(no subject)
Cambodia is much more like what I had expected out of south east asia. of course, nobody can ever visualize things the way they actually turn out, but it is more along the lines than was Thailand. Perhaps it is because the average yearly income per family here is $260 US.
Siem Reap (the defeat of the siamese) is a small town, you can walk across it in half an hour. The people are all smiles here, even when they don't have any legs and they are asking you in Khmer for a small donation.
Jon and I hired a guide to show us around the Angkor ruins. I hope I can retain half of what that man told us today. There seems to be confusion between hindu, mahayana buddhism, and theravada buddhism in the monuments. It all depends on which century the particular temple you are looking at was built, and under which king. Anything dedicated to Shiva will have a large fallic symbol somewhere inside, the statues that were originally built to depict Vishnu are now worshipped as an image of the Buddha (even if they have eight arms), and, at the end of the day we asked to see something related to the killing fields of the khmer rouge days. We weren't sure what we were going to get but we pulled up infront of a glass cassing full of bones of people executed under Pol Pot. It was impressive. I've heard that, up until very recently, there used to be a huge map of Cambodia made out of human bones. This was apparently dismantled to make way for a large buddha shrine.
While Jon and I were wandering in town tonight, two seperate people stopped as they were flying down the street on their motorbikes to offer us marijuana. And then we passed by a eatery called "Happy Herb Pizza". I read about the abundance of smokeable drugs in the area, and how they sell it in pizza quite often.
We purchased tickets today to take a speedboat down the Tonle-Sap river to the capitol of Phenom Phen. We leave the day after tomorrow.
I'm going back to my plush ass hotel room now...to sip the local brew and watch HBO. pizrod.
Siem Reap (the defeat of the siamese) is a small town, you can walk across it in half an hour. The people are all smiles here, even when they don't have any legs and they are asking you in Khmer for a small donation.
Jon and I hired a guide to show us around the Angkor ruins. I hope I can retain half of what that man told us today. There seems to be confusion between hindu, mahayana buddhism, and theravada buddhism in the monuments. It all depends on which century the particular temple you are looking at was built, and under which king. Anything dedicated to Shiva will have a large fallic symbol somewhere inside, the statues that were originally built to depict Vishnu are now worshipped as an image of the Buddha (even if they have eight arms), and, at the end of the day we asked to see something related to the killing fields of the khmer rouge days. We weren't sure what we were going to get but we pulled up infront of a glass cassing full of bones of people executed under Pol Pot. It was impressive. I've heard that, up until very recently, there used to be a huge map of Cambodia made out of human bones. This was apparently dismantled to make way for a large buddha shrine.
While Jon and I were wandering in town tonight, two seperate people stopped as they were flying down the street on their motorbikes to offer us marijuana. And then we passed by a eatery called "Happy Herb Pizza". I read about the abundance of smokeable drugs in the area, and how they sell it in pizza quite often.
We purchased tickets today to take a speedboat down the Tonle-Sap river to the capitol of Phenom Phen. We leave the day after tomorrow.
I'm going back to my plush ass hotel room now...to sip the local brew and watch HBO. pizrod.