Siem Reap, Cambodia
March 27, 2010
Old Country starts to meet new
Today finds us in Cambodia a country with very nice people, many bicycles (unlike Thailand which is now all motorcycles), carriages pulled by motorcycles, and elephants walking down the roads of Angkor Wat. We can hear the music from the Buddhist monastery almost across the street from our hotel, the Indochine Pavilion, a small gem of a hotel which happens to be on a dirt road (which you don't see at all in this tropical retreat). In the market you can get a foot cleaning on the street by putting your feet in a small pond and having the fish eat the dead skin off your feet and by the temples you can listen to music played on traditional music played by (legitimate) land mine victims.
At the Angkor area we saw temples, including Angkor Wat, with bas-relief and Buddhas galore. The happy Buddha is the most popular. Cars are parked in the same field with stone structures a thousand years old.
We also took a boat out to the 'Great Lake' and saw people, who are the poorest of poor and who are forced to live on rafts/boats on a lake - 9,000 people - whole families - live on boats and don't touch land often (at all?). They buy their food goods from other market boats, go to school on boats (those few lucky enough to afford a uniform), swim, wash their clothes and drink from the lake.
We have much more to say about Cambodia but are flying to Chaing Mai, Thailand this morning.
Paul said are bags are in the taxi - got to run!
Jackie
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