You Buy Later, You Buy From Me

Siem Reap, Cambodia.  I will sheepishly admit that I'm a victim of travel porn.  When I see a glossy picture of a place in one of those travel magazines, I get it in my mind that it will look exactly like that when I show up - oblivious to the fact that the photographer spent hours getting the shot just right; photoshopped out all the tourists and peddlers; and mosquitoes and fire ants don't bite through a picture.  The reality is usually a little less idyllic and I am stupidly disappointed.  It's like when you got a toy that doesn't talk, dance or sing like the cartoon on the commercial.  

Angkor Wat is one of those places that is at par in person as with its travel porn. Even with the Taiwanese tourist groups and their fluorescent hats marching like ants through your line of site, Angkor Wat is breathtaking.  You can't help feeling like Angelina Jolie (before she sold out to only weepy, serious movies) standing in Ta Phrom in her daisy dukes, guns ablazing.  I'd probably be swatting mosquitoes rather than trying to turn back time to thwart the evil doings of the Illuminati but that's just the way I roll. Regardless of Hollywood, climbing the ruins of the temples is still mystical.  Unlike some of the other "ruins", the ones in Siem Reap have only felt the destructive forces of nature and man. Huge trees grow amidst piles of fallen stones giving you a timeline of when these temple stood in magnificent glory and when they met their demise from earthquakes, floods, storms and bombings.    

At the gate of each temple are Cambodian children waiting to sell their wares. At first they seem to speak teriffic English but by the time you get to your 5th temple, you realize they just speak 10 phrases really well.  The usual repertoire goes:

"Hello lady, you want cold drink"

"No, thank you"

"You, buy later?"

"Maybe"

"You buy later, you buy from me.  I remember you, you remember me?"

"Sure"

"What is your  name?"

"Christopher Columbus"

"Where are you from?"

"I am commonly and inaccurately accredited to discovering America but really I just got lost,  tired and called it quits on an All-Inclusive resort in Punta Cana"

"America, capital Washington, DC.  You want postcard? 10 for one dollar"

"No thank you"

"You want to hold bracelet?"

Imagine where these kids will be if they could demonstrate that level of tenacity in school.  I guess you can't eat an education.  For a culture that believes strongly in karma, you have to wonder who the heck Cambodia pissed off to be so unfortunate.  Squeezed between two giants in Asia, Cambodia experienced very little peace.  King Jaya-something-or-other must have been so sick of his military briefings.  It's like "oh my Vishnu, who's conquering us this time?" No wonder they built so many temples. I'd triple up on deity protection if I were them too.  

Cambodia didn't fare so well in modern times either, with ongoing border disputes and a civil war that led to the reign of the Pol Pot, the baddest of all the baddies.  Pol Pot is not just a member of the Evil

Dictators Club, he's the president. Our driver told us his harrowing story of being torn apart from his family when he was 14 and forced to guard the boarder under heavy enemy fire and landmines.  He had barely any education but taught himself English through a dictionary which he still kept in his car to read while he waits for his passengers. His English is surprisingly good and he's constantly trying to learn new idioms and vocabulary.  Most shocking is the matter-of-fact, cheerful way he told his story. Tonally, it sounded like he grew up in the suburbs, became an accountant, drove a Honda Odyssey and had a dog named Muffy.  All of Cambodia was like him, cheerful, laughing, going through their day with an exclamation mark rather than an ellipsis.  It's like someone took the smile out of Vietnam and gave it to Cambodia. There is a foci with suffering I guess; after a certain tipping point you just laugh and go on.