I tried writing yesterday but was only given an option to flag the blog for obscenitities, I couldn't log in.
I woke up early, changed my room in the hostel because the one I had didnt have the degree of air circulation that I would have liked. I opted to cycle for the day. A brave move in retrospect. The distances are greater than I expected and almost as great as the Tuk-tuk drivers would have a person believe. The bicycle was a no gear Japanese mamachari style. On close inspection it was registered as being from Miyagi prefecture (where Sendai is - about 2 hrs north of Tokyo on the Shinkansen line.) Perhaps I should have been looking across SE Asia rather than around Kita-ku when mine got stolen.... hmmm...
Anyway Siem Reap is 7 or 8 km south of Angkor Wat. Angkor Wat is a single temple complex but it is the feature temple in a collection of more than 10 in an area that is several km long and wide. Most of the temples were built around AD 900-1300 and most were originially built as Hindu temples but later converted to Buddhist. (At least one was built as a Buddhist temple and converted to Hindu.)
Many of the temples are under joint venture reconstruction. Japan in particular (Sophia and Waseda universities both have projects underway) but also France, Germany, US, Belgium and India. It's encouraging to see international efforts to preserve heritage here and makes an interesting contrast to the aid given to Egypt when Lake Nasser was being built, flooding many ancient ruins - Abu Simbel was relocated up the hill on the edge of Lake Nasser but other temples were auctioned off to foreign countries and moved out of Egypt.
Poor and raggy postcard selling children are a feature of lots of developing countries. Yesterday I bought some things that were useful and some... because the children were sweet, there were no tourists about and I felt sorry for them. I feel lots of ethical challenges.... one girl I met yesterday asked me if I wanted to adopt her so she could go to school instead of working... She said her mother was dead and her father had moved to Prehaer Vihear province and had a new wife and new children.... It's quite believable. There was a group of 5 or so of them and when one of the others said her mother was also dead I was a bit sceptical and asked (nicely) if all of them had mothers who had died. They answered matter of factly which of them had which parents. Some had both, some had one. The population of Cambodia has at least doubled and close to tripled in the past 30 years. It seems that a lot of children dont have proper access to food let alone education.
Expect a postcard in the mail...
I woke up early, changed my room in the hostel because the one I had didnt have the degree of air circulation that I would have liked. I opted to cycle for the day. A brave move in retrospect. The distances are greater than I expected and almost as great as the Tuk-tuk drivers would have a person believe. The bicycle was a no gear Japanese mamachari style. On close inspection it was registered as being from Miyagi prefecture (where Sendai is - about 2 hrs north of Tokyo on the Shinkansen line.) Perhaps I should have been looking across SE Asia rather than around Kita-ku when mine got stolen.... hmmm...
Anyway Siem Reap is 7 or 8 km south of Angkor Wat. Angkor Wat is a single temple complex but it is the feature temple in a collection of more than 10 in an area that is several km long and wide. Most of the temples were built around AD 900-1300 and most were originially built as Hindu temples but later converted to Buddhist. (At least one was built as a Buddhist temple and converted to Hindu.)
Many of the temples are under joint venture reconstruction. Japan in particular (Sophia and Waseda universities both have projects underway) but also France, Germany, US, Belgium and India. It's encouraging to see international efforts to preserve heritage here and makes an interesting contrast to the aid given to Egypt when Lake Nasser was being built, flooding many ancient ruins - Abu Simbel was relocated up the hill on the edge of Lake Nasser but other temples were auctioned off to foreign countries and moved out of Egypt.
Poor and raggy postcard selling children are a feature of lots of developing countries. Yesterday I bought some things that were useful and some... because the children were sweet, there were no tourists about and I felt sorry for them. I feel lots of ethical challenges.... one girl I met yesterday asked me if I wanted to adopt her so she could go to school instead of working... She said her mother was dead and her father had moved to Prehaer Vihear province and had a new wife and new children.... It's quite believable. There was a group of 5 or so of them and when one of the others said her mother was also dead I was a bit sceptical and asked (nicely) if all of them had mothers who had died. They answered matter of factly which of them had which parents. Some had both, some had one. The population of Cambodia has at least doubled and close to tripled in the past 30 years. It seems that a lot of children dont have proper access to food let alone education.
Expect a postcard in the mail...
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