Mandalay Days (mini-edition!)

Scene from a modern Hindu temple in downtown Mandalay.


Widely considered to be the "world's biggest book," with 729 huge marble slabs in which the entire 15 volume religious text, teh Tripitaka, is carved in the ancient language of Pali.

This formidable fellow is the most sacred Buddha image in all of Myanmar. Every day men congregate to layer more and more gold foil on his body---so much his fingers are disappearing!---while the women are forced to meditate at a distance.

A teak-wood bridge that stretches to the horizon---longest in the world---where monks congregate in the evening to watch the moon rise.


Oh he's a hungry one.

Hiking Kalaw to Inle Lake

Hello once again from Myanmar. The past 3 days we have been on a trek through some amazing scenery. We began our adventure in Kalaw, a nighttime bus ride away from Yangon. We set off energetically in the morning: Travis and Sarah, whom you know well, Ega (Polish) and Mattio (Brazil), Connor (Irish) and Zoe (British), and our guide Jimmy, a Burmese man. We talk and walk jauntily through the rolling hills. The scenery soon becomes bucolic. It is nice and cool for once and only rains a little. We pass men and women caring for their vegetable patches that cover the landscape like a green quilt. In the distance we can see patches of virgin rainforest on the mountains. Sometimes we would walk by small gold zedis or we would see them in the distance.
We visited hilltribe villages and a school. When the children playing outside the school saw us they ran up and proceeded to shake our hands one by one. They laughed hysterically when we would take photos of them and then show them. Surprisingly, the most aggressive and bullyish children were the novice monks.
As we walked through the village people would invite us in for tea so sometimes we would get to take a rest. The first night we spent in a village. The accomodation was very basic, a bunch of beds in a row on the floor. No electricity in the whole village! Can you believe it? The food cooked by the family was so good, so many kinds of Burmese curries, like cauliflower, potato, and peanut. After dinner we all talked and joked around over a fine 2$ bottle of whisky.


Bright and early the morning we began again. We walked through even more beautiful scenery, and sometimes saw buffaloes grazing or helping farmers plow the fields. We asked Jimmy if the people used chemicals on the farms. He said "No, only traditional herbs." Only a minute later however, we walked by a man spraying the plants with something that smelled very suspiciously like chemical pesticides. Oh well.

We stopped at a train station for a rest. Soon a train pulled up and a flurry of action began. People carrying huge bundles of veggies and fruits sold them to passengers on the train through the windows. Monks, children, dogs, and hilltribe people in colorful headscarves were all in on the action. The sky sprinkled refreshingly on us as we walked to our sleeping spot for the night.

We stayed that night in a monastery. The beds were a bit softer here, and there was electricity from 6-9 pm thanks to a generator, but the outhouse was up a steep hill. At night this brought out my often dormant fear of tigers. For dinner we had some amazing vegetable curries prepared by "Cooking Man".

The next day we hiked down a steep rocky trail through some lush rainforest, past jade rice paddies and ended up at Inle Lake. There we boarded a boat that took us to the Jumping Cat Monastery. A sign that said: "Please if you want to see cat jumping donation for cat food" prompted us to drop 200 kyat each into the box. A woman came out shaking a box of cat treats and soon she had 6 or 7 cats congregated around. She took a little hoop out and proceeded to make each one jump through it. It was so amazing!


More photos of trekking through beautiful mountains to Inle Lake:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.928031819815.2406144.18419229&l=d7ccab3076


---
Originally written June 13, 2011.

Giant Buddhas and a Magical Golden Rock

We've continuing our odyssey in the mystical land of Myanmar (aka Burma), where gleaming golden stupas rise up out of the idyllic fields of rice paddies and the big-humped buffalo run freely through the bumpy streets. People chew betelnut here, a mild stimulant similar to the effects of nicotine or caffeine, which gives many young people red-stained spotty teeth and many old people downright black gnarled teeth. The big sacred sites and tourist sites are owned by the rigid military government, which charges exorbitant fees (relatively) and create all kinds of bureaucratic regulations regarding transportation and entry.

We inconsistently have to show our passports to get from one town to another and have to contend with exchanging currency on the black market (which offers 800 kyat per dollar, while the government offices offer only 600). But generally the generals are friendly to tourists, though they are not so kindly to dissidents and successful independent entrepreneurs. I've heard of people who refuse to give huge sums of their profits to the government "disappearing" overnight. When I asked our cab driver about it on the way from the airport (after he brought it up) he merely said, "Police," and pointed to a long line of passing police trucks filled with machine-gun-donning uniformed men. Crazy place.

It really is beautiful though. So we set out from Yangon, the capital until about 2 years ago, to the north a few hours to Bago, land of unrealistically enormous Buddha images. After spending a couple of days recovering from some vicious food poisoning, we tracked down some red-toothed motorbike drivers who were willing to show us all over town for a reasonable fee.

They first took us to this enormous statue of a reclining Buddha, depicting the Buddha moments before his enlightenment, that is 178 feet long and covered in beautiful mosaics of colorful tiles and radiant mirrors. This statue was built in 994CE (of course it's been restored) and was lost after war in the 18th Century and discovered a century later, overgrown in the jungle----what a discovery to make! On the back in gleaming mosaic is depicted the story of the origin of this statue and Buddhism in Myanmar: a "heathen" [sic] prince goes to the forest and falls in love with a Buddhist woman and asks her to marry him, saying she can still practice Buddhism. When the "heathen" king finds out he is so enraged that he sentences her to death! When the "heathen" court officials throw her before their "heathen" god statue for sacrifice, she prays to the three gems (the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha) and the statue crumbles to pieces. The king is so terrified of this sorcery that he converts the whole kingdom to Buddhism and built this giant reclining Buddha statue. This is yet another account of a S.E.Asian misrepresenting the meaning of Buddhism: "submitting" to the "power of the Buddha" out of fear!

This giant Buddha is pretty spectacular but just 200 meters down the road is an even more epic sight: a slightly BIGGER reclining Buddha statue! This one is a full 242 feet long, a good 64 feet longer than the other one, though it was built only 10 years ago. They really like their giant Buddha statues and immediately across the road stands 4 monolithic Buddhas, holding out their capes, on the 4 walls of a towering temple. Out back of this temple there is a garden where over 2 dozen life-sized Buddha statues in painted golden robes sit in silent meditation, the bindis of their third eyes swirling with enlightenment. The Buddha wasn’t in favor of representations of his own body, and therefore the proper question is actually, why are there so many Buddha statues? I'll spare you the details of the sitting Buddhas, suffice it to say they were preposterously large, but describe our coming: We drove past the main entrance, where the government ticket-booth is, and went in the back. They surely could have seen us but I guess we were out of their "agro zone" (as Sarah put it, comparing the Burmese government to the programmed enemies in World of Warcraft) and so we didn't have to pay them; quite odd.

There was a towering zedi that is EVEN BIGGER than the Shwedagon but is only painted gold, not covered in real gold (not that I can tell the difference). It's cool how many shrines to the Buddha they have surrounding this golden monolith, so you can pick the Buddha you worship to your mood: feeling excited and bright? Go to the Day-Glo mirror Buddhas! Feeling sad and depressed? Go to the black-robed gothy Buddhas. We chose a modest wooden Buddha to reflect before, then reflected some more on the state of the bathroom floors, which we were not allowed to wear shoes into because it's a temple---nice. But you can always wash your feet right outside---whew!

Afterwards we attended the immense exodus of monks out of the various corners of the monastery into the cafeteria, where a feast had been prepared for them (monks are not allowed to cook for themselves and must walk around with alms bowls begging for food---good karmic merit for the giver---or pay others to make it for them). The monks walked in in their burgundy robes, flowing in single file for a good 15 minutes---so many monks! The portions of food necessary for this volume of people was preposterous: huge cauldrons as big as bathtubs full of rice and a variety of curries. We think it's a bit odd that although the Buddha said that all creatures are equal and part of the same karmic cycle, that Buddhist monks in S.E.Asia will eat meat. They get around this tough moral conundrum by paying other people to kill animals for them to eat, which apparently doesn't violate any karmic code of ethics to them. Another fun thing about monks, particular to Burma, is that they think it necessary to chant for 24 hours a day in one hour shifts over loudspeakers broadcasted at full lo-fi volume over the entire town---even in the middle of the night!

Well from Bago we unwittingly decided to undertake an arduous pilgrimage to one of the holiest sites in all of Myanmar: the Golden Rock. We took a bus that dropped us off 16km outside of the town it was supposed to drop us off in so after some motorbike drivers tried to deceive us and charge us $8 to take us to town, we managed to find a bus for $1. We got to town just in time and after checking into a hotel we went to the point of departure for the Golden Rock, where massive flat-bed trucks with hard wooden benches cart pilgrims and tourists up the mountain. We arrived and the truck said that they would take us the 30 minute drive to the base of the mountain for $2 each but only once the truck is full, loaded up with 48 people. There were about 10 there. Now the rainy season is well upon us and the heavens spit their fluid spite upon us daily (actually it's often quite refreshing), which tends to drive away tourists and so after 2 hours of waiting we realized that it would be too late to get back on the last truck anyway so we abandoned pursuit for the evening. We got delicious mango ice cream! The monks chanted over blaring loudspeakers all night.

The next day we awoke early and returned to the truck, where a promising 25 people had aggregated, including an Irish fellow named Connor who we've since been traveling with and a very fun Dutch couple. We declared our solidarity and waited for 3 hours in the truck to reach 48 people when another truck pulled up and people started piling on. They told us that no foreigners were allowed on this other truck, also headed for the golden rock, and that we would have to wait for the first truck to fill again. Outraged, I calmly pestered the ticket office until they unexpectedly ushered us onto the already overcrowded truck. We drove for 45 minutes through beautiful lush jungle on seriously windy roads, bouncing on the hard wooden seat and generally crushing those on all sides with the various accelerations of the truck.

Eventually we made it and headed up the mountain! The Golden Rock was within our sight! We saw sedan chairs for lazy tourists who want to make the pilgrimage on the backs of other people but walked on for the hour up the mountain, ascending into the clouds. Our fine crew of 5 arrived at the ticket gate and debated whether we ought to each pay the $6 fee directly to the oppressive government but ultimately decided that all our effort on this epic pilgrimage would be wasted should we fall short so close to our golden destination. So we waited out a torrential downpour and gave the illegitimate authority its undue and moseyed on over to this rock.

Let me tell you, it was some rock. It's truly incredible that this precariously balanced mastodon of a boulder defies gravity by stubbornly refusing to tumble down the side of the mountain. This incredible rock is supposed to be keep balanced by a strand of the Buddhas hair, placed there 2500 years ago by a King upon the instruction of an esthetic hermit. The hermit told the King to find a rock shaped like his head (which is apparently weird and lumpy) and the magical King, inheriting powers from his alchemist father and serpent-dragon-princess mother, found this rock at the bottom of the ocean and had it whisked away to balance precariously atop Mount Kyaiktiyo, where it still apparently teeters today. Oh yeah, and the rock is totally golden. Devote followers have covered the entire rock in golden foil and hang bells from the surrounding railings, sending mystical reverberations through the air. Perched atop this epic golden boulder is a 24 foot tall conical pagoda that is painted, you guessed it: gleaming gold.

We walked down the much more difficult way, down a steep mountain path and through a series of villages built on the intense mountain incline. It really was quite a pilgrimage.


Now we've headed up north to Kalaw, where we shall venture to trek through the mountains for 3 days, staying with villagers and seeking the coming wonders of Inle Lake!




Photos of Bago, giant Buddhas and a Golden Rock:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.925115828485.2404997.18419229&l=13b02fccc4

---
Originally written June 6, 2011.

Shiniest Country Ever

We arrived in Myanmar, AKA Burma, on May 27th, at 5:35 PM. Our flight touched down in Yangon, and the number of countries Travis has been to before this trip officially doubled. We shared a taxi with an Israli woman to the center of town, and checked in at the Golden Smiles Guesthouse, a dingy yet friendly sort of place, and venture out to find nourishment. Yangon has a high percentage of Indians in their population and it wasn't long before we were plunked down with a huge plate of vegetarian curry and rice. To our delight, we could get as much curry, rice and soup as we wanted for 1000 Kyat ($1.25).

Myanmar is a strange place. The US and EU have trade sanctions on it, so all imports come from other Asean countries, so the sorts of Western imports we are used to seeing in other S.E.Asian countries aren't here. The people all dress in a traditional style, wearing a longyi (lon-jee), a wraparound type skirt. Men's longyis are tied differently than women's and come in a much more limited selection of colors. There are no foreign banks or ATMs here, meaning all of the money we need we had to bring with us in cash.

Speaking of money, there is a ridiculous standard for bills here. USD are widely accepted for payment of things like hotel stays and admission to sights, and kyat is for smaller things, like food and taxi rides. But heaven forbid you give them a USD with even the slightest fold, crinkle or minute abrasion. I tried to exchange a $100 with a tiny tiny tiniest little spot you've ever seen at my guesthouse and they wouldn't take it. But the Kyat can look like it was put into a blender and then taped back together, then stomped on and eaten by a cow. see exhibit A: our beautiful, crisp clean unacceptable $50 next to a 200Ky note that no one would glance twice at except maybe to try to decipher the denomination of the bill under all of the filth.

Back to our adventures...

The first day in Yangon we went to the National Museum, which we sadly have no photos from due to them saying "No cameras allowed". The riches inside of this poorly labeled and lit museum surpassed anything I could have even thought of. There was a huge throne covered in gold and ornately carved. There was a golden bed encrusted with rubies, emeralds and sapphires. There was a pointy royal tunic also encrusted with jewels that would have made one look incredibly regal and goddesslike. A bejewelled golden duck-shaped bowl laid locked in a case behind thick steel bars. No doubt, the Burmese love their gold, as we would find out even more the next day.

We began our day by catching a local bus to Kandawgyi Lake. We strolled along the boardwalk and watched middle-class Burmese families and amorous modern couples relaxing in the gardens. We walked past flowerbeds and lotuses, and came to a mini Buddhist shrine, on a little peninsula. I wasn't allowed in the main shrine, but Travis was (guess why). Yup that's right, no women allowed. According to Theravada Buddhist beliefs, only men can reach enlightenment. Booooo!

We stroll further and we catch sight of this HUGE boat! It is the Karaweik, a royal barge. It's 3 stories tall and probably around 200 feet long, red and gold, with huge ducks keeping the front of it afloat. Never seen anything like it! We approach and apparently it's a government run dinner-theater. Giving that one a miss, we walk on, and see a strange sight: A man in a longi and flip-flops installing stage lighting on rickety looking scaffolding. Pat Barnes would not be happy.

We feel hungry so we leave the park in search of lunch. On our search we walk by a bumping party. It turns out to be an Indian Wedding, and they invite us inside! We eat delicious byriani off of a fresh banana leaf with our hands, Indian style. All of the women had brilliant, sparkley saris and flowers in their hair. We met the bride and groom who sat on a stage to be admired, not allowed to join the party. We also found out that it was an arranged marriage, and that could account for some of the newlywed's unenthusiasm. We found the family to be so kind and gracious for inviting us in, and it was such a great experience.

I think the highlight of our trip to Yangon was the Shweddagon (go ahead: pronounce it). I have never seen anything like it before in all of my life. It was by far the shiniest place I have ever been. In the center stood a 350 ft tall spire (zedi), most of which is coated in real gold. It is surrounded by dozens of smaller spires also covered in gold(paint?). As you walk around the base of the zedi there are shrines and meditation rooms containing different themed Buddha images. Every surface is covered in intricate carvings and plasterwork, and painted with gold, red, white or green, or covered in mirrored tilework. I don't know how they could have made it more lavish or ornate if they had tried. We marveled for a while and talked to a monk named Santa. He was very kind and showed us things like a 3 ft tall Buddha made entirely out of jade.

That night we ate at the same Indian restaurant as the first day and unfortunately became sick from the delicious curry. We have since been recovering and planning our next leg - the overnight journey upcountry to Inle Lake.

Pictures from Yangon and big golden temples: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.920076437465.2402902.18419229&l=4cd9464fcc

---

Originally written June 1, 2011.

Angkor: Hindu Heaven

Heavenly Nymphs at Angkor Wat

Today we should like to impart to thee the tremendous impact of the ancient mystique and illustrious splendor of one of the 8 wonders of the world: Angkor Wat and the epic city of temples from the millennium old Angkor empire. This incredible land of both ruins and immaculately preserved monuments to the unmitigated beauty of mankind has been the pinnacle of our exploratory ambitions since the conception of our South East Asian adventure: Angkor.

To reach towards the towering Hindu gods we had to leave behind the scars of the modern atrocities of the Khmer Rouge genocide, leaving vast killing fields of mass graves near the site of furious torture in capital city Phnom Penh, modern day capital of Cambodia. The city was evacuated when the murderous radical revolutionaries overtook it in 1975, sending the entire population of 7 million to forced labor camps in the countryside to support the fever of nationalism and war with Vietnam---only 5 million returned 4 years later when Vietnam conquered the Khmer Rouge and sent them running to the hills. Phnom Penh is now a thriving metropolis, where people are optimistic and hard-working but never stray far from the knowledge of the horrid potential of mankind to impart pain and suffering in the name of glory. Now motorbikes roar through crowded streets, around the monumental gleaming Royal Palace and through the twirling carnival of modernity.

Yet a mere 6 hours to the West lies such dazzling resplendence, the likes of which mankind shall perhaps never again compose.

We began our journey on bicycle, an invigorating 15km ride through the idyllic Cambodian countryside, past stilted huts, cows, palms, and endless fields of rice paddies. Upon arriving at the oldest group of Angkor temples, built over 1100 years ago, we were told we could not enter without a ticket. Of course we had planned for such and offered payment but were told we needed to retrieve the ticket from the office, 15km away---thus denying any hope of seeing those temples on that day. We despaired for but a moment before convincing a gung-ho young Cambodian to take us on his motorbike.

Returning, we got to eat sweet dripping mangos and witness the beautiful plaster carvings on the towering walls of these crumbling temples. We identified all our favorite Hindu gods: Vishnu, savior of the universe, Shiva, the four-armed deity who shall someday open his third eye and destroy the universe, and Brahma, the four-faced benefactor who created the universe from out of the sea of chaos. As we climbed the stairs of the temple Bakong, rising up towards the orange-streaked sky at sunset, we speculated on the differences between our culture of good-and-evil and the Hindu duality of order verses chaos.

Kbal Spean

The following day we met our tuk-tuk driver (a motorbike-drawn-carriage), Kusal, who enchanted us in the market the previous evening with his jolly laugh and subsequently drove us to some of the most mind-blowing experiences this world has to offer. He took us to see some beautiful temples in partial standing, adorned with incredible carvings of our favorite gods and guarded by statues of Hanuman, monkey god and leader of the monkey army (oh yeah they have an army) and Garuda, half-bird/half-man vehicle of the god Vishnu. From there we went to Kbal Spean, an enchanting moniker, commonly referred to as the River of a Thousand Lingas, the Hindu phallic symbol of Shiva and masculinity.  This trickling river and waterfall (in the early wet season) did indeed have countless lingas (allegedly a thousand) but was also home to dozens of beautiful carvings of flowers, birds, a crocodile, a frog, a bull, and many gods and goddesses, including the creator, Brahma, being born out a lotus flower blooming from the navel of Vishnu lying on the 7-headed snake, naga, on the churning ocean of chaos.

Nature runs riot at Beng Mealea

The next day we fulfilled our wildest jungle-temple fantasies at Beng Mealea, an enormous and beautiful temple with towering walls covered in carvings of dancing heavenly nymphs that has fallen back into chaos and disarray, with huge vines growing out of lumpish heaping loads of piles of huge stone bricks, many still adorning intricate carvings from under the mound. We explored the darkened narrow corridors and climbed the rubble to walk along the narrow walls, ducking and jumping, scampering and scaling the chaos of the once immense symmetry of this massive temple, which was built to the same epic plan of the immaculate Angkor Wat.

We arose at sunrise the following day to see Angkor Wat in its immaculate glory. Crossing the vast moat, which halted armies and would shame all European castles, we followed the path that symbolizes the descent from modernity backwards through time to the beginning of the universe at the temple's center. We waited in a seething horde of beauty-hungry tourists by the reflecting pond for the sun to crest the palms and cast its magnificent burning orange rays upon the unrivaled grandeur of the three symmetrical towers of Angkor Wat, all magnanimously duplicated by the pond. During this unforgettable spectacle, we witnessed a leery dog sounding the alarm about the presence of a big fat monkey, who then asserted his ascendency and, teeth bared, drove the dog away.

After breakfast we entered the vast transcendency of the ethereal temple. Every surface of this rapturous monument is adorned with intricate flourishings, ornate carvings of patterned flowers around dancing celestial nymphs. The vast walls that encircle this, the largest religious building in the world, are covered in epic floor-to-ceiling carvings from ancient Hindu scripts of immense battles between gods and demons. One scene depicts Shiva and an army of gods playing tug-of-war with a massive serpent against a legion of demons, pulling the snake around the mythical Mount Mandala, through the churning Ocean of Milk, the sea of chaos, to create the elixir of immortality, which has since been imbued in all being. We climbed to the top of the towers, symbolizing Mount Meru, the home of the Hindu pantheon of gods and center of the universe, and gazed over the immaculate symmetry of the vast temple into the chaos of the verdant jungle beyond. The layers of meaning and beauty are astounding.

Ta Prom

From there we visited another temple that remains incredibly intact despite having monolithic gnarly trees jutting right out of their ceilings, gnarly roots firmly grasping the walls and creating cracks. On the way there a monkey stole our bananas and I had to wrestle the plastic bag back from him, jabbing with a water bottle at his barred teeth as he shoved face. We then walked through the Terrace of the Leper King, where a narrow corridor shelters a wall of deep bas-relief carvings of dancing heavenly nymphs, beatific and beautiful, and powerful gods stare out with intense expressions. We crossed the Terrace of Elephants, where dozens of elephants march in carvings and 3D statues, to the temple of Bayon, the last great temple of the Angkor Empire, donning a multitude of massive stone faces of Avalokiteshvara, bodhisattva of compassion, who faces in all four cardinal directions to observe the massive Angkor empire with benevolence and care.

There were dozens of lesser temples we simply didn't have time to visit in our ambitious 6 day expedition. The Angkor empire was so vast and advanced, boasting a complex irrigation system that supported a population of over a million people a thousand years ago, when London was home to a mere 50,000. The magnitude and sheer number of these temples is astounding and each one was ornate and intricately adorned in the height of evolving Cambodian art and architecture, deeply seeped in the influence of India, still a colossal superpower today. Words really cannot convey the immensity.

The Bayon at Angkor Thom

Eventually we had to depart from this city of temples and are now happily back in Bangkok with Teresa, readying ourselves for the brand new adventures to come in Myanmar (Burma)!

We miss you more with each passing day but find the world has ever more to offer, so how can we decline?






More awe-inspiring Angkor photos:
Older temples (Beng Mealea, Ruluos Group, Kbal Spean, Bantay Srei, Angkor Wat sunrise): http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.915751834005.2401097.18403674&l=9946a9c40a
Also old temples (Bayon, Angkor Wat, and Ta Prom):
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.915757752145.2401101.18419229&l=2b298eecc7

Kampuchea HO!

Well Vietnam was a trip; we didn't want it to end. We came for 4 weeks and stayed for 6---there's just too much to see in one month! But we made it out to a magical land known to the world as Cambodia, which has called itself Kampuchea through centuries of powerful dynasties. It's a land of beautiful beaches and impenetrable jungle, super friendly people and dogs to match, a history of great architectural achievements and unfathomable genocidal horrors, with red-dirt roads and the most intricate temples you could shake a mango at.

Cambodia has been inhabited for over 6000 years, perhaps continuously. Recorded history came with Indian trade in the first few centuries CE, when pre-Cambodian dynasties ruled over the Mekong and were a mighty force of trade between India, China, and Indonesia. As a result of these various influences, the people adapted their early animistic beliefs (ancestor-worship and pan-spiritualism) to include Hindu gods and later Buddhism as well; now all these many beliefs can be seen in the elegantly adorned temples, old and now. The Khmer Empire ruled from the 9th-15th Centuries and constructed some of the world's most amazing temples in their capital, Angkor, which is 57 square miles and supported a population of up to one million people, the world's largest pre-industrial settlement complex. 

Kampot sunset---undoctored photo!

Cambodia's power weakened as Vietnam and Thailand vied for power and land, slowly shrinking their empire until the French came in and dominated the area, which lasted until 1953 when they sought independence under King Sihanouk. That was fine until 17 years later when the military overthrew the king, who then supported the communist Khmer Rouge, who eventually won and set out to make an agrarian society. They systematically murdered anyone who knew anything: politicians, military, lawyers, doctors, nurses, teachers, students, anyone with glasses, anyone with money. They marched everyone out of the cities and forced them to do hard manual labor all day with very little food. Nearly a third of the population died (2 of 7 million) by the end of their 4 year reign. Despite this, Cambodians are cheerful and optimistic people though they're still recovering from it.

Durians in the Kampot market.

So in we waltz with our American dollars dispensed from Cambodian ATMs because the largest denomination is 10,000 reil (for REAL!), about $2.50, prepared to meet some very poor people. Although this is true, there are far more cars on the road than in Vietnam, where everyone is on motorbike (often loaded up with unbelievable stacks of anything: beer cases, tables, bicycles, live pigs). We stayed in Kampot, a beautiful little French colonial town on the river with lovely architecture, very nice people, and a gargantuan sculpture of a spiky durian in the town square. People's knowledge of English here is phenomenal. The market is incredible, with all kinds of fruits I'd never seen, which we tried and loved, and a huge section of living and dead sea monsters, which we eschewed due to the overwhelming aroma.

We met a man named Bun Long and rode in his tuk-tuk, which was actually an elaborate carriage attached to a motorbike, to a series of nearby caves. One of the caves had a Hindu temple in it that was 1300 years old! Outside the cave I climbed to the top of the cliffs using the immense network of gnarly roots clinging to the rocks, all the way to the top where wild monkeys viewed us with curiosity (typical monkey). We climbed deep down into another cave, descending into a hole and sometimes leaping 5 feet down into the darkness. A group of 4 happy-jumpy-singing-dancing fun little local children took us deep down where BATS would swoop past our heads in the darkness and we could play stalactites like a xylophone! To get out we had to wriggle through this tight area, squirming on our stomachs to reach the light again! Our walk down the slope revealed these red ants that made nests by curling leaves into a sphere---crAzy!

The next day we biked the 10km to the Kampot Zoo! This is the 4th zoo we've been to since we got to S.E.Asia and definitely the most intimate, though not the best by any means: the cages were usually quite large but usually cement-floored and lacking branches for monkeys. We got there and saw, sadly, the crocodile's cage was full of styrofoam and plastic bottles, which people carelessly threw in when they were done with them because littering is unquestioningly common here. The orangutans were very nice and we fed them mangos and bananas and I laid down, not feeling tip-top, and watched them play with the palm fronds Sarah gave them for an hour. This zoo also had a binturong, like the one I held in Bangkok (see first blog entry), and it ate my banana whole---peel and all.

We meandered through the zoo and found a playful leopard that would roll around and bat things with its legs like a house-cat (but with HUGE claws!). We both petted it (and we petted a shArk in Vietnam!). Then an escaped monkey wanted to eat all my fruit and I had to fend it off with a rock, which I would display to him, eliciting a sudden look of unabashed astonishment every time. The tiger roared though and scared the monkey away as a bunch of Cambodian kids ran screaming (I wonder what they did to it---probably something though). The last animal we saw was a huge, very nice cage set up in pristine replication of the natural habitat of a litter of puppies: doghouse and all. Then we gave the orangutans some coconuts we found on the ground and biked back home.

After Kampot, we headed to a nearby island, Ko Tonsay (Rabbit Island), for some idyllic beach relaxing. After the disappointment of the overdevelopment of the formerly-untouched Phu Quoc, we had to have our authentic bungalow experience. So we slept right on the beach and hung our hammocks on our little porch under the thatched roof (very necessary as the rainy season is beginning now) and spent our days swimming, reading, and having a merry time. We've found an inverse relationship between the number of people around and the number of people we meet: in a city like Saigon we met no one, on a tiny island like Rabbit Island we met almost everyone. So people would find out we were Americans and we'd cheers over beers Osama bin Ladin's death.

One night a group of people who live in Phnom Penh, capital of Cambodia, came for a work team-building retreat and invited us to their dance party! It was so fun, learning the Cambodian dances and talking with them about Cambodian development, since they work for an NGO (non-governmental organization) that helps farmers develop their land and manage their affairs.

Then we got sick with some weird tropical flu that's going around and have been recovering for the last 5 days with sore muscles, headaches, and many naps. Not so bad on the beach though, with everything we need just a few flips of the flops away. But we're feeling better and area headed to Phnom Penh tomorrow!

(originally written 9 May 2011)

Photographic proof of Cambodian fun: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.904185153725.2398067.18403674&l=25116f3e04

Island People

As you may have noticed, we haven't sent out a blog update in a little while. The reason for this is that we seem to have contracted some sort of weird flu and we have been resting for several days. Feeling much better, and back on the bloggin.

Our last adventure in Vietnam was Phu Quoc Island, on the very Southern tip. This island on a map seems as though it should have been a part of Cambodia and in fact it was, until the French annexed it to Vietnam during emancipation. The loss of this island is still a bit of a sore point for some Cambodians.

To get there, we took a 3 hour ferry ride from Rach Gia, in an overly air conditioned speed ferry. When we arrived, after navigating some slightly deceitful taxi drivers ("You want moto?" "No thanks, we'll take the bus" "Ohh no, no bus." "Yes there is! We can see it!" "Oh no, do not have...only 10 dollars for ride to town") we get on the bus and arrive at Long Beach, where the accommodation is. We check into a cute little room, not right on the beach but only 100 meters away.

We spend the next day lazing on the beach, a necessary cure after the million-mile-an-hour pace that is Vietnam. Sipping fruit juice, reading books, and swimming in the blue ocean was all on the to do list. The water was so clear and warm. There was no "getting used to it" period that we have in cold American waters. Despite being the most populated part of the island it was still very relaxed, the beach was pretty empty. For dinner, we went into town and found some amazing vegetarian food: tofu chicken with rice. The best part was the fake gristle inside the fake chicken.

The next day we decided to have an adventure across the island, We rented a motorbike and started off towards a place called Sao Beach, which some people we met told us it was really beautiful. The road to get there was rough and unpaved in some parts. Sao beach was very lovely, white sand, green hills, turquoise ocean. Very pleasant color combination. We hung out here and played in the surf a bit, and talked to some Vietnamese people who were nice but had unfortunately rented a jetski. I have realized this day how much I hate them. Fair enough, play with them in open water or whatever but if you're near a beach with people trying to swim and nap and just relax it's terribly, terribly obnoxious.

One of the highlights of Phu Quoc was taking a hike with Robin, a local we met on the beach selling tours. He met us at 8:00 AM and first took us to a pepper farm, where we got to see the towering pepper vines heavy with fruit snaking up onto trellises 15 feet in the air, the corns drying in huge piles in the sun, and sample it with juicy starfruit cut into slices for us.

Our hike up the mountain was invigorating after laying in the sun like lizards for 3 days. The jungle was thick and cool but humid, so we worked up quite a sweat! At one point, Robin stopped us and we made a wide detour around the trail. He pointed to the ground and I saw a steady stream of bees flowing in and out of a tiny hole in the ground. It made me so glad that Robin was there. Along the walk we saw this tree with crazy huge roots that were grasped around a rock! Robin said that the tree needed the rock to grow.

At one point we have to climb up a ladder and use tree roots to climb up this cliff! It was very exciting. Once at the top of the mountain we were rewarded with an incredible view of all of Phu Quoc. The mountains, the sea, the roads, and little villages. One sad thing we could see was how much rainforest had been cleared to make way for the international airport they are installing on Phu Quoc.

We rested awhile and ate our lunch, a watermelon, mangoes, and some exotic little oranges called Tahn Tra. We sprinkled scraps on the ground and watched ants pull them away. 2 eagles soared past us at one point, no doubt searching for lunch. We napped for a few minutes, and then went back down the way we came, giving us a final glance at that amazing tree!

Robin took us to eat at a little fishing village, where I drank a coconut (needed so much after all that sweat) and we ate some stir fry. We watched some Phu Quoc dogs, the ridgebacks, playing together in the dust. To end our adventure we walked out to the end of a long pier and watched the sun set. I'm really glad we explored the interior of the island a bit, it seems like so many people who go to Phu Quoc just hang out on the beach the whole time. They stare at the sapphire and miss the emerald.

(originally written 9 May 2011)