Dust, Sweat and Tears

February 2007

As the plane approached Siem Reap in Cambodia and all I could see were rice fields, the question crept into my mind: “Why on earth have I come to this place?” I only knew 2 things about Cambodia: it was the location of Angkor Wat and had a turbulent recent history. Not much. But my instincts had told me to go and now I know a few more things about the country:

· It’s a place where 5 people can ride on a single motorbike. Three of them were children, but still…
· It is the only place I know of where you can order a marijuana pizza, aptly named “Happy Pizza” (there’s also a “Very Happy” version of it).
· It is a sizzlingly hot place, and you sweat every single second of the day. The upside is that you never need a restroom, even if you drink half a gallon (~2 liters) of water a day. The downside is that the combination of non-stop sweat and pervasive dust gives your face a permanent mud mask.
· In any city, including the capital Phnom Penh, you can count on your fingers how many traffic lights there are. What to do at intersections then? Simple: just move right along and somehow you and the other dozens of vehicles will figure out how not to hit one another!
· There’s a rule not to be forgotten – never walk off the marked path. Why? Landmines, laid by the Khmer Rouge in the 1980s to terrorize peasants. They haven’t been all deactivated and, as a result, there are lots of amputees in the country, many of whom have learned to play traditional Khmer music and now play/sell CDs around tourist areas. The music is very melodic and make a great soundtrack to any visit to the temples.

The big draw in Siem Reap are the Angkorian Temples, built between the 9th and 13th centuries when Angkor was the capital of the ancient Khmer empire. There are dozen of temples and all have the same layout – tiered structures representing Mount Meru, the sacred mountain in Hindu mythology considered the center of the universe and the residence of the gods. But getting to the abode of the gods is not easy and requires a lot of climbing. Worse still, the closer you get to the central pinnacle, the steeper the climb and the narrower the steps so at times you have to climb sideways and somewhat on your fours lest you fall and crack a few bones. This must be some sadist architect’s idea of making you look humble before the gods…

The most visited temple is Angkor Wat, the largest religious building in the world. It is located 3.7 miles (~6 km) from Siem Reap and the road is very scenic, through a tropical forest and along a river with monkeys strolling on its banks. Or so I thought…it turned out that the “river” was nothing more than the moat of the temple and with a width of 620 feet (190m), it is wider than many a river. That’s when I started to realize how grandiose Angkor Wat is: including the moat, it measures 0.9 by 0.8 miles (~1.5 by 1.3 km), doing justice to its name that translates as “City Temple”. But size is only one aspect of Angkor Wat. There are numerous galleries in the temple, and what really makes your jaw drop is that there’s barely one inch of stone without a carving or bas-relief. They depict epic scenes and mythical creatures, and are absolutely stunning. The scale of the whole complex is simply mind-boggling and Angkor Wat is without a doubt one of the most extraordinary places I’ve ever visited.

But don’t think that the wonders stop at Angkor Wat. Other must-see sites include:

· The Bayon, the most intriguing place I’ve seen, with each of its 54 towers holding 2 to 4 smiling faces for a total of over 200. No matter where you stand, there’s always an enigmatic face with a teasing smile looking at you in a sort of Big Brother effect that is nonetheless charming.
· Ta Prohm, which I call The Temple That The Jungle Swallowed. It is an impressive ruin with enormous trees growing out of crumbling stone walls in a strange symbiotic embrace.
· Banteay Srey, a miniscule temple with probably the most elaborate and well preserved Angkorian carvings. The name means “Citadel of the Women” and the theory is that it was built by women because the carvings are too fine for the hand of a man.

Unfortunately, Angkor Wat, the Bayon, Ta Prohm and Banteay Srey are very popular and usually very crowded so contemplation is almost impossible. To find tranquility, head for one of the lesser known temples, such as Ta Som or Preah Khan where there are less tourists and you can just sit on a piece of stone, take in the silence and imagine what the place must have been like at its zenith. It’s soothing – just you and the temple…and the countless bugs, but, hey, they’re also part of the experience…

After 3 days of stone-temple-cruising, my feet were ready to fall off, so I took it easy the fourth day and headed to the floating village of Chong Kneas at Tonle Sap Lake. I thought it was going to be a cluster of stilt houses on the banks of the lake, but it turned out that this was really a floating village, with houses, school, supermarket, church and crocodile farm (!) all floating in the middle of the lake. The place is so unique that it’s become very popular – back on land, there was a gigantic tour bus traffic jam and I almost couldn’t get out of there. On the way back from the lake, my husband and I stopped at some rice fields, and since locals barely see any tourists there, we were as much a novelty to them as they were to us. A few looked at us suspiciously, but the vast majority was very friendly, approaching us to check out our gadgets. Kids were especially very curious and their faces would light up in a smile when we just said sua s’dei (hello) in broken Khmer.

Next we headed to Phnom Penh, the country’s capital at the confluence of the Mekong and the Tonle Sap rivers. Phnom Penh feels like two very different worlds: during the day people bike and play soccer/racquet games on the quay while at night people lay cardboards on the sidewalks to sleep. I spent only one day there, and the place that made a strong impression was the Tuol Sleng Museum, also known as the Genocide Museum. Tuol Sleng was originally a high school, but when the Khmer Rouge took control of the country, it was turned into a detention center called S21. Suffice it to say that of the 14,000 detainees that went through S21, only 12 survived. All detainees were photographed (a few were toddlers, other had clearly been tortured), and the photos gave me a lump in the throat. It is a very somber experience, but it makes you begin to understand what Cambodians have been through over the past 30 years.

So that was Cambodia for me – a trip from the glory of the Angkor era to the horrors of the Khmer Rouge to the pervasive poverty today. It was my most surprising trip: I arrived thinking I’d see a gloomy poor place with people harassing me to death but instead I found a poor place with friendly open people and minimal harassment and I feel privileged to having been able to see the country coming back to life. I may not know for sure why I went in the first place, but I know why I’ll go back.