DAY THREE:
On the third day but really the second day of any action
going on, we hopped out of bed bright and early, had breakfast, and departed
the hotel at 7am for the first 4 temples of the day. On this day, we learned a
lot about the sadness within Cambodia’s history and current daily life.
During our first temple, Sokkun pulled up into a sandy
driveway and a bunch of little girls started banging on the door. Sokkun didn’t
say anything and it was really awkward when these sweet little girls wanted us
– begged us – to buy their homemade trinkets, but there were signed everywhere
saying “Don’t give money or candy to the children” so I didn’t cave. Bernard
felt so bad and hated the feeling of telling kids “no thank you” and then
ignoring them when they kept pestering. It reminded me of when I went to
Morocco so it wasn’t super new to me, but that didn’t make it any easier.
On this day as we trekked through the majestic temples of
Angkor Wat, we learned:
-
80% of people in Cambodia are farmers
-
60% of people outside of the city (Siem Reap)
don’t have electricity or a toilet
-
10-20% of people go to university, but this
university isn’t recognized outside of Cambodia
Then on the last day in the morning, we went to a water
village and learned more heartbreaking truths about this incredible place:
-
people living in the village used surrounding
water and animals for daily living needs
o
We saw lots of dogs and I told Sokkun I loved
dogs, and he said in Cambodia people are afraid of dogs and only use them for
protection. He then said he found it really strange and baffling that
Westerners feed their dogs people food. He said that in Cambodia no one would
ever do that because there are too many starving people who deserve that food…
he makes a good point!
-
The life expectancy in Camobodia is 50 years old
for males and 60 years old for females
-
There are many orphanages in Cambodia that are
funded by foreigners
I also learned a lot about Buddhism and feel that it is a
beautiful and peaceful belief system. We learned about the beef between Hindu
and Buddhist religions and it was crazy the physical evidence of this – all of
the Buddhas’ faces that were beautifully carved in the temple (there was
thousands!) were scraped out by protesters when the religions clashed. It was
really neat to see but scary to think that religious wars are so powerful and
threatening.
I learned throughout my short stay in Cambodia that the
people are humble and thankful for all things regardless of how little they
have. I wish more people were that humble. We overheard some foreigners
complaining about Cambodian food, and yes I’ll admit it isn’t as “delicious” as
the Pad Thai we had eaten weeks before, but it was good and we appreciated
every last morsel as the people were appreciating us and the tourism we brought
to their country.
On the last day, right before check-out, I noticed one of
the staff members washing the floors and I forgot something in the room but I
didn’t want to step on the clean floor. She insisted that I do so and said that
she wanted something to clean. She then chatted with us about where we were
from and how we had been traveling for a few weeks. She sat in awe as we talked
about our busy life in Shanghai and I could tell she wanted that.
At check-out, the last exchange we had with the amazing
owner was that he gave us a gift – he gave Bernard and I matching scarves! We
were so touched and he was so touched that we were appreciative of everything.
I guess we were the smileyest people in the hotel and didn’t complain at all!
You know me and Bernard…we’re always happy, so when we’re met with friendly
people who go above and beyond? It’s almost too much! After shaking his hand
and dorning our new scarves (you could tell Bernard was in a good mood because
he actually wore the same thing as me, -- something he claims he’ll never do,
at least not before the age of 85), we hopped a tuktuk (on the house!) and
headed to the airport to head to Da Nang, Vietnam. Hmmmm, I hope DaNang is
better than Hanoi! Here’s hoping. It’ll be hard to beat Cambodia, a beautiful,
historically sad, but friendly and warm place.
