Wanders through rural Cambodia

We flew into Siem Reap, Cambodia to explore the Angkor Wat temple complex. Because of the sprawling nature of the temples, the best way to see them is to hire a tuk-tuk (moborcycle-drawn buggy) driver for the day who will take you to the temples and wait for you while you explore. We met our driver, Sopheap (Pheap for short), when he picked us up from the airport and we liked him so we hired him for all three days of exploring. Angkor was great. But the best part of being there was modern-day Cambodians.

On the third day after visiting a few more temples we drove out to his village. We stopped first in the nearest town and he let us walk around the market for a little bit. We bought some incredible rice and coconut waffles for 6 cents each. Most of the people there were really warm and welcoming but it was apparent that some locals weren't psyched to see tourists leaving the well-tread tourist track.

Moving onwards from the village we went out a bumpy dirt road to the pagoda. A new monk was being initiated, and a day and a half-long party was winding down as we arrived, but there were still nearly 100 people wandering the temple grounds or sitting in a communal hall.

Our guide first brought us to the temple where there was a very beautiful Buddha and some 40 plus incredible paintings on the walls and ceiling depicting the life of the Buddha and some of his former lives. As we walked around the room, he told us the story by interpreting each painging for us. His friend was one of the main painters. Pheap said that each painting cost about US$100 and had been paid for by donations from the villagers. Quite impressive considering that an average daily wage is just over $1. (Even in the city where there are better tourism jobs, people still only usually make between $40-60 per month). Guides are the exception: they make $20 upwards a day. But the license costs $1200 US, an enormous sum, so only the wealthier Cambodians can afford to secure guide licenses for the ruins.

Finally we made our way to the central room, to meet his grandmother and maybe 10-15 other older women. With our guide doing all the translating, we learned that his grandmother was 82 and others there were 83, 79, 80, etc. They were all freshly shaved and in the white robes of women devoted to studying the Dharma in the later years of their life as they approached death. We were invited to join their circle, and they specifically said that they wanted to get a good look at us, to see what a white person's face looked like up close. They asked our ages and all laughed when they learned that Daniel is younger than I am.

Next, off to meet his family. The road got progressively worse and we had to get out to walk for a part of it. His sister made us some food and we sat and talked for a while again using our guide as the translator. After lunch, his grandmother joined us while Pheap disappeared on a long errand for 30 or 45 minutes. Daniel and I of course spoke no Khmer and they spoke no English.

The grandmother started grabbing her breasts and pointing at my breasts while saying something in Khmer. We couldn't figure it out. She was able to ask if I had children, and I laughed and said no, no baby. Eventually, she lifted up her bra and pointed quizzically at my breasts again. I figured out finally that she couldn't understand why I was so skinny and yet had a chest ... you get the picture. It was pretty funny and sent us all into a fit of laughter.

Then Pheap's sister brought out her wedding pictures. We later learned that about 500 people had attended the wedding, which cost about $2000 (yes, that's a lot of money here). When our guide came back more and more people filed in until there were maybe 12-15 family members circled around us.

Someone pointed out, quite bluntly, that we must be very rich to be able to travel like this. Daniel took initial offense: he doesn't even crack the 5-digit annual salary line! In the states he'd hardly be considered rich, or even standard. But of course we realize that by most of the world's standards, we are rich. What a trip. Living on $12 a day, which is a Cambodian's weekly salary.