Mystifying Cambodia

(Navyn) Another full day of travel to get from Chiang Mai via Bangkok to Siem Reap, Cambodia by 4:00pm. Forty-five minutes later we have helmets on, again. I am thinking I should have brought my own helmet and harness – that would have been a good investment. We are traveling by ATV’s to get the lay of the land. After three weeks of driving on the left side of the road we are told to drive on the right and given no other rules of the road instruction. Little do they know the twins are in fact not sixteen as advertised and have never driven on streets with moving objects. Details, details. As we dash off to catch the sunset, I find myself in the middle of a dirt road with absolutely no traffic signs or signals. A four-way intersection filled with mopeds, pedestrians, trucks, and water buffalo heading in all directions is slightly confusing at first, but all part of the adventure.

Nevertheless, we make it to the rural outskirts of town where we passed farms, rice fields, houses on stilts, and lots of kids. The smiling, waving kind I always see in Africa. My favorite. I have always wondered why the poorer the children are the happier they seem. I got high fives left and right. Here they still carry water on their backs and harvest rice by shucking every grain of rice by hand. Once you see the backbreaking labor required, you will never again throw away a spoonful of rice.

On our first full day in Siem Reap we awoke at 5:00am to catch the sunrise at the temple that symbolizes Cambodia and is pictured proudly on the flag. Built in the first half of the 12^th century, Angkor Wat translates to “City of Temples” and was designed to house the Hindu Gods. Five towers rise like lotus buds above a massive stone terraced base. The towers symbolize the peaks of Mount Neru, the core of the Hindu universe, where the Gods resided and from where all creation sprang. The wide, square moat surrounding Angkor Wat represents the cosmic ocean and the walls of the moat, the mountain ranges at the edges of the world. This temple is the largest religious monument in the world and a great source of national pride.

To understand Cambodia, we must move on to some heavier topics (this is usually where I lose my readers, but bear with me, I will be brief). The Khmer Rouge was the ruling party in Cambodia led by Pol Pot. From 1975-1979 this contemptible group orchestrated a horrific genocide, which resulted in the deaths of two million people through starvation, execution and torture as a result of the enforcement of its radical social engineering policies.

The girls are acutely aware of the details of the Killing Fields as they have all read the book, Never Fall Down, by Patricia McCormick. It tells the story from the perspective of an 11-year old boy named Arn. As Jolie hesitantly picked up the book and started reading, she said, “Mom, did you know the Khmer Rouge killed a small boy because he didn’t get off his bicycle”? It is hard to teach your children about the real world we live in. We want to protect their innocence as long as we can. At the same time these are stories of children, who have been forced to survive in unspeakable conditions, and we have the chance to learn from them. We met Arn tonight. I said to Jolie, “Can you believe this is the same little 11 year old boy? Standing here right in front of you, smiling and all grown up?” (See some other Salem blog posts for more on Arn.)

Last night we went to the Phare Circus. Under the not so “big top”, was a troupe of eight performers who told the story of Sohka, through dance, live music, acrobatics, stunts, and painting. It was an incredible display of so many visual arts mixed into one performance that created the vibrant and haunting story a young school girl who lived a normal life until the Khmer Rouge took over and spread violence and fear in her life and in her dreams. The energy, athleticism and power of this moving story left us all speechless.

Jolie making a puppet

This experience led nicely to a morning at Cambodian Living Arts where we were fortunate to learn about Cambodian music history, listen to some students who are learning to play the traditional instruments and have a chance to try them ourselves. We could have used Grandma here to help us out on the string instruments. Afterwards, they taught us how to make puppets by hammering a metal tool through dried cowhide with a wooden stick. This was not easy work but the girls managed to make some pretty impressive puppets. When we saw the real puppet show that evening, we all had a great appreciation for the work that went into keeping alive these ancient Cambodian traditions.

Puppet Show

House in floating village

Early this morning we arose to visit a floating village. We took a small, wooden boat through a narrow river of muddy brown water that looked like chocolate milk – unfortunately it didn’t smell like chocolate milk, but a little more like fish paste. Mmmmmm. Fisherman stood on the sandy banks repairing their primitive fishing nets before casting them out. So how and why does this floating village exist you ask? The water levels in the rainy season (May-September) are so high that almost all the ground we saw today will be submerged. Each house is kept buoyant with a bamboo platform and styrofoam base which keep it afloat and able to be relocated when needed. In addition to dozens of floating houses on either side of this Venetian Cambodian “street”, there were general stores, a church, a school, and wooden boats captained by 5-year olds coming home from school, floating vegetable gardens (one even had a few floating palm trees!), hammocks, cats, dogs, children, and fish, piles and piles of little fish. After we left this bustling, watery village, we headed to lunch where only the locals go. Everyone got their own boxed-lunch and a hammock to enjoy a little R & R.

We have had several small world experiences already. In New Zealand we saw Bill McKiernan in a pub watching the Super Bowl- he is on the board of BC with me, the Heterick’s from Barrington found us in Sydney walking down the street, and on this little music bus in the middle of Cambodia was my 9^th grade teacher, Stephen Reiga. The best way to get from Siem Reap to Battambong should you need to go, is the Khmer Magic Music Bus. Picture a Volkswagon bus from the sixties, crossed with young Cambodian musicians, minus the drugs. We traveled for three hours with eight musicians and a myriad of ancient instruments. They taught us Cambodian folk songs, and I tried to teach them some Twinkle Twinkle and Do Re Mi. These young, talented, budding musicians were so passionate about their work it really was an honor and joy to spend time with them.

Bamboo Train

To finish up part one of Cambodia we decided to go for a ride on the Battambong Bamboo Train. Basically, a little Cambodian ingenuity turned a rickety, discontinued train track into a thriving business. We took a seat on the flat, bamboo platform with wheels and a lawn mower engine and off we chugged, at a pretty fast clip. Bouncing, swerving, never really sure this noisy, made-up cart was going to stick to the tracks. At the end of the line, where the train station used to be, was a village full of kids playing jump rope and selling their wares. The girls jumped right in and learned some of their games. Paul couldn’t resist and bought a soda for every kid. Word of a free sugar rush spread quickly as twenty five giddy kids gathered around to get in on the fun.

There were not enough hours in the day to write about the primary school visit, dragon boat ride, ox cart journey, dance class (but there are pictures under the photo section). Off to Phnom Penh, the capital city for three days before country #8, Myanmar.