Cambodia immigration office.
Wow, I love this country! Crossing the border and hopping into a rickety old minivan with an older tourist screaming at the door man that this "VIP bus" was not what she paid for was not the best introduction to the country, but it definitely got better from there! After arriving in Kratie, I found a few new Australian friends who showed me the way to a nice hotel.
Fishing on the Mekong.
That night we strolled the streets of Kratie town and had an amazing Khmer (what Cambodian people call themselves, pronounced 'kahm-eye') dinner at Star Restaurant and Guesthouse. The girls ordered a coconut curry that came in a coconut and I ordered a squash, chicken, and cashew nut dish that was delectable. After arriving back at my room, I skyped mom, "hey mom!", and gratefully got a good night's rest. Early the next morning I hopped in a minivan for Kampong Cham where I met up with four Peace Corps volunteers. One of the PCVs, Derick, was especially helpful in organizing the volunteers and planing my next few days at PCVs sites!
Local market.
He even got me into a Khmer wedding! Thank you Derick! They were all extremely helpful in teaching me about the culture, what food to order, how to say things, how to act, and the ins and outs of Peace Corps Cambodia. Here, PCVs must live with host families for the duration of their service. Of course there are pros and cons to this arrangement, but all of the volunteers I have visited so far have embraced their situation and learned to be appreciative of their families. I'm not sure I would have faired as well, but it was such a great experience to see the close ties they have developed with the Cambodian culture.
First, I visited Caitie's site. I will not reveal locations due to Peace Corps policy, but she has a great set-up living above a small school and working with the health clinic, school, an orphanage, and the community. I am amazed by how well she can speak Khmer in less than 6 months of living here. I know I wasn't that good at Fijian at the 6 month point, but I can tell they had a much more regimented language class during training.
What a great Peace Corps volunteer!
Regardless, she is doing quite well! She invited me to a Khmer wedding that was being held for one of the teachers at her school. For $2.50 we got our hair crimped and styled while being surrounded by screaming and laughing kids who were playing with Derick. I also had my make-up done Khmer style! I like to call it more 80s style for sure!
Getting all dolled up.
So a Cambodian wedding lasts an entire day. The bride changes clothes about 10 times and has an entire day of festivities ranging from accepting a dowry to enjoying soup with the in-laws. The actual exchanging of the rings happens in the middle of the day and the reception is after dark. This is how a traditional Khmer wedding day goes:
Peace Corps volunteer and her mom and sister.
1. Sdaydoldong (Talking ceremony)- Matchmaker, parents, and some cousins bring offering (cakes, fruit, betel, areca, etc. Everything has to be in pairs) to the girl's house.
2. Longmaha (Engagement ceremony) - The neighbors are notified that the families of couples are in alliance. The offerings include: 4 banana hands, 4 bottles of wine, 4 tea packets, 4 betel packs, 2 legs of pig, 2 chickens, 2 ducks and some money. In this ceremony, an auspicious day for the wedding is also chosen. The girl is now considered a woman.
3. Thngaybos Colte (Wedding ceremony) - It is officiated by the Achar Polia. The main rites include the groom's procession to the bride's house, offering alms to Buddhist monk, hair-cutting, scattering area flowers, wrist-tying, and entering the bride's room. Wedding rites take place with traditional dances.
Family and friends are invited to different ceremonious events. Nowadays, all of these ceremonies take place during the daytime and the reception follows, resembling a modern wedding. I only attended the come and go reception dinner party. Upon entering a reception, the bridesmaids and grooms are waiting at the entrance. Loud music is blaring in the foreground from the stage of a Khmer band with girls in skimpy clothes shaking their booties (quite surprising considering the conservative culture of Cambodia). Everyone in your group sits down at a vacant table and the food starts coming. For our dinner, appetizers were delivered consisting of fried baby chicks and a nice Khmer salad.
Fried baby chicks as an appetizer at the wedding.
Next came the meat entree which consisted of a beef and onion salad, then a chicken soup, and finally a squid stir fry over fire. Dessert was a cluster of large, plump, purple grapes. Food was placed in the middle of the table on a lazy suzan and food was shared amongst everyone, very typical of all Southeastern Asian meals. Men and women alike got up on the dance floor to do traditional dances that consisted of dancing around a table of flowers, twisting their arms in an Egyptian-mixed with Hawaiian style. Ha!
Caitie and I.
All in all, the food and experience was spectacular. Thank you sooo much Caitie and Derick!
Live band at the wedding.
The next morning we headed to the market for one of the most delicious bowls of noodles and mystery ingredients. For a mere $0.37 I was in absolute heaven. We strolled around the market, being led by a beautiful young girl who has been taking English lessons from Caitie, and then we had our toenails done with hand painted flowers for 1500 riel ($0.37). It turns out that a hair salon is one of the best places for PCVs to make new friends and learn about their site. The women at the salon love talking in broken English (because the hair stylists want to practice) about husbands (or lack there of), travels, and recent events. I was skeptical about it being a cultural experience, but the salon is fun and cheap!
Getting our nails done. One of the best places for culture exchange!
Later in the afternoon, Katie and I took off to another volunteer's site. Megan lives in a town known for tarantulas, the ones you eat, not keep as a pet. So, the situation called for trying my first spider, intentionally at least. BBQ flavored tarantula legs crunched between our teeth as we all had our first bite.
Yes, I ate a tarantula leg.
Megan couldn't handle the thought of what she put in her mouth as Caitie and I quickly swallowed. Not too bad, but I'm definitely not going to become a local anytime soon.
Later in the day we hopped on bicycles and were graced with a tour of the town.
Bicycles at Megan's school.
School kids.
We visited her beautiful school, met a few students, and enjoyed some homemade durian ice cream. Fresh bakeries, street stalls, and a few smoothie stands abound, making for a happy palate. Megan also lives at the house of restaurant owner and therefore gets to choose anything off the menu for all of her meals. What luxury!
Look at the little one in the back. Ha!
What a hoot. No other bikes in site.
After arriving back at her house, we had dinner at the restaurant, washed up, then watched an episode of Friends. Our evening came to end and we crawled into our mosquito nets for a good night's rest.
The following morning I parted ways with the girls and hopped onto a luxury VIP bus to Siem Reap. It's amazing how drastically different a life can be in one day. A local may ride all morning on a wooden, cow driven plow from the 20s and then hop on a new, double decker, air-conditioned bus to arrive at a metropolitan, modern city of fast cars and high rises that evening. I believe the communist Khmer Rouge is still playing a role in the society of Cambodian villages.
Khmer Rouge
Speaking of the Khmer Rouge, somehow the world has ignored a brutal regime run by Pol Pot to eradicate all perceived opposition, killing between one and two million people. Much like the Holocaust, people were brutally enslaved or killed for appearing to be smart, being of a different origin than Khmer, or if there was a slight possibility of being against the Khmer Rouge. Babies were thrown against trees, prisoners were forced to brutally attack other prisoners or be killed, and workers were beheaded for not working hard enough. I was actually blessed enough to speak with Megan's Cambodian host father who openly discussed his experiences as a 14 year old during Khmer Rouge control in the second half of the 1970s. His family was living near Battambang during the rise of the communist party when they decided to move to the town he now lives in. He reported that they were given a small cup and one spoon that they were responsible for keeping up with. Twice a day, while at work, a bell would chime and everyone would stop work and head for the huge vat of rice. The ladle would touch the rim of the cup, pouring the worker's ration in. As the worker would look down into his cup, he would spot two or three grains of rice in about two inches of water. Megan's host dad sat in front of us reliving the pain of swollen knees and shoulders with emaciated legs and arms. Forced to ride a bicycle to and from work, he was always in fear of being beheaded or shot for reasons undeclared and unknown. Hearing it first hand made the experience real for Megan, Caitie, and I. Wow. We will never be able to fathom or sympathize with such pain and fear. In Phnom Penh I will be visiting the killing fields and genocide museum, so I'm sure more information will ensue.
Cambodia Culture
Saving yourself for marriage is highly sought after, therefore, if a woman gets pregnant before marriage she is likely to have an abortion.
Just like PC Fiji, the Peace Corps airs on the side of caution, but volunteers are taught that it is rude to:
cross your legs, point at something or someone, use the finger turned up and curling to call someone over, touching anyone's head, touching the opposite sex in public, women drinking alcohol, wearing talk tops or anything above the knee, pointing your feet in the direction of someone superior to you, especially the man of the house, as well as tapping your glass at a cheers above someone superior to you. I'm sure there are more, but these are the ones I picked up on.
You should also try to use two hands to give or accept money, or probably anything really.
They love light skin, prominent noses, and blond hair. A person is idolized for these features.
Siem Reap
Siem Reap Old Market.
Numpencha. I'm definitely not saying it right, but I think I took a picture of this noodle dish at least three times! So delicious!
Ordering numpenchok.
My favorite Numpencha lady in the Old Market, Siem Reap.
Mmm, mmmm.
Yum!
Cambodian markets are not for the faint at heart.
Precious!
Eating those nasty feet!
Angkor Wat
Sunrise at Angkor Wat.
Sunrise at Angkor Wat, 15 minutes later.
Mid-day.
Well, I know mine isn't one in a million, it's one of a million.
Siem Reap is known for its ruins of Angkor Wat, and honestly, that is almost all there is there for tourists besides shopping and eating. The temples were beautiful, especially at sunrise. They have been renovated to the point of it being hard to tell what is authentic or redone. The carvings are ornate, telling a story with every turn of Angkor Wat. With temples at every turn throughout the Angkor Archeological Park, it is hard to stop clicking away.
Best snack ever! Sticky rice and sweet beans grilled in bamboo.
Beautiful.
The girls at Bayon.
Luxury riding in a tuk tuk for the day.
Where Tomb Raiders was filmed.
Kisses.
Beautiful architecture and detail inside Angkor Wat.
Angkor Wat reliefs.
The greens of Angkor Wat temple.
Walking to Angkor Wat.
Elephant Terrace
Terrace of the Leper King
Monkeys and their babies of Angkor Wat.
One day we headed to the women's temple and the Cambodian Landmine Museum. The women's temple was a beautiful deep red with extremely detailed carvings and surrounded by beautiful red dirt.
Women's Temple.
The American War
During the Vietnam (American) War, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the North Vietnamese supplied their troops and allies in the south via a supply line that bran through Laos and Cambodia. It was called the 'Ho Chi Minh Trail". In October 1965, President Lyndon Johnson of the US ordered the bombing of the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Thus began a nearly 10 year continual bombing campaign by the US. In June of 1970, US President Richard Nixon, on the advise of the National Security Advisor, Henry Kissinger, began, what came to be known as "carpet bombing" of Cambodia to support the American ally Lon Nol and to interdict and destroy the Ho Chi Minh Trail. the bombing of Cambodia resulted in then loss of an estimated 60,000 civilian lives and contributed significantly to the rise of the Khmer Rouge. The map below shows over 60,000 bombing missions flown by American pilots between October of 1965 and August of 1973. Each red dot represents a village or target during those years.
Types of Unexploded Ordinance (UXO).
Cambodian Landmine Museum
The Cambodian Landmine Museum and Relief Facility (Museum for short) was established in 1997 by ex-child soldier Aki Ra. After years of fighting he returned to the villages in which he planted thousands of mines and began removing them, by hand, and defusing them with homemade tools.
Aki Ra, the man who started the Cambodian Landmine museum and has been de-mining Cambodia for years.
Similar to the Mines Advisory Group in Phonsavan, Laos, there is a team of de-miners near Siem Reap working to deactivate landmines and other unexploded ordinance. A man now called Aki Ra began the Cambodian Landmine Museum and NGO after serving for the Khmer Rouge at the age of 10, eventually fighting for the Vietnamese, and finally, after the wars, started deactivating landmines that he had set. He became a master at this skill and in 2007 was put through training so that he could work safely at de-mining Cambodia.
Homemade prosthetics of poor victims.
He now overseas the museum and a home for children affected by landmines. They are raised, schooled, and offered a scholarship for university or trade school upon graduating high school. The center is set up to house up to 50 kids. Reading their stories on the wall of the museum was haunting and satisfying knowing what these children have been through and that they are now getting help and have a chance of a bright future. Aki Ra deserves the awards he has earned for making his people a better future! Inspiring man who deserves donations towards his cause! Here is one of his stories:
"I like to tell those who are interested about a little unusual story which occurred during an encounter that I had when I went into battle with the Vietnamese Army against the Khmer Rouge. One day I was shooting across a field against the enemy when through the site of my weapon I saw my uncle who I was ready to shoot. This startled me, and in surprise, I lowered my weapon. However, my uncle didn't recognize me and continued to shoot at me from 50 meters away. I hid in the grass and upon noticing my reluctance to shoot, my friends asked me why my accuracy, which was normally good, was now not good. I told them I had a headache and couldn't shoot straight. I had to shoot back however, so I just shot over my uncle's head until he ran away. Only many years after the war ended did I tell my uncle what happened that day and we had a big laugh. Now we both live in peace and are happy. Today my Uncle Raine lives at the Cambodian Landmine Museum and helps me care for my children and his older sister, my aging aunt (whom I call mother)." -Aki Ra
Battambang
Battambang was a short stop on my way to Pursat to meet up with a few volunteers. Upon arriving at my hostel a few roommates asked me if I wanted to join them in their tuk tuk to the killing caves and the bamboo train. Of course!
Bamboo train operators waiting on business to pick up.
The corny, but fun bamboo train rides along a rickety track for 10 kilometers to a village set up for tourists. Speeding along between shrubs of overgrowth, a quick peak of rice paddies beyond abounds.
Here we go!
One track and tourists flowing both ways causes a traffic jam where everyone going one direction must get off the bamboo shackles of a platform and wait for the driver to disassemble the train, removing the engine, platform, and finally the wheel/axle.
Disassembling the train.
Soon, the oncoming traffic passes by and the train is reassembled for the onward journey. While riding back to the station, the driver invited us to drive the train.
New driver. Watch out!
What a quaint delight!
Moving on with our activities we arrive at the killing caves. After turning down the easy tuk tuk ride for a couple hundred stair climb, we arrive at the top of Phnom Sampeu, where temples and caves litter the steep hill.
They learn young. On our hike up to the killing cave.
Nearby is the killing cave called Laang Lacaun, which was the site of atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge - the victims, whose smashed skulls are collected in an ornate metal cage, were thrown into the deep cave from the hole above.
A few of the skeletal remains collected from the killing cave.
An adjacent cave that we were told not to enter is apparently still full of the scattered bones of victims. It's thought that more than 10,000 victims died in those caves. So eerie and sad.
After coming back down from the mountain we were pleasantly surprised that it was time for the bats to leave 'the bat cave'. Millions of squeeking bats came flying out, flowing through the sky like a lava lamp. Spectacular site reminding me of my childhood visit to Carlsbad Caverns.
The bat cave was quite impressive.
On to Pursat in the morning.
Pursat
Pursat, Cambodia
Riding bikes around villages near Pursat reveals paradise in it's simplest form.
Pursat was amazing due to Peace Corps volunteers and other volunteers of Sustainable Cambodia, Pursat. I adored the town with its rural outskirts and unique tow culture. People were friendly and the food was delicious. One Peace Corps volunteer took the ropes as soon as I arrived and showed me the town, somehow talking me into staying two more nights than planned. I was given the opportunity to visit a few villages, attend another Cambodian wedding, and try the town's attempt at Western burgers. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the volunteers interacting with their adopted families as well as their counterparts and communities. Peace Corps Cambodia has it going on!
Willia, being the wonderful person that she is.
The little girl was licking the block of ice. As I went in to snap the shot she ran off to another block of ice. I asked her bigger brother to help me get her to lick the block of ice again and they took this as me wanting her to hold the block. Soon enough, she was carting around a block of ice that probably weighed 10 pounds. Hilarious bro and sis!
74 year old medicine woman
Picturesque bike ride. Pure heaven.
Roadside restaurant where we found a new, interesting tutor for Charlie.
What the new tutor served up: rice omelette stuffed with pork, sprouts, and other goodness. Wrapped in a piece of lettuce and dipped in peanut sauce makes this treat a perfect combination!
The restaurant owner quickly took a liking to us and wanted to teach Charlie to read and write Khmer. She kept repeating, "It's easy". Not so much. She also told us a lot about her family. Her first daughter is average, not so beautiful. Her second daughter is a little prettier, but her third daughter she is really pretty. This lady also counts 1, 2, 3 starting with her middle finger! Hilarious!
Loving care.
Ingenious.
Making mud pies. Old school.
Second Khmer Wedding
Another Khmer wedding band.
I had at least 15 young Khmer guys want a picture with me. Oh goodness.
Dinner at my second Khmer wedding.