***Stay tuned for a post on my experiences as an international observer for the Cambodian national elections at the end of July, and for a summary of our trip to Hanoi the first weekend in August***
On the Monday morning after the 4th of July embassy party, I attended a small rally to support some local Phnom Penh residents who are being threatened with forced eviction. They own some prime real estate right on the river, and the government is trying to push them out because the land is worth quite a lot to developers. The community erected two large signs on their property to protest what seems like their impending doom. It seems that a city official misspoke at a city meeting and said "Group 78 (the community) will not be evicted." So the community members had large banners printed with that message and put up the banners on large poles for all passersby to see. There were some people there from LICADHO and some other NGOs. We all wore the t-shirts LICADHO gave us that say "Stop Evictions!" in both English and Khmer. We also wore our blue kramas (a type scarf traditionally worn in Cambodia to protect people from the sun and the elements). Blue kramas signify someone who is a "human rights defender," and all the human rights NGO workers wear them to rallies and important meetings. It was all a very interesting experience and a nice change of pace from being cooped up in the office.
That evening, we had dinner with Heleyn (the French woman who helped us set up our internships) and some of her friends, most of whom work at the Khmer Rouge tribunal (on both sides - some were defense and some were prosecution). Heleyn took us to a nice tapas place, and it was really interesting to get to talk to all those lawyers, from all over the world. They have the type of career I think I want to have someday, at least for a little while...
The next Friday, we flew to Bangkok for the weekend. We got in on Friday evening after flying out of the Phnom Penh Airport, where we discovered there is -- get this! -- a DAIRY QUEEN! It serves blizzards and everything. That was the last thing I thought I'd find in Cambodia, especially considering this country has virtually no chain restaurants here (just one KFC in the whole country and no McDonald's or Burger King, etc.). We took a taxi into the city, and found a hotel in the backpacker area before grabbing some dinner and walking around the infamous Khoa San. The next morning we got up early and after breakfast, we began a whirlwind tour of the city. We took the ferry boat down the river (one of the cheapest, fastest, and nicest ways to travel in Bangkok -- interesting fact: they reserve space for monks on ferry boats and buses) and began the day by visiting the royal palace and all the temples and buildings in the complex, including the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, a Buddhist temple with a large green Buddha statute (actually it's made of jade, not emerald, but it's pretty all the same). Most of the buildings at the palace were covered in sparkly mosaic tiles that make everything shine. We spent most of the rest of the day looking around various wats (temples) in the city. One had a very large "reclining Buddha." It was 15 meters high and about 45 meters long and took up the entire interior of a fancy little building. The Buddha's toes alone were huge, each little tip bigger than my whole head. The reclining Buddha (laying on his side with his head propped up on one arm) is a very common image in Southeast Asia, and I bought a small reclining Buddha statue as a souvenir of Thailand. We also went to a temple called Wat Aran, which means Temple of the Dawn. We climbed up tiny, steep stairs to one of the upper levels of the temple, where you could walk around the exterior. It had a great view of the city and overlooked the river with all its busy, buzzing boats whisking people up and down the waterway (and expelling a great amount of thick black smoke). After lunch (where I got to eat pad Thai in Thailand) we walked around the city a little bit and saw several more wats, both of which you could climb to the top of to catch great panoramic views of the city.
That evening, we got cleaned up and went to a place called the Vertigo Bar, which is an open-air bar and restaurant on the top floor (number 61) of a hotel in Bangkok. By the time we got there, it was dark and we got to glimpse the city lights, which were pretty spectacular. It really is a very big city (about 6 million people), and the lights reach far into the dark night in every direction. We then met up for dinner with a couple of friends we met during the Singapore portion of the program. They go to law school in Detroit and were interning at a Thai law firm. We had a delicious dinner with them at a place called Cabbages and Condoms, a safe-sex-themed establishment opened by a well-known Thai businessman who hires AIDS patients and supports sex education efforts. The next day we decided to go to Ayutthaya, which was the capital of Thailand (it was built in the mid 1300s) until the Burmese attacked it in the 18th century and the capital was moved to Bangkok. Now it's a relatively small town, but it's filled with all sorts of spectacular ruins of temples and other buildings. We took the commuter train (which only cost 50 cents each way!) and hired a driver to take us around once we got to the city, which is recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We both really liked the ruins and I took a lot of really cool pictures. We also saw another large reclining Buddha statue. When we got back to the train station in Bangkok, we disembarked to find ourselves in the middle of a movie shoot for the film Shanghai (starring John Cusack), which is set to be released in 2009. The station was decorated with props to make it look like World War II-era Japan.
The weekend after Bangkok, we took an early bus to Siem Reap on Saturday morning. Siem Reap is about 300 kilometers from Phnom Penh, in north central Cambodia, and the trip took about 6 hours. Siem Reap is a small town near the temples of the ancient Khmer empire (most famously Angkor Wat), most of which were built between about 900 and 13000 A.D. On our first day we arrived in the afternoon and checked into our hotel, then went to see the Angkor National Museum, a very nice repository of artifacts with displays and information about the temples. It was a nice primer before we set out to see the real temples the next morning. Angkor Wat is the best known temple. It was built as a Hindu temple to the god Vishnu but later became a Buddhist temple, which it still is today. We also visited the ancient capital city of Angkor Thom (“Angkor” means city, “thom” means small, “wat” means temple). Angkor Thom has a number of temples and other city structures still standing, including the Terrace of the Elephants (a long promenade lined with elephant carvings), the Terrace of the Leper King (dedicated to one of the two Khmer kings that had the disease, though there is dispute as to which one of them it was built for; archaeologists believe it may have served as a crematorium), and the Bayon Temple (another temple that also served as Hindu and Buddhist at various times). Bayon was built by the great Khmer king Jayavarman VII, who seems to have built most of the great structures at Angkor. Bayon features 216 large carvings of the king's face, peering out in every direction from dozens of tall towers. We also saw Ta Prohm, which is a temple in a little worse state of decay, but it's quite interesting to see the jungle encroaching on and reclaiming a creation of man. Ta Prohm is where Angelina Jolie filmed scenes from Tomb Raider. That night we ate a restaurant that offered dinner and a show with young Cambodians performing traditional Khmer dances while we ate.
On our second day, we saw a number of smaller temples, which were in various states of preservation, and drove about 40km to see a river known as the River of a Thousand Lingas (a linga is a phallic statue that was common in ancient Khmer art and culture, usually accompanied by a wide base that represented the female anatomy). After a nice hike trough a jungle area, we arrived at the carved riverbed and spent some time wandering along the edge of the river and looking at the carvings a small waterfall. The waters from the river are said to inspire fertility. That evening we ate at a Cambodian barbecue restaurant, where you cook your own meat and vegetables on a grill at your table. We ordered goat and beef, and it was quite good. On our last day we saw a few more temples (the Roulos Group) in the morning and then caught the bus back to Phnom Penh. It was a very nice trip and I took a ton of pictures (about 900), some of which I will post on this blog soon!
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