My sweet friend, Paige Head and I had a girls weekend away to Cambodia while our husbands so
graciously looked after the kids. Our intent was to see one of the wonders of the world, Angkor Wat,
but what we what we
experienced far exceeded our expectations.
Paige and I stayed at the
Shinta Mani, a little boutique hotel in Siem Reap that offers hospitality training to some of the poorest villagers (eventually these employees will make about $80 US a
month, a little less than what a policeman in Siem Reap earns). They also have a
community program, taking
guests out to the villages in Angkor Wat in order to give them basic survival items, rice, fish sauce, school supplies, bikes, and even water wells and new homes (6 x 6 foot cement dwellings-- something we wouldn't even use for a garage or storage place in the US).
Below: gas station (gas in bottles)
We spent our first day and 1/2 exploring the Temples of Angkor. This trip was pretty hard (even though she wouldn't s
ay it) for Paige. Her father was in Vietnam where
his job was to clear land mines. We chose not to go to the Killing Fields outside the capital of Cambodia. I cannot say, not
having been there, whether or not that was a good choice. But, from what I've heard, there is a field they take you to where every few feet you actually step on or over actual human remains (bones). I recently read an autobiography of a young woman who survived The Khmer Rouge and killing fields. The accounts are horrific- unb
elievable what these people have endured- a civil war that continued up until the early 90's. Frankly, I'm glad we didn't go there.
THE TEMPLES
Angkor Wat itself was built by powerful Khmer kings as monuments of self-glorification in the 9th century and completed 300 years later. In the 15th century, Angkor Wat was abandoned to the jungles after an invasion by Siam and forgotten until the French explorers "rediscovered" it in the 19th century. Since then, the temples have been raided for their Buddha heads, statues, and sculptures- it's incredible to see what has endured.
Trying to avoid the crowds and bus loads of
tourists (who seemed to be primarily Japanese), our guide took us to several "unknown" temples. (They weren't even on the tourist map yet.) Walking along the corridors, we saw temple walls decorated with magnificent detailed carvings of people, cows, daily life, and battle scenes from ages ago. Guarding the temples are giant statues of lions, tigers, snakes and elephants.
At Ta Phrom, the temple area (where the movies, Two Brothers and Tomb Raider were filmed) has trees so tall that they seem to reach the sky. Their twisted roots and trunks wrap themselves around the ruins, seeming to crush the overturned stones. The villagers believe the gods still live there.
Amazing.
THE VILLAGES
On our last day, we managed to talk the hotel
into giving us a special tour of the villages (it was the supervisor's day off!!). I'm so thankful we did. After loading up on rice, bicycles, backpacks and other supplies, we set off for the villages that surround the temples. The villagers have to abide by government rules to live there since they live on the temple sites. That said, the conditions are appalling. Open air wooden homes on stilts with thatched roofs. One home had 9 children, who while left at home while the parents went to work in the rice fields, accidentally burned half the home trying to cook a meal.
We were deeply affect
ed by these people and the children and yet, even in poverty they smiled and were over-joyed to receive the most basic of items.
Aren't we blessed?
