Next Stop: Unknown

Between the two of us, we took about 700 photos in the five days we were in Cambodia. I know, crazy! Thank goodness for digital… We’ll share a few of our favorite photos on the three consecutive blog posts here, but for the full sets look to http://flickr.com/iamlucas

Floating Village Photos

More Photos from Around Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat is exactly not what I expected. I’d envisioned dusty jungle roads leading towards an anthropologists playground of ruins, with little or no rules, minimal preservation of sites and a disorganized tourism scene. Instead there is bus load after bus load of Korean tourists, check points at each site to make sure you’ve purchased the proper admissions, and a plethora of 5-Star accommodation choices. The temples are SPLENDID and the town is actually quite lovely with a developed riverfront scene, lots of restaurants and bars offer beers for fifty-cents. They’ve definitely figured out what tourists want in that regards. There is even a coffee shop where you can buy a Latte for the equivalent of $4.50USD (I had one of course!).

We’ve taken in all of the big name sites Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom, Bayon, etc and made time for less often visited places like the floating village, Ta Phrom and Ka Spean as well.

The floating village is a beautiful collection of brightly painted houseboats where a community of fisherman live. It’s extreme Cambodia, with children wearing tattered clothes and big smiles, pregnant women working away while four or five little ones play at her feet and of course lots of begging for money. Children four years old (maybe younger) are chucked out to the river in a floating tub about the size of a bathroom sink. They paddle up to your boat and smile, while making motions to indicate that they need something to eat. And while from the looks of things, they definitely do need something to eat, they for the most part look disarmingly happy with their lot. One minute they are begging, the next they are in a water fight with the kids in the neighboring floating tubs.

The same sort of scene plays out all around the Temples – ‘Misses buy this bracelet, 20 for one dollar’ or ‘Mister I paint this picture for you, only two dollars’. On our first day there we humored the kids and politely said no thanks but complimented their persistence. After the third day of it though we felt quite hassled. Sometimes we’d let the kids play with our camera gear to distract them from the begging. Probably the first time they’d ever been able to take a photograph. It’d make their faces light up, but as soon as they were done it was back to the begging. And their tactics! They’d memorized the president and capital of America, and knew all the major cities. They rattle them all off to you in an attempt to ingratiate themselves a little bit. Though to be honest, some of the tactics work and we ended up buying postcards (15 for $1), two paintings ($8), a scarf ($2) and just giving away near $10 at various points during the three days.

We’d like to give a shout out to Nathan Horton who hosts private photography workshops out of his studio in Phnom Penh. With Nathan’s help we put aside some of hesitation to photograph people while traveling. As he reminded us, many of these people don’t get to see photographs of themselves very often, and they especially don’t get to see GOOD photographs. So pay them a compliment, ask to take their photograph and them let them see what a great memory you’ve captured. He advice paid off! We hit the streets with a whole new inspiration and got some great shots.

Well, now we know what $8 REALLY buys in Cambodia. Looking to get an easy bite to eat so we could get to sleep early and wake up for the sunrise, I decided that we should check out the little outdoor cafe adjacent to our hotel. At first we felt a little underdressed in our backpacker attire – most of the girls were dressed up like they were going the Prom. We were seated and asked for the menu and a confused server said – “No English Menu, but we have beer and rice and fish. Maybe you want beer?” Hmm, not really we thought, we were more in the mood for vegetables? Soda? Shrimp? A flustered server said, “Ummm, I go see if it’s ok." He returned with a big grin and said “No problem”.

As we sat around waiting for our food we noticed that the girls going to Prom slowly drifted between the various dining tables and that the men were all red faced and still in their suits from work. Then we heard a woman slap a man in one corner of the cafe. And then we saw a man stick his head into a woman’s lap in another corner of the cafe and make munching noises. That’s when we started to think, hmm – maybe they serve more than noodles here?

But our order was placed and beer and drinks were already at our table. Right as our food arrived, a friendly local raised a beer to us, and led a toast.

So, we dined in a brothel.

Ps. The food was actually really good…