Man, Cambodian Kids are Cute!

Man, I could just watch that video at the end of the last post over and over again. It never fails to make me laugh out loud. So, we are on our way out again - this time to Japan - so I decided to wrap up Cambodia before we left. You must forgive my relapse in posting but I've been busy saving the world. It's a tough job, but someone has to do it.

The temples at Angkor are very spread out so you can't just walk from one to the next. You wouldn't want to anyway, it was about 5,000 degrees Celsius out there (I'm really bad at conversions). Lonely Planet seemed to suggest that you could rent motorbikes but we found out that is no longer the case. I guess one too many tourists wrecked and the government put the kibosh on that much to the enthusiasm of the local trishaw drivers. Ours was named Mr. Vanna and he charged us something like $30/day to scoot our butts to as many temples as we wanted to see. Mr. Vanna was the bomb!

He would even drop us off at the hotel so we could wash all the grime of 1,000-year-old-temples from our bodies and pick us back up again for dinner. The main square in town was really laid back with tons of great little restaurants. Dinner cost us less than $20 including alcohol and dessert - you can't beat that except maybe in Thailand! There were also some really great galleries that sold black and white photographs of the temples but I swear some of Marc's pictures could go on those walls.

The following day, Mr. Vanna picked us up bright and early because we wanted to take a hot air balloon ride. The balloon is tethered to the ground but it does give a great view of the surrounding temples. We had tried to go on it the previous evening, but they claimed it was too windy. Well, we got there in the morning (as per their suggestion) and it was too sunny. Hmmm..... not sure I understand why they need 6 full-time employees to tell everyone that they aren't flying today because of Hurricane Ike hitting Texas or El Nino or whatever other lame excuse they come up with on a daily basis.

No worries though because we just kept on trucking in the back of Mr. Vanna's trishaw. We were off to the country-side to see the farming villages and check out a few more temples. Our first stop was Banteay Srei, the most ornate of the temples but also a temple for little people. We felt right at home.

It looked liked a miniature Angkor Wat but with those funky monkeys outside and intricate carvings on every square inch.

Afterwards, our trusty driver took us on a tour of the farming villages on the way to the next temple. We really got a good look at how most Cambodians live. Their homes are barely more than a few wooden planks for walls and a thatched roof. They don't have electricity and only some are fortunate to have a well donated by a Westerner who visited Cambodia. You could see the signs proudly displayed near wells stating the donor and his country of citizenship.

But what really touched my heart were the children. They were running around, playing, smiling, unaware of their dismal surroundings. In fact, they really made the best out of what they had. In the picture below, rainwater collected in a wide ditch on the side of the dirt road has become the community swimming pool.

Our final destination was Kbal Spean where we were going to do a little hiking. The Lonely Planet guidebook says it is 1 1/2 hours from Banteay Srei on a "sandy track." Um, there was nothing sandy about it. In fact, in some places, I was sure we were going to have to get out and push Mr. Vanna's trishaw out of the muddy mess. It's not like that thing has 4-wheel drive!

Luckily, we got there in one piece and we trekked up to see the "River of a Thousand Lingas." According to our descriptive Lonely Planet, the lingas, or "phallic symbols of fertility" were shaped into the rocks on the river bed. And there are a THOUSAND lingas? This I had to see. Unfortunately, the real thing was quite disappointing, although the deities carved into the rocks were pretty cool. Those bullet shaped carvings on the front are supposed to be the lingas. Not exactly what I had envisioned...On the way back, we needed to stop and get some gas for Mr. Vanna's motorbike. So, we pulled over to the local gas-station-stand-cum-barber-shop where he purchased gas in empty 2-liter bottles of Sprite. Next to the gas station was a sign that indicated the minefield had been cleared by CMAC, Cambodia Mine Action Centre. I hope the gas station came after the mines were cleared!

After our eventful day, Mr. Vanna was nice enough to make reservations for us to have dinner and see a show. The Cambodian dancers were reminiscent of the Indonesian dancers we saw in Bali but they had enormous headdresses!

Who let this nut-job up on stage?

The next day, we begrudgingly made our way to the airport to head back to Hong Kong. The airport security searched our bags thoroughly and made us return these 4 Cambodian children. I *still* contend that I have no idea how they ended up in our suitcases, I swear!