StinkyLemsky: A Child of the 80s Grows Up

Our month in photos...

Thus far, in the relatively short life span of "StinkyLemsky" history, I've really tended to write posts that don't focus on the "here and now." However, one of the reasons I started a blog was so that family and friends living out of town could feel connected to my (and hubby's) life. So... I've decided to remedy that disparity & make an effort to update more regularly and include more details and photos about our everyday life. Sheesh... can you say narcissistic much?! (Narcissism, thy name is blog). This resolution may or may not have something to do with the fact that I just found a shortcut for uploading pictures to my laptop & can now post pictures more easily from work.

Without further adieu, here are some of the highlights from January:

 

With my mom, waiting for my Grandma to show up to her surprise party. There were probably 35 people there, ready to celebrate her 70th birthday.

 

She was so surprised, and started crying right away. It was really sweet. One of the highlights of the afternoon was the DVD that my aunt made with pictures from everyone's childhood (starting with my grandma as a child & then covering her children & grandchildren & even great-grandchildren!).

Here's Mitch, putting the bottle cap on a freshly brewed bottle of beer that he cooked up with a buddy. He still hasn't tasted it yet, but I believe it's some kind of amber (ie - not my thing). I'm sure he'll love it though.

 

Mitch again, holding our friend's baby. GAH! So cute, I can't even take it! He weighed nine pounds, one ounce & his petite mom had to push for three hours. I get tired just typing that sentence!

Finally, here are our friends at the Ohio State Synchronized swimming meet (near our home, in St. Louis). We had so much fun... We were the ONLY fans in the stands that weren't related to the swimmers. It was hilarious because we were such a loud cheering section. After the meet, the team thanked us for coming and said they loved having fans there! We'll definitely have to make it an annual tradition to attend. The concession stand sold Dippin' Dots, too - so that pretty much seals the deal for me.

There you have it - our month in photos. I hope it's enough material to tide you over for the next week. Hubby and I are taking off tomorrow for... Disney World! I can't wait to show Mitch where I worked & lived during my internship. It's going to be so much fun!

Please think of me tomorrow night as you're brushing your teeth... I'll be working my way through Epcot, waiting for the Illumination show to begin!

Vietnam & Cambodia Part X - In which I ride in an "ambulance"

Ladies and gentlemen - I now present to you the concluding edition of my Vietnam and Cambodia posts! Honestly, I can't believe it's taken me this long to recap the stories - I almost feel a bit guilty about how quickly I handled my Brazil post now. I mean, I didn't even begin to tell you about the hijinx (my new favorite word) encountered there - the mosquito bites from hell, the hungry clients of death and destruction, and (my personal favorite) my very own souvenir (free of charge) bout of food poisoning. Yes, oh yes, I got food poisoning in Brazil. Despite a prescription strength antibiotic, I still had an interesting couple of days when I got back to the states. And don't even get me started on how sick I was after a trip to Cabo. (Do you see a theme emerging?) Oh, my. Trust me - there are doctor's orders that you're really better off not knowing exist. And in the event that your company requires documented proof of your illness, you might not want to fax such doctor's orders to the main office fax line, fyi. That could  be a titch embarassing.

Not that I would know.

ANYWAY, there I was, my last day in Vietnam. My clients had all departed for their home planets cities and my two coworkers and I decided to do some exploring of our own. We spent a hilarious hour in a massage parlor in which I giggled histerically while my (male) naked coworkers (we were separated by the sheer-est of tiniest sheets) and I got the most agressive massage this side of boxing. It was one of the most hilarious hours of my life. It only cost $10 for an hour long massage; well $20 if you consider the fact that I tipped the girl $10 as well. Hey - if you're going to massage my naked body for an hour, the very least I can do is slip you a Hamilton, right?

After that adventure, I was ready for a shower, so we headed back to the hotel. 

  

This was the view from my room.

That night, we went to Rex's for dinner - apparently this was quite the hot spot for the US soldiers during the war.

Rex's really refers to the rooftop bar of the Rex Hotel (the green lights in the photo above) and my coworkers and I proceeded to get soundly intoxicated that night. Thank goodness I was with friends - otherwise I'd have been spending my last few nights in Asia in my hotel room watching Gilmore Girls on DVD.

So... that catches us up to my final day in Vietnam. I woke up at 7am to watch the Cardinals game (they were playing in the World Series and the twelve hour time difference required an early wake up call if I wanted to see the opening pitch) and quickly realized that all was not well in Becky-land. I was ill. Extremely ill. Feverish with cold sweats and vomiting every ten minutes or so. By about 9am I knew that if I didn't get help, I wouldn't be able to make my flight the next day. And, let me tell you what, there was no possible way I was missing my flight home. Oh, and to top it all off, my coworkers and clients were gone - I was completely alone in a country where I didn't even speak the language.

I did what any reasonable person would do - I called my mom. Unfortunately, she didn't answer (WAH! I want my mommy!) - so next I tried my best friend Katie (who is now my sister-in-law) and explained my dilemma. There may have been some whimpering involved, I'm not gonna lie. She (we worked together and she had been to Asia several times) told me to call the concierge - apparently many upscale hotels in Asia have doctors on-call that will visit guests for food poisoning. Feeling slightly embarassed, but sure it was worth it, I called the concierge.

About twenty minutes later, a doctor and nurse were in my room taking my blood pressure while I tried not to vomit (unsuccessfully, fyi). They informed me that, unfortunately, I was going to have to go to the hospital for some IV fluids. Now, this isn't that big of a deal when you're at home and you make a trip to the local urgent care center - but when you're alone in Vietnam and you may be experiencing some culture shock, this is a very big deal. So, I hopped on Skype to let Katie know I was leaving (in case I disappeared forever) and packed my wallet with my health insurance card, credit card, and drivers license. I figured if strangers robbed me blind, at least my passport would be safe.

They put me in a wheelchair (please don't barf... please don't barf...) and brought me down to the waiting "ambulance" (a glorified minivan). It's a testament to how ill I was that I wasn't absolutely terrified. They brought me to the "hospital" (more of a local clinic - boy was I glad I got those hepatitis shots my doctor had insisted on...) and proceeded to knock me out with a shot of glorious medication that also stopped the vomiting. Thank you, medical gods. The clinic girls were very nice, and they even spoke some broken English. When an Australian woman walked in (the head of the clinic) and informed me that I had been out for two hours (and two bags of fluids) and could leave soon, I almost kissed her. They made me take down a disgusting combo of energy solution (salty gatorade) and cement-mixer-stomach-binder (resulting in some crucial one-on-one time with milk of magnesia a few days later) before calling the hotel to come pick me up.

The final tab? Almost $750 - entirely covered by my insurance carrier (though I wouldn't see the check for six months). However, the chance to make my flight the next day and arrive home safely twenty vomit-free hours later? ... Priceless.

Vietnam & Cambodia - Part IX

First of all, THANK YOU for all the comments yesterday! It was just the pick-me-up I needed to get started on this (long - sorry!) post. Back when I wrote Vietnam & Cambodia recap # 1, I had no idea it would take me so much time to finish up the story! I hope you've not gotten bored... I promise to wrap it up in one more post after this. It will be a nice round number of ten. Or "X" if you speak in Roman Numerals, that is. 

     Side story - In elementary school I took math with the principal because I was learning at a fifth grade level at the age of five or six. The only thing I remember from those sessions was her total and complete doubt that I could actually do the things my teacher insisted I could do (namely - trying to teach the other kids multiplication). "You're so smart, huh? Well then what's the roman numeral for FIFTY, huh?" "Oh, that's easy. It's "L" or I guess you could say XXXXX, but that wouldn't be totally correct."  Take that evil-principal-woman! Oh... and lest you think I'm some kind of smug genius - I assure you my intelligence was compensated for by my extreme lack of social skills. I'm still working on that defecit...

     Anyway - back to Vietnam. We had wrapped up our dinner at the Presidential Palace and there was just one more day of events before my clients' planes departed the next morning - an afternoon tour of the Mekong Delta and an evening farewell dinner at a remote restaurant. I can't remember the name of the dinner venue because, well, let's just say there are other details about that night that stick out in my memory more than the name... So, that morning I gathered everyone in the lobby of the hotel like the little adult-baby-ducklings they were and we set off on our first activity.

 

A little backgrount... the Mekong Delta, located in Southwestern Vietnam, is home to vast numbers of rice fields. Vietnam is the world's third largest rice exporter & the crop is vital to their economic survival.  

Of course, I was just excited to wear the traditional hat...

 

Oh, and I didn't even have to row! Pretty cool. I just realized it looks like I have on goggles in that picture! Too funny. They're just plain old sunglasses, I swear. After our row-boat ride, we had a small sampling of exotic fruit and heard some local musicians playing traditional instruments.

 

I love that pineapple was billed as "exotic fruit." Ugh - it's like they were just begging me to get food poisoning. Oh - and I also got to hold a snake. I'm not really sure how that fits in to traditional Vietnamese culture, but there you go.

 

What was I thinking?! Ugh. Shudder. I must have been far braver back then, I guess. I think I'm done holding snakes or other creepy-crawlies for the rest of my life. Blech.

After that, we stopped for lunch. Is it just me, or does it bother you when your food stares at you while you rip it apart hungrily? Call me crazy, but I think it's creepy.

 

But, to be fair, also delicious. Just keepin' it real.

So, after our long adventurous day, we gave the clients a couple of options. They could go shop in the market, hang out in their hotel rooms and rest (it had been a looong day), or they could go on another boat tour. I chose to stay with the hotel group and sent my coworkers off with the rest of the group. Later that evening, I gathered up those who had stayed behind and we hopped on our tour bus en route to dinner. ("a three hour tour...")

And... that's when things got interesting. My guide - I'll call him Lee because I really have no recollection of his actual name - was king of a jerk. He was rude, short with me, and pretended to misunderstand me all the time (though his boss, an Australian, had assured me Lee spoke perfect English). He was just being a.. well, a donkey if you know what I mean. Anyway - we're driving through the streets of Saigon and it looks like there's been a flood. The streets are covered with rainwater (I'm guessing the infrastructure / drainage system isn't that great - not surprisingly). In some places the water is over a foot deep. It's dark - it's foreign - I'm tired and reaching the end of my culture-shock limits.

I see more people cooking dinner on the sidewalks. I see poverty. I just want to go home. (And though my clients were leaving the next day I still had three days before my flight was scheduled to depart). I had been with my clients for almost fourteen days - I was tired of being "on" all the time - of being the adult babysitter and tour guide.

Suddenly, outside the city, the bus stopped in the middle of a dark gravel road. No street lights - no people. Just an empty road.

Let me make it clear - in my job I was in charge of the safety of my clients. Me - a little old barely-out-of-college American woman / girl in the middle of Saigon. If someone gets sick - I get them medical care. If someone dies - I get the body home. If someone is robbed - I call the police. It comes with the job. And there we were - stopped in a dark alley. My guide informs me tersely that we are going to have to walk the rest of the way because the bus is too large to fit down the street. He's already off the bus as he's telling me this, and my clients are starting to follow him.

So, of course, I start to panic (though I was all cheer and schmooze for my clients) as we walked down the gravel road. The women were NOT pleased, as they were all wearing fairly formal clothing and nice shoes. A trip down a gravel road wasn't exactly what they had had in mind. Yet, we trudge on. What option do we have? Suddenly, the group comes to a stop and I realize there's water in the road - about 2 inches of disgustingly mucky rainwater accumulation.

I look to our guide for, well, guidance and realize he's gone. Lee has vanished into thin air. My clients tell me he went ahead through the water and we're expected to follow.

I'm in full blown panic mode now - one of the women in the group is over eighty years old and wearing brand new silk shoes. This is not good. This is so very not good. The boys debate carrying her over the puddle and some women slip their shoes off and walk barefoot in order to avoid ruining them (which is such a great idea on gravel pebbles that cut like glass, don't you think?) and we keep moving. In the pitch-dark-black-night. A local person shines a flashlight on us from the side of the alley and I start silently freaking out. I can see the headlines now - American Tourists mugged in Vietnamese alley. Becky (last name) to blame for loss of highest level executives from (famous company).

I am hosed, my friends. Hosed.

It takes us about 15 minutes to get 100 yards down the street (we still can't see the venue) when we hear the roar of a bus behind us. Salvation!! It's the group of my clients who had attended the second boat tour! They were on a small enough bus that they could drive down the street! We were rescued! After cramming on board with them, we made it to the venue safely - though it took me a full ten minutes to be able to discuss what had happened with Lee's boss. I've never been so furious in my life.

As you may imagine, I was ready, oh-so-achingly ready, to go home. And yet - my adventures were still not over...

Vietnam & Cambodia, Part VIII - Dinner at the Palace

Our farewell dinner in Vietnam was held at the Reunification, or Presidential Palace. I was born in 1980, so I'm too young to remember the day that tanks crashed through the palace gates in 1975 (marking the fall of Saigon and the end of the Vietnam war). I was awed at the chance to hold a farewell dinner in such an auspicious location and couldn't wait for the official tour to begin. Along with my clients, I traveled by cyclo from the hotel to the palace, where we were greeted by Vietnamese hosts in traditional garb.

 

Here is what the palace looks like in the daytime (image courtesy of wikipedia).

 

After a short cocktail hour in one of the few air conditioned rooms, we headed to the basement for a tour.

 

Our guide began in the map room, then continued on through the rest of the basement. The rooms were swelteringly hot, and I could only imagine how uncomfortable it would have been working with hundreds of people in the small airless rooms.

 

Much of the office equipment and original maps remain behind.

 

Even the President's bedroom furniture is on display!

 

Here I am, at the President's desk (shortly after our guide removed the "Do not touch" sign). If you would have told me when I graduated college that someday I'd be sitting in the basement of the Reunification Palace in Vietnam, at the President's desk, working as an event planner for an incentive company - I think I would have told you to check your medication levels! I still can't believe some of the things I did and the places I have seen.

The former president's car on display, for example.

At the end of the tour we entered a room filled with historical photos and memorabilia.

 

Here is a photo of tanks crashing through the gates of the palace.

 

Many of the exhibits (similar to those at the Cu Chi Tunnel tour) were very anti-American in their language. It was unsettling to be in a country where Americans were still scorned and welcomed only for their flowing tourist dollars. It's amazing how being in a different country can open your mind to the global perception of history.

My time in Vietnam was drawing to a close - my clients would be departing the following evening after our last tour (of the Mekong Delta) and two days later it would be time for me to start the 24 hour journey back to St. Louis. Little did I know, my adventures were far from over.

Vietnam & Cambodia - Part VI - A Whole New World

     When we flew out of Cambodia, I felt rested and calm. Yes, Cambodia was one of the most poverty stricken countries I had ever visited; but it was the most beautiful, majestic, and enchanting as well. Our events had gone off mainly without a hitch (although one of our participants had needed to visit the local clinic after a bad bout of food poisoning... that's what I like to call foreshadowing, my friends). Luckily, everyone was able to make the flight on time. We were present and accounted for & heading straight for Saigon.

    And, my oh my, was I in for a shock. 

   

(Images from Wikipedia)

     Siem Reap and Saigon were about as different as different can be. Saigon (officially known as Ho Chi Minh City, but referred to by anyone and everyone I met in the city as plain ol' Saigon) is a bustling metropolis. Just stepping foot in the city was the polar opposite of our experience in Siem Reap. Things were loud, busy, crowded, unfamiliar, and fast. Very fast. See those motorcycles above? Yeah, multiply that by about 1,000 and then try to cross the street. Our guide gave us these helpful tips: just walk in a straight, steady line. Don't stop, don't pause. Just keep walking. They'll drive around you. As in, right around you. As in, don't mind my motorcycle as it brushes against your jeans, around you. No, I'm not joking when I say that the first time I crossed the street I closed my eyes and had my coworker guide me. It was that intense.

     After checking into our hotels we set off on a whirlwind tour of some downtown sites. Hilariously, we arrived there in cyclos. What's a cyclo, you ask?

 

     Yep, those are my trip participants being driven through the city in bike buckets! Okay, that part was pretty fun, I have to admit. The cyclos took us to some of the 'sights' which included the post office and Notre Dame Cathedral (which was designed to mimic the one in France).

 

 

     But my stress level was too far through the roof for me to be able to enjoy anything. The tour was insanely unorganized... the cyclos had dropped off all fifty of my clients in the middle of a bustling town square - with no concrete directions on when (or where) to meet the buses - and they scattered. Scattered like the beads on Samantha's pearl bracelet at Charlotte's wedding to Harry... scattered like teenagers at a keg party when the cops show up ... scattered like - well, you get the point. All I remember about that day is stress, anxiety, and even fear - Saigon felt more dangerous to me than any other place I had visited. Now, to be fair, part of that could probably be explained by the culture shock of coming straight from Cambodia (elephants! temples! serenity!).

    Finally, my group gathered by the buses that had (thank goodness) materialized and I was able to do a headcount and breathe a sigh of relief. Our next stop was the local marketplace.

 

     You guys - those are bags of shrimp on the ground. Bags of shrimp. I literally couldn't handle the food section of the market (the smell was unbearable... more foreshadowing) and retreated to the safer confines of apparel and shoes. It was like a bargain shopper's Shangri La in there - row upon row of name brand merchandise for dirt cheap prices. I started to wish I had brought an extra suitcase as I picked up another running shirt for Mitch ($4 apiece! for 'Nike' moisture-wicking material!) and some flip flops for my sister (not just made in Vietnam - bought there too!). The retail therapy worked wonders on my nerves, and I started to relax a little.

     Who am I kidding? I had to cross the street(close your eyes and just walk in front of the motorcycles like a good girl now...) to get back on the bus. My nerves were as jumbled as the electrical wires in Vietnam ... and that's saying something.

 

     Next up...  we visited the Cu Chi tunnels and it was the experience of a lifetime.     

Vietnam & Cambodia - Part V - Lake Tonle Sap

Our final tour in Cambodia, before our flight to Vietnam, was of the floating village on Lake Tonle Sap. I consulted Dr. Wikipedia again, so prepare yourself from some background information. The Tonle Sap is a combined lake and river system that provides 60% of the Cambodians' protein intake through its lush fishing grounds. It is highly unusual in that, once a year, it reverses its water flow and expands dramatically (from 2,700 km square to 16,000)!

On the map below, you can see where the lake / river is in relation to Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam in central Cambodia.  

 

(Map from Wikipedia)

The floating village on the lake travels with the tides, if you will. Everyone lifts their anchors and drifts with the water - sometimes shifting location by more than a mile in one day. The people live their entire lives on the water, working, educating, birthing (!!), worshiping and shopping all from their floating homes.

 

These are some fishing boats right off the coast.

 

The locals love to see tourists - everyone was waving and smiling at our boat. I can't imagine how terrified I'd be that my child would fall in the water before learning how to swim!

 

I promised you a floating pig pen, didn't I?

 

Here is the local "grocery store" passing through the neighborhood.

 

I was so excited to finally see a school! This was the first one I saw while in Cambodia - the top level is for recreation and the bottom level is for class work.

I was really disappointed to leave this beautiful country. The people had been so welcoming and pleasant. Though they had virtually nothing - especially in comparison to the contents of my home growing up - the children were always happy and playful. I will always be grateful for the opportunity to visit Cambodia. It was time to move on, however, to another adventure. My passport was ready, my tourist visa was stamped and official- I was heading to Saigon, Vietnam. And that, my friends, was quite a week...

Vietnam & Cambodia - Part IV - Angkor Wat

Though Ta Prohm and the temple of Bayon in Angkor Thom were spectacular, the temple of Angkor Wat is just as unbelievably amazing (if not more so). Built in the beginning of the 12th century by Suryavarman II, the temple at Angkor Wat is the largest structure built solely for religious purposes in the entire world. Just to give you an idea of the general layout, here's an aerial photo from Wikipedia:

    

Astonishing, right? Well, It's just as unbelievable from the ground level view too! Here is the entrance to the temple grounds:

 

The place is just massive - with hundreds of tourists there to see the intricate carvings and religious statues. Besides being surrounded by a moat, the temple was also protected by some naga guardians (a stone statue with nine snake heads). This statue was even better preserved than the one at Ta Prohm:

After crossing the moat and walking onto the temple grounds, you think you've arrived at the main structure - but there is still quite a walk ahead. The outer walls of Angkor Wat enclose an area larger than 203 acres! That's some serious ground to cover. On our way to the interior grounds, we stopped to take some pictures of these cute little monkeys...

 

The locals consider these monkeys to be no better than rats - filthy little pests. They can't stand it when tourists want to stop and take pictures of them (I would imagine this would be like taking a photo of a pigeon instead of the Statue of Liberty to a New Yorker). Of course, I couldn't help myself from whipping out my camera. Yes, I am ashamed. Just throw a fanny pack on me and call me a typical American tourist.

After tearing my eyes away from the monkeys, I had the chance to take the most amazing photo of the interior temple grounds...

This could be a postcard, right?

Once you reach the walls of Angkor Wat, you can't help but be awed by the sheer scope of the wall carvings.

 

This battle scene took up an entire wall, longer than my house - the fight looks pretty chaotic, no? Stone masons spent 37 years constructing the temple and carving the walls. They were interrupted by war and many portions of the temple remain unfinished. The site has always been dedicated to religion, however, no matter who was ruling the country.

 

This is a Vishnu statue that is worshiped daily.

 

Here is Buddha - you can tell his belly has been rubbed for centuries!

When the temple was constructed, the common Khmer people would not have been allowed to view the uppermost rooms - those would have been reserved for royalty and the highest level priests.

 

Here is the climb to the highest tower. The stairs are made of sandstone and are extremely narrow. People must have had very tiny feet back then! I decided to be brave and make the climb - though only about 50% of my clients were willing to do so with me.

 

I made it to the top!

From here you can see how far away the temple entrance structures are.

 

This is the interior of the tower. Can you spot the maroon polo and illegal jean capris? I'm like "Where's Waldo" in this photo. Click on it if you need it expanded...

After exploring a little bit, it was time to make the climb back down & join the rest of the chickens tour group that had stayed behind. After one glance down these stairs though, I started to think maybe they were the smart ones...

 

The way down was very very steep. Very. It was terrifying, but I survived. Of course when I was down my guide told me that a tourist had died making the descent just a few weeks prior. I'm glad he waited until after I finished to tell me that!

All in all, it was worth it. I wanted to experience as much of this adventure as possible!

  Coming up next - our final tour in Cambodia on Lake Tonle Sap and then it's on to Vietnam!

Vietnam & Cambodia - Part III - Agkor Thom and Temple of Bayon

I was so excited to visit the grounds of Angkor Thom, and most especially the temple of Bayon because I would be viewing the exterior in one of the coolest ways imaginable - from the back of an elephant!

I'm getting ahead of myself though - let me first explain that Angkor Thom, according to Wikipedia, was "the last and most enduring capital city of the Khmer empire..." Of course, the Khmers were ruled by King Jayavarman VII, as I mentioned in my earlier post on Ta Prohm.

Well, King Jayavarman thought of himself as the "husband" of the city, and decided that the best way to protect the grounds was to ensure he could view everything from every possible angle. There are 54 towers in the temple of Bayon, and all four sides of each are constructed to look like King Jayavarman's face - that's 216 faces!

 

This is the front of Bayon - you can click on the photo to expand it, but there are closer photos of Jayavarman below.

Like this, for example...

Or this one - he's peeking at you from the most unexpected places.

 

The temple has the most amazing carvings on the exterior, showing everything from warriors to domestic farmers. I had over a hundred photos from this tour alone, but lost most of them when my old hard drive crashed. Thank goodness I had uploaded the best ones to a photo sharing website - or all of them would have been lost forever. Please, use my mistake and remember to back up your photos! It still stings when I think of what I lost... Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, the amazing carvings...

Isn't it just incredible? Like Ta Prohm, people still view Bayon as a religious temple and there are monks and nuns throughout worshiping statues of Buddha. You can pay a small fee ($1) to place some incense there and say a prayer.

 

There was also the (slightly less sacred) option of posing with some traditional dancers (also $1). I chose to forgo that opportunity because, frankly, I thought it was a little cheesy.

Once I finished the walking tour of the temple, it was time for my elephant ride! One of my clients was traveling alone, so we decided to ride together.

 

Please ignore my ugly work polo shirt and totally illegal jean capris. (According to official uniform policies, jeans are strictly forbidden). At first I felt really sorry for the elephants & thought they must get tired and bored shuffling around the temple all day - but then my tour guide explained that the elephants are a source of income so they are treated amazingly well. I felt a little less guilty after that.

One of my favorite pictures from the whole trip was taken while riding an elephant around the temple of Bayon...

 

    I almost can't put into words how amazing this moment was. I forgot about the heat and the stress of keeping the clients happy and malaria-free. I forgot that I was halfway around the planet from my family and paused for one quick moment to take in the beauty of Bayon. I wondered about the thousands of people who had lived there and built this amazing structure out of stone. I wondered why such a prosperous empire had left behind nothing but poverty in today's society. I marveled at the historical timeline... For goodness sakes, this civilization existed only 1,000 years ago! The city and temple were built around 1180 AD but seemed as ancient as dinosaur fossils to me. And, after all this time, we still have this piece of history to see and touch and explore. Amazing.

Vietnam & Cambodia - Part II - The Jungle Temple

This post is going to be photo heavy - but I think the images warrant the attention. The first tour I attended in Cambodia was at Ta Prohm, the Jungle Temple. Just a quick history lesson, courtesy of Wikipedia... the temple was built in the late 12th and early 13th centuries by King Jayavarman VII (or, more accurately, by the subjects in his kingdom). Now, this guy was responsible for most of the temple construction in the regions I visited, and the structures are truly incredible (just wait till I write about Angkor Wat!); but there's something unique about Ta Prohm. It's the one temple that conservationists have decided not to restore, as a "concession to the general taste for the picturesque."

 

This is the entrance - it's positively crumbling. This view made me think of a scene in "Return to Oz" where the yellow brick road has been destroyed. If you've never seen that movie, don't worry - I think I was the only one.

 

This is a Naga Guardian. She was a statue with 9 snake heads and was thought to be a protector of the religious dwelling.

While the stone carvings were truly amazing, the power of mother nature was even more spectacular. The tree below was literally growing out of the stone. If they removed the trees, the walls wouldn't stand upright - so the trees remain, growing bigger every year.

 

 

Can you see the wall above being slowly pried apart by the root at the bottom? Eventually this wall will crumble as well.

The architecture inside the main entrance was filled with religious carvings, including hundreds of Apsara (or celestial maidens).

 

Can you believe how well preserved the carvings are? Now, just in case you can't get a good perspective on the size of the trees and the scale of the root systems, look at how small I seem in the photo below...

 

Please excuse the polo shirt and khaki pants - that was my uniform. Yes, I have hundreds of pictures of myself traveling the globe - all taken while I'm wearing some form of my (very ugly) uniform. Most of the time I didn't even take off my name badge. Sigh. However, there were two reasons I chose pants that day instead of shorts. First of all, I had to be careful of mosquitoes and ticks in Cambodia because of the threat of malaria. I'd already been vaccinated against most diseases when I went to Brazil, but for malaria you have to take pills daily (which had fun side effects, like intensely vivid dreams and nausea). Secondly, I was wearing pants because the temple is still considered a place of worship. I saw a few monks making a pilgrimage and was awed by their vibrant orange togas. The monks in Cambodia are not allowed to talk to women, but our guide assured us it was not rude to take their photos.

 

He was pointing at something here, not waving at me.

 

The wall behind the monks was featured in a scene from Tomb Raider (which I'm now tempted to add to my Netflix queue because I've never seen it)... here's a view from further back.

 

Wow. Just, wow. It was so amazing to imagine this temple as it would have been back in 1191, bustling with over 12,500 people (including 18 high priests and 615 dancers according to Dr. Wikipedia). I couldn't imagine how war could cause such a powerful empire to just fall away and disappear.

My memories from later that night have faded - where we ate dinner, what we did at the welcome function, but my memories of the Jungle Temple are unforgettable.

Vietnam & Cambodia - Part 1 - Arriving

I think it's going to be impossible for me to write about my trip to Vietnam and Cambodia in anything less than a week because I just have so many amazing photos (and so many stories that go along with them). When I first found out I was going to Asia, I immediately had to get online and see where Vietnam and Cambodia actually were. Seriously, that wasn't the first (or the last) time I had to use to the internet to pick up the slack in my pitiful geography skills. I may be one smart cookie, but let's just say I could have never been a contestant on "Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego," growing up.

So, anyway, in October of 2006, I landed in Siem Reap, Cambodia after 28 hours of travel time. I was miserable after the long flights (I am totally unable to get a 'good night's sleep' on an airplane. Sorry. Not happening - even despite a generous dose of Tylenol PM), and jet-lagged by the twelve hour time difference, but really reallyexcited to finally be there. The airport was small, but very tidy - it reminded me of the airport in Kauai with its open air baggage carousel. We were greeted by our DMC contact (destination management company - they run all the local transports and liaise with the hotel & are especially helpful in countries where you need a native speaker). After being ushered into a minivan, we set off to the hotel.

 

This was my first view of Cambodia - we had just passed some wild boars on the road and I was too late getting my camera out to take a photo of them. We also passed Angkor Wat (an absolutely amazing religious temple built in the early 12th century) but you'll have to wait for those photos in another post.

Because I was going to be running an incentive trip (basically, my job was equal combinations of cruise director, adult babysitter, and camp counselor), we were staying at one of the nicest hotels in the city.

 

This was the gazebo on our hotel grounds - isn't it beautiful?

 

This was the balcony of my hotel room. As was often the case when I was on the road, this was the only time I opened the door and enjoyed the view! There was a small creek below the deck rail, with lily pads and flowers. It really was beautiful. But, okay, I have to keep it real, right? It was also a mosquito haven. And there were little albino lizards everywhereat night, hanging out by the hotel lights to eat the moths and mosquitoes. I happen to have a strong dislike towards little critters, so the door stayed shut. Plus, it was hot - so there's that too.

My two staff members had arrived on my same flight, so we decided to go exploring after taking care of some work related meetings with the hotel. 

   

This is a view of the town. You can see that it wasn't exactly the most developed area. Cambodia has really started to grow in popularity as a tourist destination in recent years (thanks Angelina!), so the locals are responding by expanding their infrastructure and hotel options. We had taken a tuk tuk (small carriage pulled by a motorcycle) into town ($1) and then tried to walk around and explore on our own, but got nowhere fast. The streets were terrible, with construction zone debris all around and no real sidewalks. We were literally getting stuck in the mud, and (as the only blonde female around) I was getting a lot of attention and staring eyes. We decided to head back into the tourist zone and get some lunch.

 

This was the view from the little cafe where we ate.

 

And this was our lunch - complete with a "Coca Cola Light" - hold the ice please. Oh yes, I was so very careful to be safe with the food, ice, and water. A lot of good that did me... but that's a story for another day.

Our table was right on the sidewalk; different beggars and vendors would stroll by and stand just a few feet away with their signs written in broken English. Some were selling items, like postcards and books (obviously photocopies). Some were just children claiming to need money for school. I was heart-broken for them, but also somewhat guarded. Our DMC contact had explained that the best way to help the children in Cambodia was through local charities and churches - giving to the beggars only encouraged their parents to keep them out of school. 

 

This was one of the stalls in the local market - filled with pashminas (all 100% "silk", of course), post cards, baskets, hand sewn purses, and more. I am just awful at deciding what to buy in these markets because everything looks so cool when I'm there and then I get home and wonder what on earth I was thinking. Throughout this trip one of the coolest things I bought was a painting (which is still rolled up - unframed - in a closet, of course).  

If you've never been in an Asian market, there's really no way to describe the atmosphere. Every vendor is trying to convince you to stop and take a closer look at their wares - it's hot, muggy, and overwhelmingly crowded with stuff (they fill every square inch of those booths). And the smell - well, the smell is truly overpowering. It's intense. As you get closer to the food stalls, the smell becomes more and more staggering. The fish vendors are the worst - there are buckets of shrimp just laying around all day - not on ice, mind you - waiting to be bought. Let's just say I can totally understand how I got food poisoning.

That evening, after running through the program with the hotel contacts one more time (there's really only so much you can do in advance - most of my job was about reacting to issues that were totally unforeseeable), we decided to head back into town. We tried a few different bars & sampled the local brew before heading to a restaurant for dinner.

   

There were some traditional Cambodian dancers to entertain us throughout the meal (they couldn't have been older than fourteen).

  They were performing even though we were the only people there (though a few more tables showed up later in the night). It was... well, it was strange. One of my staff members went to use the restroom and later told me it was a trough on the side wall of the girls' dressing room - and that they were just kind of staring at him as he went about his business. Um, okay, that would totally not happen here in the States, right?

It had been a long day (at this point it had been about fifty hours since I had really slept), and I was totally exhausted. We headed back to the hotel and, instead of going to bed like a rational person, I decided to join my coworkers in the swimming pool. I hadn't brought a swimsuit, but my running clothes worked just fine. We sat at the swim-up bar and drank $1 beers and talked with the bartender for a while before heading to our rooms. I lay in bed, missing Mitch, fighting homesickness and culture shock, and slowly drifted off to sleep.