Merry Christmas everyone!
We're in Dalat in the highlands of Vietnam right now. It's downright chilly. We're so used to the 90 degree weather everywhere else so it's been quite a shock to have weather in the 50/60 degree range. But nice for Christmas.
To finish up in Saigon, we took a trip to "Reunification Palace" which is where the South Vietnamese army surrendered to the North Vietnamese in 1975. It's a very interesting building...the president who commissioned the latest remodel was assasinated by his own army before the palace was finished. What's interesting about the building is that there's a secret passage from the president's quarters to a helipad and also to the basement where there were escape tunnels. You can also see the War Room where all the US military advisers sat. Kind of scary that the equipment in there (original) looks like my high school radio station. December 22nd is the 60th anniversary of the Vietnamese army (to fight the French way back) so there was a lot of preparation around the palace...we essentially got to see the practice for the parade. A lot of soldiers, ordinary men & women, and even kids that marched. The soldiers had it together, but the ordinary folks still needed a LOT of practice - I hate to see the consequences if you mess up in this parade!
The next evening, Deanna had a wonderful idea to go see the Ho Chi Minh Symphony & dance recital. It was great...they played a lot of "winter theme" stuff like "Winter" from the Four Seasons...it got me in the Christmas mood a bit more. It was a really nice and small concert hall...great views and great acoustics. For the dance, there were a few ballet pieces, some modern dance (think Will Ferrell in Old School with the rhythmic gymnastics...yeah), and even some Russian dance. Strange to see Vietnamese doing these Russian dances - but the communist countries stick together (especially when Russia used to fund 30% of the Vietnamese economy).
We made our way to Dalat from Saigon (and believe it or not had a GOOD bus ride) and it's just beautiful. It's very hilly and they can grow all sorts of vegetables and flowers here because of the climate. There's a small Eiffel Tower (they call this Little Paris - the French built a lot here) and Dalat is a destination for Vietnamese tourists. There have been many times where we have been the only foreigners in a crowd of people. It's nice...very different.
In Dalat, we did another trek - this one 17km climbing to Tiger Falls. Our guide was fantastic...a university student named Hoan...who was really funny and made the trip fun. We walked through an ethnic minority village in the hills (the marginalized people of vietnam) where 15 families did subsistance farming and descended/climbed hundreds of meters to get water every morning. We also walked through coffee plantations...in one shack a group of people were drunk and chased us off. I am ashamed to say that I had NO idea that coffee grew on a tree...for four hours I thought we were walking through cranberry orchards. Finally...after the hike...we went with Hoan to try Banh Xeo - a kind of rice pancake - which is his favorite food and now my favorite Vietnamese food as well. Delicious.
The other cool thing in Dalat was riding around on motorcycles with the "Easy Riders". It's a group of older Vietnamese men...all speak English and some speak French...who take people on tours around Dalat. They were great guys...very knowledgeable and besides the tourist stops, they tried to show us things you can't see on a bus tour. They were also very safe drivers - I think we were amongst the 0.5% of people that wear helmets around here. One of the gentlemen, Hung, had fought for the South Vietnamese...so when the North won, he went into a re-education camp for two and a half years. Turns out that the US accepted any political refugees that had been in the camps for three years or more - so he stayed in Vietnam and became a farmer. He was a really interesting guy. The other gentleman was also a farmer -growing coffee and persimmons - and gave a good discussion of what it was like between 1975 and 1995 when the government finally allowed private ownership again. We had thought about riding with these guys for 5 days to take us to Hoi An (in the North near the Demilitarized Zone). Unfortunately, heavy rains have washed out the backroads a couple weeks ago...so we'll take the bus (and the hugely trafficked Highway 1) tomorrow morning. Perhaps it's better...five days on a motorcycle wedged between the driver and my huge bag could be a little tiring.
Christmas was nice...we went to the Sofitel (high-end hotel) to see some caroling (in Vietnamese). We also got to see Santa distribute presents to the kids (Santa was Vietnamese as well). And then we went to a fabulous five-course dinner at a nearby cafe - and the food was incredible (and not Vietnamese). There were thousands of people out last night walking around town, going to the Catholic church, talking to family, buying items in the street market - quite the carnival atmosphere.
Have a wonderful holidays!
Saturday, December 25, 2004
Sunday, December 19, 2004
12/19/04: Into the Mekong Delta in Vietnam
Hello everyone and happy holidays!
We're in Ho Chi Minh City right now (although everyone here seems to call the city Saigon still), having traveled from Phnom Penh into the Mekong Delta and then to Saigon. It's hot here and doesn't seem to cool down as fast as Bangkok or Phnom Penh did with their large bodies of water nearby. It doesn't help that we're on the 8th floor of the hotel...and it's a walk-up...and there's no AC in the lobby. I honestly feel like I'm going to die everytime I walk up to the room. It seems that in Saigon, all property is approximately the size of my former office (read: very small) but you can build UP as far as you want. Lucky us.
Actually the trip has been quite scenic from Phnom Penh. We traveled via boat into Vietnam - and the Mekong Delta is just beautiful. The delta is primarily a rice and farming area, with some fishing - so tons of idyllic views of what you might imagine Vietnam looks like. The first night, we were dumped (tour) in Chau Doc at a hotel about 6km from the town...this way they can ensure you eat, sleep, and spend all your money at a "company" shop. I took a moto-taxi into town to find an ATM...on the way back I stopped at (what turned out to be) the Costco of Vietnam. I just wanted one soda. After ten minutes of negotiations I managed to get a great price on a whole case of soda - but could not communicate with the phrasebook that I just wanted one can. When I finally left (with no soda), I think they thought I wanted to buy the entire pallet for 15,000 dong ($1).
In Cantho, we slept at a homestay - thinking it would be nice to actually meet some real (non-tourist focused) Vietnamese people. Unfortunately, the man of the house worked for the tour company and his wife and son didn't really speak to us. Still it was great to walk around and see how "real Vietnamese" live in the Delta. It was also my first experience sleeping under a mosquito net and actually waking up to see the net covered with bugs...yikes. No malaria yet Mom. From Cantho, we toured a bit - seeing the floating market where all the vendors put their wares at the top of a pole (like a pineapple 15 feet above the boat) to show customers what they're selling and entice them to pull alongside to look at their wares. We also went to a rice-noodle making factory where I was amazed by how dirty everything looked - all the tanks, pipes, etc... especially in comparison to the food processing plants I've been to in the US. Still...the food in Vietnam has been absolutely delicious.
Saigon has been a real experience for me. First off, there are just tons and tons and tons of motorbikes here. Our guide told us therewere 83 Million people and 40 Million motorbikes in Vietnam. It is simply incredible. Last night walking home, there bikes were ten rows deep (going each way) on the street. You have to see it to believe it. And to cross the street, you just start walking - slowly and deliberately - so that all the traffic can avoid you. It was the same in Cambodia, but there's just SO many motos here that it's overwhelming as you're parting the sea to cross the street.
It's a beautiful city with a lot of great buildings (many the French built) and wonderful circles and squares to admire. There are many museums as well - we went to the War Remnants Museum - which used to be called the "Museum of Chinese and American War Crimes". There are exhibits showing a lot of the atrocities of war - the effects of napalm and Agent Orange...and also showed some of the worse behavior of the US soldiers during the war. It was pretty depressing. I recognize that the exhibit was one-sided, but being here makes me wonder if any of the soldiers knew why we were in Vietnam...the parallels to what's going on today in Iraq are scary. There's one picture in particular of soldiers posing standing over decapitated Viet Cong soldiers that's just stuck in my mind.
Tomorrow we're off for Dalat and hopefully to Hoi An for Christmas. One interesting thing we've come across is that there's no ATM's in Vietnam outside of the major cities (Ho Chi Minh and Hanoi) so we've started withdrawing money to cover us until we reach Hanoi. Since the currency is so weak, we've had to get a lot of bills - right now we have 8 Million Dong that we're carrying around in a briefcase thatDeanna has handcuffed to her wrist.
Best to everyone -
We're in Ho Chi Minh City right now (although everyone here seems to call the city Saigon still), having traveled from Phnom Penh into the Mekong Delta and then to Saigon. It's hot here and doesn't seem to cool down as fast as Bangkok or Phnom Penh did with their large bodies of water nearby. It doesn't help that we're on the 8th floor of the hotel...and it's a walk-up...and there's no AC in the lobby. I honestly feel like I'm going to die everytime I walk up to the room. It seems that in Saigon, all property is approximately the size of my former office (read: very small) but you can build UP as far as you want. Lucky us.
Actually the trip has been quite scenic from Phnom Penh. We traveled via boat into Vietnam - and the Mekong Delta is just beautiful. The delta is primarily a rice and farming area, with some fishing - so tons of idyllic views of what you might imagine Vietnam looks like. The first night, we were dumped (tour) in Chau Doc at a hotel about 6km from the town...this way they can ensure you eat, sleep, and spend all your money at a "company" shop. I took a moto-taxi into town to find an ATM...on the way back I stopped at (what turned out to be) the Costco of Vietnam. I just wanted one soda. After ten minutes of negotiations I managed to get a great price on a whole case of soda - but could not communicate with the phrasebook that I just wanted one can. When I finally left (with no soda), I think they thought I wanted to buy the entire pallet for 15,000 dong ($1).
In Cantho, we slept at a homestay - thinking it would be nice to actually meet some real (non-tourist focused) Vietnamese people. Unfortunately, the man of the house worked for the tour company and his wife and son didn't really speak to us. Still it was great to walk around and see how "real Vietnamese" live in the Delta. It was also my first experience sleeping under a mosquito net and actually waking up to see the net covered with bugs...yikes. No malaria yet Mom. From Cantho, we toured a bit - seeing the floating market where all the vendors put their wares at the top of a pole (like a pineapple 15 feet above the boat) to show customers what they're selling and entice them to pull alongside to look at their wares. We also went to a rice-noodle making factory where I was amazed by how dirty everything looked - all the tanks, pipes, etc... especially in comparison to the food processing plants I've been to in the US. Still...the food in Vietnam has been absolutely delicious.
Saigon has been a real experience for me. First off, there are just tons and tons and tons of motorbikes here. Our guide told us therewere 83 Million people and 40 Million motorbikes in Vietnam. It is simply incredible. Last night walking home, there bikes were ten rows deep (going each way) on the street. You have to see it to believe it. And to cross the street, you just start walking - slowly and deliberately - so that all the traffic can avoid you. It was the same in Cambodia, but there's just SO many motos here that it's overwhelming as you're parting the sea to cross the street.
It's a beautiful city with a lot of great buildings (many the French built) and wonderful circles and squares to admire. There are many museums as well - we went to the War Remnants Museum - which used to be called the "Museum of Chinese and American War Crimes". There are exhibits showing a lot of the atrocities of war - the effects of napalm and Agent Orange...and also showed some of the worse behavior of the US soldiers during the war. It was pretty depressing. I recognize that the exhibit was one-sided, but being here makes me wonder if any of the soldiers knew why we were in Vietnam...the parallels to what's going on today in Iraq are scary. There's one picture in particular of soldiers posing standing over decapitated Viet Cong soldiers that's just stuck in my mind.
Tomorrow we're off for Dalat and hopefully to Hoi An for Christmas. One interesting thing we've come across is that there's no ATM's in Vietnam outside of the major cities (Ho Chi Minh and Hanoi) so we've started withdrawing money to cover us until we reach Hanoi. Since the currency is so weak, we've had to get a lot of bills - right now we have 8 Million Dong that we're carrying around in a briefcase thatDeanna has handcuffed to her wrist.
Best to everyone -
Monday, December 13, 2004
12/13/04: Immodium deliver me from evil
Hello everyone:
I'm in Phnom Penh, Cambodia right now...a wonderful mash of 2 million people with 8 traffic lights (at most).
Since I've last reported from Siem Riep, we first took a boat trip to Battambang. And yes...learned once again that you can never ask too many questions before traveling. According to the guidebook, the trip should take about 3 hours. Foolishly, we did not consider the phase of the moon, tide, or the time of year...because we should have known that when there's less water, the boat has to go REALLLLLY slow to not bog down any of the fishing villages that line the entire length of the trip. And figuring that an 8am departure would escape the really harsh sun, we sat on the top of the boat. Anyway...8 hours later we arrived, dehydrated and suffering from sun delusions at our destination. The one saving grace was getting to wave to every child that called "hello" as we floated by...very cute. All 792 times I waved.
Battambang is great because it's off the beaten tourist path (ie. nothing to do) so it's very laid back and cheap. We stayed at the top place in town. It was $11/night!
We hired motor scooter drivers to take us around for the day. It was very, very dusty so the drivers stopped to let us buy dustmasks - we either looked like bandits or SARS patients, but it certainly helped. It was a mixture of uplifting and depressing. In one location, we stopped at a small temple to take pictures and soon Deanna was delighting the local kids by taking their picture and then showing them the picture. Little hams...all of them. In another, our guide spoke about how his father pretended to be crazy so the the Khmer Rouge would not take him to a prison camp. In many locations there are bones and skulls displayed to memorialize the tragedy. Really horrible stuff.
The driver was also interesting. The story as I first understood it: He had polio when he was young, and b/c of the Khmer Rouge had no medicine. Since he couldn't really do labor, he had to figure out another way - starting as a janitor in a nightclub, becoming an interpreter, buying real estate, and then buying a moto and becoming a driver after the interpreter business dried up.
The story as I later came to understand it:
1.He did work as a janitor/bathroom attendant at the nightclub
2.He soon figured out he was making better money from tips for translating for the ex-pat UN folks to talk to the girls in the clubs.
3.The women were prostitutes.
4.He was kind of a pimp...I can't be sure how exactly this worked.
5.He bought the house to rent out to the girls that worked at the nightclub.
6.When all the UN and related folks left after the 1991 election, business dried up (at least the interpreting part) and he had to find another job.
The other really fun thing in Battambang was we took a cooking class (add Khmer cooking to my areas of dangerous incompetence). As good as the class was (and the food) it was most interesting to hear about the store finances and his plan to translate restaurant cash flow into growing pigs and then the pig sales to pre-pay the restaurant lease to lock the rent (at $100/month). He was super-industrious (and only 23) and gives me great hope for the future of this country.
The really unfun thing was also related to eating. The night before we left town, we ate at a Lonely Planet recommended dining establishment and both of us just plain got SICK later that night. Stomach cramps, nausea, chills, sweats on top of the normal bad stuff. Somehow (maybe foolishly) we got on a five hour bus ride (not so bad except for the fact that I had to run for the hills at each stop - not so easy when you consider Cambodia is still the most land-mined country in the world. We arrived, found the closest hotel to the bus stop and just went unconcious for the next 18 hours. It was the nicest hotel we've stayed at and happened on exactly the right night. It's four days later and I think I'm almost all the way back...fingers crossed. Worst of all, it made me go back exclusively to western food...at least until the body forgets Battambang.
Phnom Penh is nice...there's not a whole lot to do (that's legal) here. We did go to the national museum and the palace, but after the splendors of Angkor and Bangkok, it paled in comparison. And there's no signage or information - so maybe there's something I was really missing that was amazing ("no mister Chiang, you actually have to look the other way to see the most unique thing in the world) - but I don't think so. Tuol Sleng was the opposite - very impactful...a very non-descript school yard and buildings that the KR turned into their prison/torture center. Very chilling as they kept a photo of every person ever "processed" here and they are on display.
Wednesday we leave for Vietnam. I leave Cambodia with appreciation for it's people and it's tragedy - but definitely not it's restaurant hygeine standards.
Best to everyone -
I'm in Phnom Penh, Cambodia right now...a wonderful mash of 2 million people with 8 traffic lights (at most).
Since I've last reported from Siem Riep, we first took a boat trip to Battambang. And yes...learned once again that you can never ask too many questions before traveling. According to the guidebook, the trip should take about 3 hours. Foolishly, we did not consider the phase of the moon, tide, or the time of year...because we should have known that when there's less water, the boat has to go REALLLLLY slow to not bog down any of the fishing villages that line the entire length of the trip. And figuring that an 8am departure would escape the really harsh sun, we sat on the top of the boat. Anyway...8 hours later we arrived, dehydrated and suffering from sun delusions at our destination. The one saving grace was getting to wave to every child that called "hello" as we floated by...very cute. All 792 times I waved.
Battambang is great because it's off the beaten tourist path (ie. nothing to do) so it's very laid back and cheap. We stayed at the top place in town. It was $11/night!
We hired motor scooter drivers to take us around for the day. It was very, very dusty so the drivers stopped to let us buy dustmasks - we either looked like bandits or SARS patients, but it certainly helped. It was a mixture of uplifting and depressing. In one location, we stopped at a small temple to take pictures and soon Deanna was delighting the local kids by taking their picture and then showing them the picture. Little hams...all of them. In another, our guide spoke about how his father pretended to be crazy so the the Khmer Rouge would not take him to a prison camp. In many locations there are bones and skulls displayed to memorialize the tragedy. Really horrible stuff.
The driver was also interesting. The story as I first understood it: He had polio when he was young, and b/c of the Khmer Rouge had no medicine. Since he couldn't really do labor, he had to figure out another way - starting as a janitor in a nightclub, becoming an interpreter, buying real estate, and then buying a moto and becoming a driver after the interpreter business dried up.
The story as I later came to understand it:
1.He did work as a janitor/bathroom attendant at the nightclub
2.He soon figured out he was making better money from tips for translating for the ex-pat UN folks to talk to the girls in the clubs.
3.The women were prostitutes.
4.He was kind of a pimp...I can't be sure how exactly this worked.
5.He bought the house to rent out to the girls that worked at the nightclub.
6.When all the UN and related folks left after the 1991 election, business dried up (at least the interpreting part) and he had to find another job.
The other really fun thing in Battambang was we took a cooking class (add Khmer cooking to my areas of dangerous incompetence). As good as the class was (and the food) it was most interesting to hear about the store finances and his plan to translate restaurant cash flow into growing pigs and then the pig sales to pre-pay the restaurant lease to lock the rent (at $100/month). He was super-industrious (and only 23) and gives me great hope for the future of this country.
The really unfun thing was also related to eating. The night before we left town, we ate at a Lonely Planet recommended dining establishment and both of us just plain got SICK later that night. Stomach cramps, nausea, chills, sweats on top of the normal bad stuff. Somehow (maybe foolishly) we got on a five hour bus ride (not so bad except for the fact that I had to run for the hills at each stop - not so easy when you consider Cambodia is still the most land-mined country in the world. We arrived, found the closest hotel to the bus stop and just went unconcious for the next 18 hours. It was the nicest hotel we've stayed at and happened on exactly the right night. It's four days later and I think I'm almost all the way back...fingers crossed. Worst of all, it made me go back exclusively to western food...at least until the body forgets Battambang.
Phnom Penh is nice...there's not a whole lot to do (that's legal) here. We did go to the national museum and the palace, but after the splendors of Angkor and Bangkok, it paled in comparison. And there's no signage or information - so maybe there's something I was really missing that was amazing ("no mister Chiang, you actually have to look the other way to see the most unique thing in the world) - but I don't think so. Tuol Sleng was the opposite - very impactful...a very non-descript school yard and buildings that the KR turned into their prison/torture center. Very chilling as they kept a photo of every person ever "processed" here and they are on display.
Wednesday we leave for Vietnam. I leave Cambodia with appreciation for it's people and it's tragedy - but definitely not it's restaurant hygeine standards.
Best to everyone -
Sunday, December 05, 2004
12/05/04: Cambodia - Angkor Temples
Hello All!
We made it to Cambodia and have been relaxing here for the last week. Amazing, amazing place and really wonderful people as well.
The first thing that really strikes you here (especially in comparison to the parts of Thailand we visited so far) is the poverty. As I've learned in the past week, Cambodia has been at civil war for 30 years. Starting with the secret US bombing during the Vietnam War to the Khmer Rouge killing fields (estimated that 1-2 Million people were killed out of a population of 7 Million) and finally Vietnamese liberation/occupation...so a lot of the infrastructure and "first worldness" that you might expect has really only had the last 7 years to develop. What strikes me most, however, is the spirit of the people is definitely towards making a better life and leaving the past for what it is.
I spent four days (first with Julian and then with Deanna after she returned) exploring the temples. Truly magnificent. The hard thing to capture in pictures is the absolute scope of these temples. When I am able to upload pics (I fear it may be never given the connection speeds here), or even watching video - Tomb Raider with the Angkor Wat/TaProhm backgrounds - you just can't capture how big everything is. My favorite things were:
a. Ta Prohm - a ruined temple that has not been restored. There are kapoc trees intertwined with the brick of the temples and it's simply amazing.
b. Watching Julian try to negotiate very narrow steps and duck under 5 foot doorways. Sorry buddy...it was funny.
Continuing on the theme of Julian, due to his standby ticket and United Airlines regulations he had to "look nice" on the return trip, which meant buying dress shoes and non-jean pants. This led to much comedy as the average Cambodian is probably 5'4" and has a 29" waist and maybe wears a size 6-7 shoe. And the funniest thing about it is that our guide took us to the Cambodian market (not the tourist market). Pants turned out okay. Shoes seemed to be okay provided he wore them for no longer than 7 minutes at a time.
Siem Riep (the town near the temples) has actually been a really fun time. Julian and I had a good time around town for two nights and then we welcomed Deanna home with "welcome back" dinner and drinks. I remember the night ended with most of the patrons and all the waiting Cambodian cab, moto, and security guards out on the street dancing and laughing together. Black Eyed Peas seem to bring the whole world together. The next day we walked around the temples and re-met all our friends from the night before. People are still asking me (no lie) where my tall friend is...at the restaurants, bars, gas station, etc...
On the serious side, there's just so much that needs to be done here in Cambodia. I think Deanna is much more in-tune with the world than I am (yet) and thank god for that. At her suggestion, we went to a cello concert given twice weekly by a Swiss doctor who has dedicated his life to saving children in Cambodia. He has built three hospitals here in Cambodia and tirelessly raises funds in Switzerland and Cambodia to support the efforts. It's really sad, but almost all kids here have tuberculosis, so smaller medical problems can cause huge problems. Certain very common ailments here require immediate blood transfusions to treat shock - and over 50% of the local blood supply (Cambodians) have hepatitis. Very, very sad. We both donated blood yesterday (very clean process...don't worry) to help the cause.
The other great experience was going to a silk farm and watching how silk is made from growing the feed crops for the worms, colleting the silk from the cocoons, and then weaving. The school actually takes poor from around Cambodia, teaches them a skill, and then they go home with a trade. There are tons of programs like this out here.
A very cute Cambodian girl I met that is a waitress at the Red Piano (bar whose claim to fame is that Angelina Jolie frequented the place during filming of Tomb Raider) is a really great example of how hard life is here. Her parents both passed away, so instead of going to university, she left home to get a job and save up to go back to school someday. She sees her family only twice a year, and works 7 days a week doing laundry in the morning to make extra money, then coming to work from 1pm until midnight. And she thinks that she'll have to save for 2+ years before she has the money. I asked how much tuition was and her answer was $300/year. I felt incredibly ashamed when she asked me in turn how much my plane ticket alone cost ($4000).
Anyway...not to be a downer...being here I'm reminded every 3 minutes how lucky I am. Cambodia is a wonderful place and just feeling it's way towards the future. We're off to Battambang next in NW Cambodia and then most likely heading to Phnom Penh and then into Vietnam!
We made it to Cambodia and have been relaxing here for the last week. Amazing, amazing place and really wonderful people as well.
The first thing that really strikes you here (especially in comparison to the parts of Thailand we visited so far) is the poverty. As I've learned in the past week, Cambodia has been at civil war for 30 years. Starting with the secret US bombing during the Vietnam War to the Khmer Rouge killing fields (estimated that 1-2 Million people were killed out of a population of 7 Million) and finally Vietnamese liberation/occupation...so a lot of the infrastructure and "first worldness" that you might expect has really only had the last 7 years to develop. What strikes me most, however, is the spirit of the people is definitely towards making a better life and leaving the past for what it is.
I spent four days (first with Julian and then with Deanna after she returned) exploring the temples. Truly magnificent. The hard thing to capture in pictures is the absolute scope of these temples. When I am able to upload pics (I fear it may be never given the connection speeds here), or even watching video - Tomb Raider with the Angkor Wat/TaProhm backgrounds - you just can't capture how big everything is. My favorite things were:
a. Ta Prohm - a ruined temple that has not been restored. There are kapoc trees intertwined with the brick of the temples and it's simply amazing.
b. Watching Julian try to negotiate very narrow steps and duck under 5 foot doorways. Sorry buddy...it was funny.
Continuing on the theme of Julian, due to his standby ticket and United Airlines regulations he had to "look nice" on the return trip, which meant buying dress shoes and non-jean pants. This led to much comedy as the average Cambodian is probably 5'4" and has a 29" waist and maybe wears a size 6-7 shoe. And the funniest thing about it is that our guide took us to the Cambodian market (not the tourist market). Pants turned out okay. Shoes seemed to be okay provided he wore them for no longer than 7 minutes at a time.
Siem Riep (the town near the temples) has actually been a really fun time. Julian and I had a good time around town for two nights and then we welcomed Deanna home with "welcome back" dinner and drinks. I remember the night ended with most of the patrons and all the waiting Cambodian cab, moto, and security guards out on the street dancing and laughing together. Black Eyed Peas seem to bring the whole world together. The next day we walked around the temples and re-met all our friends from the night before. People are still asking me (no lie) where my tall friend is...at the restaurants, bars, gas station, etc...
On the serious side, there's just so much that needs to be done here in Cambodia. I think Deanna is much more in-tune with the world than I am (yet) and thank god for that. At her suggestion, we went to a cello concert given twice weekly by a Swiss doctor who has dedicated his life to saving children in Cambodia. He has built three hospitals here in Cambodia and tirelessly raises funds in Switzerland and Cambodia to support the efforts. It's really sad, but almost all kids here have tuberculosis, so smaller medical problems can cause huge problems. Certain very common ailments here require immediate blood transfusions to treat shock - and over 50% of the local blood supply (Cambodians) have hepatitis. Very, very sad. We both donated blood yesterday (very clean process...don't worry) to help the cause.
The other great experience was going to a silk farm and watching how silk is made from growing the feed crops for the worms, colleting the silk from the cocoons, and then weaving. The school actually takes poor from around Cambodia, teaches them a skill, and then they go home with a trade. There are tons of programs like this out here.
A very cute Cambodian girl I met that is a waitress at the Red Piano (bar whose claim to fame is that Angelina Jolie frequented the place during filming of Tomb Raider) is a really great example of how hard life is here. Her parents both passed away, so instead of going to university, she left home to get a job and save up to go back to school someday. She sees her family only twice a year, and works 7 days a week doing laundry in the morning to make extra money, then coming to work from 1pm until midnight. And she thinks that she'll have to save for 2+ years before she has the money. I asked how much tuition was and her answer was $300/year. I felt incredibly ashamed when she asked me in turn how much my plane ticket alone cost ($4000).
Anyway...not to be a downer...being here I'm reminded every 3 minutes how lucky I am. Cambodia is a wonderful place and just feeling it's way towards the future. We're off to Battambang next in NW Cambodia and then most likely heading to Phnom Penh and then into Vietnam!
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