Cold Cambodia

And I don't mean the weather, well, it has been a little chilly in the morning but overall I am referring to the sad state of affairs on the streets. For the past 3 days we have been exploring and dropping our jaws in awe at the temples of Angkor Wat which is one of the man-made wonders of the world. Wat is the word for temple in the southeast Asia and Angkor-Wat is the largest religious building in the world. One of the temples we visited is where they filmed Lara Croft Tomb Raider. We have climbed and scaled and photographed until we are temple, temple, shrine, shrined out! I really have no words to describe the awesome beauty and power of these monuments to the egos of Kings past. Many of the heads of Buddhas and important relics were looted during the reign of Pol Pot and many of the beautiful base reliefs have been chiseled off and sold to private galleries around the world but there are still thousands of Buddhas and Shivas to behold.

The cold I refer to though, is the plight of the people due to a communist regime. The dichotomy of walking down main street which is a playground of restaurants and bars where you can get Indian food, Thai food, Western food..any manner of massages, tour bookings, piano bars and shopping as opposed to the tugging children carrying children is heartbreaking. Many of the beggars here are land mine victims as Cambodia was one of the heaviest bombed areas by the US during the Vietnam war and the evidence is tangible. Some people have missing arms, legs or both and many are children. Some things stay in your mind and loop like videotape as was the scene for me last night. A little boy carrying a tiny baby was begging for money and the baby was crying. The look on his face was one of stress that children should not know. While there is little you can do about these things, it's hard on the western conscience. A way of life, a way of strife.

Tomorrow we leave Siem Reap for Christmas on the seashore but it may not be as pleasant as we hope as there has been a lot of storms along the coast and flooding in many tourist areas of Thailand - we shall see.