Day 5

Today I woke up at 5:45 and went for a jog. I went to Independence Monument, built when Cambodia won its independence from France, where many Cambodians go in the mornings for exercise. Getting there was easy; it was straight east (toward the rising sun) and you could see the tall monument from anywhere close. I climbed the stairs to the top of the monument to see people everywhere. People were jogging, playing badminton, doing tie-chi, and kicking a shuttle cock looking thing in a circle like a hacky sack. The tie-chi was very cool to watch; one group was using Chinese fans and another group was using swords. When I was jogging, a man and I kept passing each other and eventually started running together. We probably ran side by side for 20 minutes without saying a word, neither of us knew the other’s language. Getting back to the hotel was much more difficult than leaving it. I had a map, but marked the hotel in the wrong place. Eventually I found someone that could give me directions and found my way back. If worse came to worse, all I really had to do is accept one of the hundreds of ‘moto’ offers and said ‘Goldiana Hotel.’

Later, I went with Alan to run some errands. First we went to get a couple of signs made for the dorm. Alan had already designed the signs and printed them out, but he didn’t think about doing a Khmer translation. Hok translated the first sign and hand wrote it onto a metal sheet with the approximate spacing and dimensions we wanted. The next sign was bigger than any of their scrap metal, so Hok cleared the papers off the table we were working on and drew out the sign with a dry erase marker directly on the table. Another interesting thing was when Hok had to translate ‘dormitory’ and ‘Harpswell.’ Being that this was the first dormitory in the country, there was no word for dormitory. I don’t know what he did, but he got on the phone with a few different people and created a word. Also, he translated ‘Harpswell’ phonetically; so when a Cambodian read it back, they said ‘Harpswell.’

After getting the signs made, Hok took us to a place to buy planting pots. The shop consisted of a man's backyard and a few thousand pots. There were hundreds of unique designs and the man knew where to find whatever we described. We bought many very large pots and only paid about $5 per pot. In the United States one of these pots would have cost at least $75.

Day 4

Today was quite a day. Early this morning I used an internet phone to call home. This place had slightly more up-to-date computers than the place I tried before. At $0.04/minute the 50 minute call, to someone 9,500 miles away, cost me just over 2 dollars. On the way back to the hotel, the first time I had walked to the hotel alone, I allowed myself to be bombarded by tuk-tuk and moto drivers (you aren’t supposed to respond to very much when confronted by them, but I did). The drivers asked me if I wanted to go shoot guns. They said down by the airport you could should AK-47s like Rambo. I don’t know if they assumed I would want to shoot guns just because I was a young male or if it was because of my nationality too.

Later, Elise told me that she was going to get a Thai massage. I decided this might just be one of those rare experiences I should not pass up on, so I got one too. The massage was amazing; my masseuse started by washing my feet. Then she walked on my back and, I’m pretty sure, put me in wrestling moves. I think she popped every joint in my body.

After the massage, Elise and I hired a different tuk-tuk driver and went to the river to get some lunch. We ate at an open air restaurant that was on the third floor of a building overlooking the Mekong River. The restaurant was international so it cost a lot more. Ours together was $22. After lunch we went to walk along the river. The side of the river has probably over 100 flag poles with many different countries represented. On our short walk we encountered many beggars. The only riel I had were 3 100R bills. I gave them to two small children and one amputee with no legs. I learned that 1 in 9 Cambodians is a victim of land mines, the highest of any country. I turned away many other beggars. Our tuk-tuk driver was very enthusiastic and nice. We asked him to drive us by the royal palace then to Wat Phnom. The palace was beautiful. It was huge with many golden decorations. The sidewalk outside the palace was scattered with monks walking towards the monastery and children begging. As we drove by, children would run up to our tuk-tuk with buckets asking for money. We then went to Wat Phnom, a famous temple on top of a hill where you are supposed to release a caged bird for good luck. The long flight of stairs leading up to the temple was scattered with many children beggars and amputee beggars. One man was missing his shins, forearms, and an eye. I bought a nylon hammock ($5) from a walking vendor and two birds ($1) to release. Shortly after releasing the birds, I wiped my face, remembering at the same time that I was told by the travel doctor not to touch any birds because of avian bird flu. I guess releasing the birds was good luck because Elise had hand sanitizer. On our way down we passed another amputee and more children beggars.

We got back to our tuk-tuk and the driver was standing under a tree next to the tuk-tuk with a big grin on his face. About that time it started to sprinkle and the driver motioned that we should cross the street for shelter. We said we could just wait under the tree. The rain grew much stronger very quickly and the driver said it would last for 15 to 20 minutes. We all ran across the street as the rain turned into a downpour. The three of us were warmly greeted into an open air restaurant. I bought a coke and was enjoyed the rain. We had waited for about 15 minutes when, to my surprise, the driver bought 3 ponchos. He handed them to us and said it would rain for another 30 minutes. He put his poncho on and ran to get the tuk-tuk. He picked us up and the drive home was amazing. People were gathered under awnings everywhere. Others were using their vending tarps to collect water in buckets. Children were playing in the rain and motorcycles passed us through 1 foot deep water.

I don’t know how to feel about the beggars. I do know that it makes me feel good with myself to give a beggar 100R (equal to 2.5 cents). I know that most of the children are probably encouraged by their parents to beg, and most of the pitiful looks are an act to do better (at begging). I’m afraid that by giving them money may just be encouraging them to beg when I want to encourage them to go to school. Then again, it is summer so school is not in session, and they won’t last long in school if they don’t have anything to eat. The amputee beggars are definitely a different deal, they are old enough to work, but can’t because they are nonfunctional as far as labor jobs go. Being that there are no soup kitchens or government programs for people like that who can’t help themselves, maybe it should be the capable’s, physically and economically, duty to help them.

Later, we went to Viesna’s mother’s home for an authentic Cambodian meal. Fred had been paying for six girls to stay in one room during their first year of college. The girls will be staying in the dormitory this coming fall. The six girls, Fred and Lipp, Alan and Elise, some of Viesna’s other family members, and me where all at the house. The dinner table was mind-blowing. There was food everywhere; grilled prawns, vegetable and calamari stir-fry, shrimp, amok, and soup in bowls over embers from the fire. There was pepper in a small dish in front of each place with a cut lime; you squeezed the lime into the pepper to make a dipping sauce. The table was pushed up against a wall with places set on the side against the wall. I assumed we would pull the table out and bring in some more chairs; but when it was time to eat, the grandmother and the girls crawled onto the table in front of the places. The dinner was amazing, and just when I thought it was over, they brought out corn pudding and a fruit tray for dessert. I was very skeptical about the exotic fruits, but I worked up the guts to try some. There three different fruits, all of which you peeled and ate the inside. The inside of two of them looked like eyeballs and the other looked like a brain. The fruits were actually very good, unlike anything I had ever tasted before.

Day 3

Today I went with Alan to purchase furniture for the dormitory. Seeing the commerce side of Phnom Penh was very interesting. There are a few streets that sell reputable goods. As you drive down the street there will be 4 or 5 stores all selling the same thing all clustered together. A furniture section, electronics section, cell phone section, food section, motorcycle section, etc. Buying the couches was a pretty funny experience. We thought we bought 5 couches for $150 each. We left to buy desks and told the couch people we would be back for delivery. When we came back, they brought around a motorcycle with a long skinny trailer mounted to it. They loaded a couch and two huge chairs onto the trailer. Alan asked why the chairs were there and they said it was a packaged deal, 1 couch and 2 chairs for $150. This meant we had just bought 5 couches and 10 chairs, none of which would even fit anywhere. Alan said we just wanted the couches and asked how much one couch alone would cost. As the saleslady was telling us $100, two men had unloaded the couch and the two chairs into the middle of the street. They set it up with the couch in the middle and the two chairs on the ends facing the center. Alan asked for $250 back and said we will just take the couches. When he said this, the saleslady said hold on and went in the back. The two men then came out with a table and put in the focus of the living room they had now setup in the middle of the street. The lady came back and said we could have 5 tables for free. As Alan and I where trying not to laugh, he once again said just the couches. Then the two men brought out two foot stools and put them on the other side of the table. Another man ran out with a pot of fake flowers. As he put the flowers on the table, completing the living room atmosphere, Alan and I both laughed. After a few more communications through the translator, we were finally on our way with the 5 couches and $250.

After getting the couches put into the rooms, we had some lunch and Elise and I went to the only real supermarket. I bought some razors and chocolate then took a few pictures of foods I found funny.

That night we had dinner with the creator and head of the Cambodian Literary Committee, Felipe. Felipe was trying to get more Cambodians reading and writing books. It was fascinating hearing him talk about the interests and current state of Cambodians. He said that most Cambodians are unfamiliar reading for nonreligious purposes. He has built a library of secular books inside a Buddhist monastery and published and distributed a book by a Cambodian. He even has grants set up to pay people to write books. Also, he talked about a program he has that brings 15 college students (5 American, 5 French, and 5 Cambodians) together for a month in Cambodia. The 15 students have a project they complete individually. Dinner was also incredible. We had a fried rice dish that I hope to recreate. It was fried rice with light soy sauce and pineapple, served inside of a carved out pineapple. We also had a spicy dish called laab. It was a stir-fry that you eat with sticky rice. You pick up a glob of rice in your hand, press against the laab and take a bite. After dinner I once again went straight to bed and crashed.

Day 2

I woke up at 6 then went back to sleep for a couple of hours. Allan was over viewing applications with Vanna, the lady that will be in charge of the dormitory, and Elise was conducting an interview with an anthropologist I had met at the mosque the day before. I had a pretty relaxing morning; I swam and began this journal. When Elise got back we went to lunch at another Khmer restaurant. We ate the usual food, pad tie, fresh spring rolls, and a salad dish (which was almost too spicy to eat). I ordered a jack fruit smoothie, not knowing what jack fruit was. The smoothie was very good. Elise told me all about her interview the anthropologist. The lady had been studying a chum 7 village for a while. In the village there an elderly that was like a mentor to her. He was the one that would tell her everything about their customs. The anthropologist told Elise a story from a recent trip to the village. The old man had been sick for a many of the previous visits then one day he was well. When she enquired about his health, he told her very plainly that he had been cured. Many years ago, the man got in a dispute with a stranger, and the stranger got a sorcerer to put a spell on him. He normally would have no problem getting the spell revoked by another sorcerer, but because the stranger used such a good sorcerer, he had to find an even better one. The villagers spent a lot of time finding a good enough sorcerer and they finally found one from Phnom Penh. The sorcerer came to the village and took a few bites out of the old man’s chest. The man was healed, but did have a few large wounds from the bites.

After lunch, I met two very interesting people: Vanna and Elephant. Vanna spoke English very well and was very smart. Vanna is to be the head of the dormitory and is in charge of communicating with the applicants. Elephant was pretty awesome. Many of years ago he had been the driver for a woman that was planning on starting an orphanage. The woman could tell he was very smart and capable, so she hired him to do some menial tasks for the orphanage. He worked his may up and is now in charge of the entire orphanage and the boarding school associated with it. Elephant knows everyone and all of the best places to shop. Elephant was there because he was trying to get his brother a job as the night watchman for the dormitory. We all got in Elephants 4-Runner, and he took us to the dormitory.

It was amazing. I had no idea it would be that nice. The builder was there with his workers planting a garden. I was very impressed that this local man was such a good builder; the three decorative windows were amazing. The dorm has three floors, 9 bedrooms – each sleep 4, 3 bathrooms, 2 lounges, and three kitchens.

After visiting the dorms I had another very unique experience. Alan, Elise and I went to a Buddhist monastery for meditation. On the way to the temple we passed through a tent that had been set up for an event. There were two army generals playing chess. We asked them what was going on and they said a funeral for an army general had just taken place. It was my first experience with meditation, so I got instructions from a monk before entering the temple. He taught me how to sit: legs crossed, body relaxed with head up. He said that the goal of meditation was to clear the mind of everything. There are things that distract us inside our body and outside our body and me must dismiss these things. After instruction, I went into the temple to meditate. There was a very diverse group of about 45 people meditating. There were monks, Cambodians, Americans, French, and many other people from all over. I had a tough time not thinking, I think it would take a lot of work for me to achieve right-mindedness. When meditation time was over a monk tapped a symbol and everyone began to leave. The monk that attempted to teach me game me some reading material about meditation. It was tough to walk for while.

After leaving the monastery we went straight to a restaurant to meet the couple from Maine (Fred and Lipp) that got Alan involved in Cambodia. The couple is involved in building schools in 7 different villages. They also encourage the children to stay in school and pay the parents a portion of what the child would be earning in a trade when necessary. I began to realize how exhausting it is to live in Cambodia. Being outside in the heat all day, as the vast majority of the population is, is extremely draining. By the end of dinner I was so tired I felt that I could barely make it back to the hotel. I did try to call home using an internet phone but because of poor equipment, not connection, the phone call sounded very bad. I then went back to the hotel and crashed.

Day 1: July 9, 2006 (Cambodian Time Zone)

Finally, I was on the airplane destined to Phnom Penh. On the airplane I pulled out a travel magazine from pocket on the seat in front of me. I read an article about Cambodia that I found very interesting. The article was written in first person from the point of view of a traveler trying to learn about the Cambodian people. The author gave a brief summary of the atrocities from the Khmer Rouge. She spoke about seeing the killing fields and the torture prisons. She also gave some statistics; because so many adults were killed off by the Khmer Rouge, the majority of the population was below the age of 25. With this said she went out to talk to some young people first hand to learn about their lives. Every person she spoke to had decent educations and jobs. Many of them worked at restaurants set up by NGOs (Non-Government Organizations) to give young people job opportunities and others made authentic Cambodian garments; all of their jobs required the money of tourists to survive. Everyone she talked to had similar stories, they resented their countries past, but were motivated to move forward and start better lives. I found this pretty refreshing, that these people were so positive and that all of them were on the right track to improve their lives. The article encouraged me to purchase local trades and made me excited to visit the beautiful country. After reading the article, Alan informed me that the article painted a much rosier picture than reality, in hopes of encouraging tourism. The majority of the young people didn’t have jobs because there were not job opportunities, also many of the jobs paid very little.

Flying over Phnom Penh, I could already see a lot of the terrible living conditions I had heard of. I could see makeshift shelters clustered together, many with umbrellas out front indicating street venders. The airport was much nicer than I had expected. It was obvious that not many locals traveled, as everyone there had to go through customs. We had a driver sent from the hotel to pick us up. The trip to the hotel was pretty shocking. The roads were like rivers of motorcycles. It was common to see two adults and two children all on one motorcycle, and I once saw four monks on one motorcycle. There seemed to be no traffic laws at all. Most people drove on the right side of the road, but every once in a while a motorcycle would zip past us on our right going the opposite direction. There were many instances when I was afraid we were going to hit drivers and pedestrians, but miraculously we didn’t. At one of the few stop lights, a little girl amiably walked up to the car and the driver handed her a 200 riel bill (the Cambodian currency is dependant on the U.S. dollar: $1.00 = 4000 riel) equal to a U.S. nickel. The girl was probably 4 years old; she was dirty and expressionless. Alan told me that he usually carried around 200 riel bills to give to beggars.

We arrived to the hotel and Elise met us out front. Elise had already been here for almost a week and was very excited to see us. Once I got checked in, a boy probably only a little younger than me grabbed my bag and showed me to my room. He couldn’t speak any English but smiled a lot and acted very subservient. When we got my room he opened the drapes, made sure the windows were closed all of the way, and turned on the air-conditioning. I gave him two quarters as a tip, and he looked grateful but a little confused. When I told Alan and Elise about my tipping experience, they told me that $0.50 was very generous, but U.S. coins are practically useless here. When you pay for something, you get full dollars back in U.S. currency and the change in Cambodian currency. Once moved in, Alan and I took showers then we all went to lunch.

The restaurant we ate at was very nice. It was right off the street, but you could barely tell because the front was covered in plants. There was outdoor and indoor seating, we ate outside. The menu was like a book with over a hundred different dishes. I was glad to hear that we were going to split a few different things, I knew better than worrying about what to order and asked Alan and Elise to order for me. Elise and I got Coconut drinks, which was a whole coconut with the tip cut off served with a straw. We shared 3 dishes: a banana bud salad, a pad tie, and a vegetable dish. The food was very different, but very good. Everything is made with peanuts and curry, and most meals are served with rice.

At lunch, I learned about many things. The people in the village where Alan built the school are all Muslim. 95% of the Cambodian population is Buddhist and only 3% are Muslim. Of these Muslims, 90% are modern Muslims (a.k.a. ‘Chum 5’ because they pray 5 times a day) and 10% are traditional Muslims (a.k.a. ‘Chum 7’ because they pray once a week). The villagers are all Chum 7. 80% of the population lives in rural areas where they mostly participate in subsistence farming. Elise is here working on her thesis for her masters. Her thesis is supposed to be a creative non-fiction writing, similar to journalism. She is focusing her paper on the Chum 7 in Cambodia.

After lunch, Elise and I went to a Muslim Koran reading competition for young people. We missed the actual competition, but we did get to see some Muslim girls sing for entertainment. It was a pretty unique experience being around the large gathering of Muslims. The set up was very formal, with 3 seating areas and a stage at the focus with the mosque in the background. Throughout performances children dressed in the traditional robes and head garments would sporadically sprint across the center of everything. At one point everything halted and all of the men migrated into the mosque for an approximately 10 minute prayer session. Throughout our entire time there, people were constantly coming up to Elise and introducing themselves. Everyone had different stories, and everyone had a contact card. Two men, maybe a couple of years older than me, were there in hopes of receiving funding to preserve and reprint the ancient Muslim books. The men where Chum 7, possibly the only Chum 7 there. Another man, much older, was a U.S. ambassador that used to live in D.C. The people there were very nice, and the head of the event gave us some of the best seats.

After that, we went back to the hotel via tuk-tuk. A tuk-tuk is a motorcycle connected to a cart with two seating rows facing each other. Our tuk-tuk driver’s name was Hok and was very friendly. He waited outside the mosque for us for about 3 hours. Many people wear hospital style mouth clothes when driving because it is so dusty and there is a lot of exhaust - most of the engines run on diesel fuel. We paid Hok $5 for the day – a generous salary for a day of work. Teachers make $30 a month and garment factory workers, a very sought after job, make $45 a month. I learned that many girls will leave their villages during or after high school to work in garment factories. These girls will send most of their salary back to their families, providing their family with all the money they have to buy food. Once at the hotel, Elise and I went for a swim then got ready for dinner.

For dinner we went to Khmer restaurant that served a lot of amok food – I’m still not sure what amok means, but I know it is a way of preparing food. We ordered another salad dish, fresh spring rolls (fresh denotes not fried), a curry (which is like a well seasoned light stew that you mix with rice), and an amok fish dish (which came on a plate with approximately 8 small bowls with lids). We also split a couple of local beers which were surprisingly good – I think we each said wow after taking a sip. The food was great and I learned a lot more about Cambodia. After dinner I called my family and was asleep by 9:00 (I hadn’t gotten more than about two hours of sleep in one sitting for over 48 hours).

Getting Here

The trip here was pretty easy. I flew from Memphis to Atlanta to JFK New York to Frankfort Germany to Singapore and finally to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. I left Memphis Friday morning and arrived in Cambodia Sunday morning. I feel that the airports said a lot about the desires of the local demographic. Some interesting thinks I noticed: The New York, Frankfort, and Singapore airports all had the same enticing perfume adds of models faces blown up to be about 5 feet tall. Those three all also had a large number of name brand fashion and perfume stores. Unique things: Memphis had an Elvis Presley souvenir shop and a local BBQ restaurant; Singapore had an overpriced electronics store with ipods for 600 euros; Phnom Penh had advertisements for cell phones everywhere.