Last Week in Cambodia!

Our last full week in Cambodia was a busy one! We still had to get to some temples, wrap up our classes and lessons, and buy souvenirs! For our last full weekend, we spent some time with the group of peace corps workers and enjoyed our nights out at the clubs and bars. On Saturday, we met Natasha early in the morning and biked over to the PEPY house. We took a ride out into the countryside and met up with some of the PEPY teachers and workers. We learned about the problems with the Cambodian school system, including how state curricula lack in many academic areas. We visited a local farm where a family grows rice and fruits, and we learned how to make rice whiskey. I didn't have my camera on me, which is a shame!

On Monday night, Tim and I went to see an Apsara dancing show. Apsara dancing is an ancient tradition in Cambodia, and it has roots even before the Khmer empire. There are many large banquet halls in Siem Reap that specialize in hosting the performances. The program paid for our tickets and Tim and I indulged in the incredible buffet! They had all sorts of foods including local Khmer specialties and foods from all over Asia. It was amazing! We got our food and sat down to watch the show (the manager even found special seats for us so we could see better).

           

 
After dinner, Tim and I went to the Night Market, our favorite night-time tourist trap! We even went to the fish spa, something that I wanted to do since arriving in SE Asia. We put our feet into big pools of water filled with minnows. They eat the dead skin from your feet and give you an instant pedicure -- it tickled my feet terribly! The feeling was uncomfortable at first, but eventually I didn't feel it. It was definitely a weird (but unique!) experience! Plus, it was only $2USD, a can of Angkor beer included. Not too shabby...
Of course, shopping followed the fish pedicure. Here's a picture of Tim doing what he does best -- shopping for clothes. I bought a cool purple shirt with the Cambodian flag on it.

Typical...

All in all, a good night (minus the constant heckling by cab drivers...) At least my Khmer is getting better and better!

Siem Reap Sunset

Let's pretend it was Wednesday, Dec 2! Today is Anna's last night in town. She decided to leave early because of mono, and so we went out to dinner with the whole group.

View from my balcony 

All of us at "Soup Dragon" Me, Professor Ishwar, Anna's dad, Anna, Natasha, and Tim!

We enjoyed a delicious Khmer meal at Soup Kitchen, an open air restaurant on Pub Street. We had a fantastic view of the city from the roof! Another wonderful night in town :)

Angkor Thom

Well, it's about three months since I got back, and I suppose it's about time to finish up this blog! Here's a re-cap of the last week in Cambodia!

We took a trip to Angkor Thom, a city built to the northwest of Angkor Wat. It is the last capital city of the great Angkor empire before it mysteriously collapsed; scientists still debate the reasons.  What's so interesting about this site is the temple called Bayon, which was designed with extremely large faces of a character. Archeologists debate whether it is Buddha's face, or if it's the Bodisattva ("enlightened one") king who built the temples. This temple is cool because it marks the transition between the Hindu and the Buddhist state -- Jaivarman II built the complex during the 12th century and it is believed that he was responsible for officially changing the state religion to Buddhism due to political pressures from other states. Angkor Thom really blends the Hindu and Buddhist traditions. We walked all around the park, which was nice and cool because of all the forest growth (finally -- a break from the heat. Now that I'm home and I've just made it through one more North Country winter, I'm wishing I was back in the heat!!)

Here are some pictures from our trip!

The North Gate into the city

Tim and I in front of Bayon (I never forget my kroma!)

  

 Here's Tim pretending to be the linga.... the whole temple has hundreds of these linga sites. Most of the vertical pieces have been stolen or looted over the centuries. Bayon was so fun to climb around because there are a bunch of different levels, tunnels, and staircases. Quite an adventure!

Faces in the stone to the left, and apsara dancers to the right. I was supposed to pay $1 for the picture but I snuck away before they caught me!

Here I am with the Bodhisattva!

The wall around the city, lined with elephants whose trunks support the wall

Elephants!

Extremely intricate carvings that line the wall for almost a kilometer! Absolutely stunning

It was a beautiful day as we walked through the forest. It was nice and quiet because there weren't too many tourists outside of Bayon. As usual, we were completely exhausted by noon! We spent the rest of the day hanging around town and in the markets. Another great day!