Thursday April 16, 2009

I set off early on a bus for Siem Reap. We were packed in very tightly all of us, I being the only foreigner. I shared my seat with a father and his 4 kids, he had to be no older than 17 or 18. The kids started ripping out pages of my Economist as soon as they saw the shiny cover. I didn’t mind. We stopped along the way for snacks but all there seemed to be was deep fried pigeon and some strange boney soup. So I sat in the sun and watched the Cambodian highway go by. Cambodia has no ‘highways’ in the American sense. Just 2 lane roads that are paved most of the way. Roadside stalls seem to litter the landscape, many selling motor oil in old plastic bottles. Most people here travel by motorcycle, often you will see entire families-up to 7 people-on the back of one bike. We finally arrived in Siem Reap and I took a tuk tuk to the hotel where I would meet Paulette. A tuk tuk in Cambodia is a motorcycle that pulls a covered cart that people ride inside of. The hotel was posh, very posh and completely deserted. Due to the economic downturn and the political crises going on in Thailand, tourism in Siem Reap and to Angkor Wat has taken a huge dive. I was the only guest there until Paulette and her friends arrived later that night. I went to the pool, vegged out and then hired a tuk tuk to take me to a temple where people were celebrating the Khmer New Year which happened to fall on this day. We drove for an eternity, through Siem Reap and into the countryside. The Cambodian landscape is something I’ve never seen before, it’s a vast plain that is dotted with palms, gumtrees and other indigenous fauna. You can see Spartan hills in the distance, but for the most part it looks like one giant rice paddy. Most of the houses are raised in order to avoid wild animals from roaming inside and many of the cooking is done outdoors. Cows and roosters were abundant and had the right away for traffic. When we arrived at the temple-Bakhung-there was a huge celebration going on. People were cheerful and dancing everywhere, eating foods from vendors before crossing a moat into this ancient temple complex. My tuk tuk driver and I made our way towards the bridge over the moat but were stopped by guards who said no foreigners could enter the temple that day due to the Khmer New Year festivities. I didn’t mind, I found the whole thing to be quite exotic already and enjoyed seeing what Cambodians do to have fun. For example, they have a huge corral where teenagers dance to Cambodian hip hop and they love Carnival rides. Cock fighting is popular, albeit illegal and making handicrafts seemed to be fashionable. It was great and quite divine too considering the temple pilgrimage that overshadowed the afternoon. Later that day, I finally met up with Paulette and her friends from New Orleans.