Our tour guide told us: "We have to hike a very long way through the jungle and it is very steep, so wear good shoes, bring lots of water and hike carefully and slowly." Carefully? Slowly? Pshaw. . . as if. . . So we started out the morning hiking 1.5 km at a nice, steadily increasing grade (but not steep like what we did on the island). We left the tour guide eating our dust. We pretty much ran (Giselle included) the hike. I used that moment as a poignant teaching moment. I pointed back to our panting tour guide and said, "Kids, that is why you don't smoke cigarettes! Not to mention he has terrible breath." We'd all agreed on that several days earlier. Whenever the tour guide was talking to us in close proximity we all had to hold our breaths. I also used that as a teaching opportunity, "Boys, that is why you brush your teeth twice a day. Do you think any girl wants to kiss that?" I love it when I can teach my children life lessons at others' expense!
I never tire of hiking through the jungle. It would have been super awesome if I would have had a machete to wack vines out of our way. However, someone probably would have gotten an appendage wacked off. We had more injuries than I needed as it was. The night before this, Giselle had fallen down the marble staircase at our hotel and split her chin open. The last thing Brian and I wanted to do was take her into an ER in a third world communist country. Fortunately, Brian had brought surgical tape and he sterilze toenail clippers with hand sanitizers, cut an appropriately sized piece and sealed her wound after cleaning it with bottled water. Not only do I have a doctor husband, I have a combat doctor husband who can do surgery like MacGuyver (sp?).
Once again, the Buddha meditation pose. Thank you Giselle, now if only you had reached enlightenment, you would have quit whining at me!
This was the River of 1000 Lingums. Translated that would be River with 1000 carved penises which are supposed to bring you good luck. My first thought was, "Seriously? Who needs more than one in their life?" But, I think (if I understood correctly) that these 1000 penises were some sort of census of the number of males living in the community at the time. In the picture below you can see Gwynyth's expression as the tour guide explained what all these round bumps were supposed to be. "Did he say what I think he said?" Why, yes Gwynyth, he did.
The Hindu tradition of the time was to take holy river water and pour it over the center penis/lingum (below is the best picture to look at to understand). The water would flow down the penis into the female parts (the square parts with an elongated opening) called the yuni. The person would then take the water that came out of the female parts and pour it over their head to wash away bad karma.
I explained it to the older children, but I was really hoping the younger four wouldn't pick up on what was going on. I don't really think they did because at one point I looked over and Florence was leaning against a giant stone carved lingum rubbing her hands all over it. I pushed her away, "Uh, Florence, let's not do that." Chloe, who did understand, laughed hysterically while blushing a bright shade of pink.
The jungle was beautiful. This area was used in the film Tomb Raider. Apparently our tour guide helped on the set and met Angelina Jolie. I didn't break it to him that I heard the movie was pathetically stupid and never even bothered to watch it. I will say that I can see why they would want to use this area for a movie. It was amazing.
For lunch we went to a cafe in middle of the jungle. It was beautiful and it had a Cambodian fish curry served in a coconut that was fabulous.
After lunch we went to my very favorite temple of all, Bantay Srei. It wasn't impressive for its size as much as it was for the pink sandstone from which it was made and the intricate carvings which have survived for over 1000 years.
This is a picture of the writing on the temple walls. It tells the stories of the creation by Vishnu and (I think) Lakshmi. They had two sons, Ganesha and I can't remember the other guy, but they embody the good and evil men of the world. It is very similar to the story of Adam and Eve and Cain and Abel.
The very last temple was the tomb of one of the great kings. I was so sick of temples at that point that I didn't even bother to break out my camera. Brian snapped one shot of the temple, but decided that it pretty much looked like most the other ones.
This was our tour guide Mr. Chettra. He was really a remarkable person despite is bad breath. When he was 11 years old his entire family was killed by the Khmer Rouge. During the communist revelution in Cambodia (late 1970s), the Khmer Rouge killed 1.6 million people who they deemed to be too wealthy or too well educated. They also planted land mines all through the countryside in the jungles and rice patties. We saw many people missing limbs and without eyesight or hearing. (The government now has developed ways that they can earn money despite their handicaps. At several temples there were small bands of men who played traditional Cambodian music for donations with a sign that said, "We have learned this skill to retain our dignity and put our children through school." It was so heartbreaking--we had to donate.)Our tour guide survived the slaughter because he was a young boy monk living in a monestary at the time. After he was orphaned he went to work at a Chinese restaurant and learned to speak and write fluent chinese. He then became a Tuk Tuk (a motorbike taxi) driver to save money for college. Later in his life he taught himself English and became a tour guide. He told us he has done very well for himself and now can drive a Lexus. I was amazed at his strength of character. One of the things he said to us made me cry. Being Buddhist, he believes in the reincarnation cycle until enlightenment has been achieved and one can be released (moksha) into Nirvana. He said, "I am a very bad person. See, you are very, very good people. You were born into freedom and money. I was born to this place. I must have been very bad in my previous life because here we have no freedom. That is why when I am older, I must live in a monestary again to become fully compassionate and free myself from reincarnation. I don't want to live this hard life again." There was so much I wanted to tell him, but the opportunity never arose. Personally, I believe it is the strongest people who are given the greatest challenges. He is a far greater person than I am. But, I was humbled by my visit to Cambodia and realized that the greatest gift in life truly is freedom. This trip made me a little homesick for the United States, even with all of its faults, it is a country where we are free to worship how we wish, think how we wish, choose our life paths, pursue education and success and so much more.
I wish every American could visit Cambodia or Vietnam or a country like this and see what freedom really means! It really is something worth fighting for!
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