so she’s been able to help me explain everything. As a native English speaker, some of the stuff that I’ve been teaching the kids is difficult even for me, let alone for them. But they’re all really smart, and they try hard, and none of them are afraid to say that they don’t understand, which makes them an awesome class.

Other than teaching, we’re just preparing for our Thailand trip next week. I’m super excited! Right now we’re thinking we’re going to spend a few days in Bangkok and then take a sleeper train to Phuket, one of the islands along the south coast. But I’ll give you guys more updated plans next week.

I hope you’re all doing well!! I miss everyone, and even though I’ll be really sad to leave here, I’m also excited to go home in a few weeks! Can't wait to see you!

Love from Cambodia,

Monica