I leave Cambodia feeling sad. I don’t feel sad to leave, but rather I am infused with a profound sadness from what I saw over the past ten days. I have much the same feeling as I did after living in Guatemala: the scars of recent history’s horrors are still bleeding through this country. And how could they not be?
Here are eight elements that will likely strike a [...Read More!]
There is a toxic lake at the heart of Phnom Penh. If you swim in it, your flesh may sizzle, or perhaps the effects will cancerously explode in a few years. Regardless, though naked children slide through the brownest rivers of the Cambodian side roads, there is not a soul amid the silvery waves of Boeung Kak Lake.
Naturally, this is where I spent my first night in Phnom Penh.
The public bathrooms in Angkor Wat temple complex are some of the most luxurious in Asia. That is to say, they are not holes in the ground, but rather Western-style toilets that you sit on! Sometimes the seats are clean! They have toilet paper and soap! You still can’t throw the toilet paper in the bowl because the pipes can’t handle it (it goes in the trash [...Read More!]
His tiny form flitted past the hole in the stone wall so fast I thought he might be a forest spirit. But then there he was again: sparkling eyes, tiny body in a grubby orange shirt, barefoot… He disappeared again, and I was ten minutes further into the thick jungle path to the next temple when he materialized right beside me.“Hello lady!” he said with a smile. “This used [...Read More!]
At four thirty am, my cellphone alarm exploded me awake in my ridiculous supply attic room (pictured left– no joke).Was a torrential lightning storm going to foil my plans like yesterday morning? There are no windows in my supply attic room, so I padlocked the door and barefooted down to the second floor to peer out the grated balcony. Clear! Dark! This meant ten minutes to throw [...Read More!]
Because so many of the spectacular temples in Bangkok are along the river, a night boat along the Chao Phraya is a feast for the eyes… and a feast for the belly, too, if you opt for the dinner cruise. Check it out!
As you peruse these pics, let us ponder a major question for a Round the World Traveler: WHERE ARE THE AMERICANS?? A profound cultural difference is laid bare [...Read More!]
One of the visual “ohh!” elements of traveling through a Developing Country is seeing sleek modernity smack dab next to human decay.
Meandering through Bangkok today, four examples of this juxtaposition burst forth.
1. Insanely modern buildings (and sculptures!) cosied up to shacks and rubble.In the U.S. there are plenty of crumbling buildings, and certainly a shack or five thousand, but in a fancy business district in the U.S. you will rarely see [...Read More!]
There’s a certain point when the thick heat and pollution of Bangkok make your head swim so hard and your clothes stick to you so wetly, that all you want is to collapse onto a shady doorstep and yield.This is what I was doing as Adie fruitlessly pulled my arm to stand back up.
“I don’t wanna go in!” I whined, leaning back onto the pavement. “We’ve been walking around the [...Read More!]
The woman’s unconscious body dangled between the tiny Thai receptionists’ arms as they dragged her into the hostel lobby. What had happened??? We all rushed from the couches towards her sprawled form. Her dyed blond hair and white dress fluttered around the table where she lay. “Go back inside,” said the hostel receptionist with a polite but firm wave. Outside we could hear another rumble brewing.
Attention! Through “Boston Bright” language school, you, too, can unzip your Thai skin and become a blue-eyed, English-fluent Whitey! Awesome!
Oh, the irritating stories I could tell of how light skin is prized here…
- Walking down the street with my mixed-race boxer buddies, the masseuses will scream and holler to the light ones “come in, come in!”– then abruptly shut up as the darker ones pass
- On the beach, vendors [...Read More!]