Cambodia’s “cool” season is still too hot for someone with Scottish genes and too polluted for lungs acclimated to the Bay Area’s clean air. But in other ways I feel comfortable here. Tonight in my Phnom Penh hotel, I watched a nature program about the Borneo I didn’t see. It wasn’t Malaysia’s fault that I wasn’t happy there. Just bad timing.
Cambodia
Tonle Sap
Cambodians love their lake. Fed by the giant Mekong River, Tonle Sap is five times the size of Lake Tahoe and supports fishing and farming by 3 million Cambodians. In my five weeks in Cambodia, I hadn’t seen it and I needed a little adventure. So on Saturday, I signed up for a tour led by a local NGO called “New Hope” (which, you guessed it, provides health and educational services to Cambodian children and has two restaurants to prove it).
Old Ceremony, New Performance
I have a friend a couple of doors down who usually wakes me up at dawn.
He is a little camera shy.
Cambodia’s Other Hunger
My last post was about Cambodian food because, in the past five days, eating is about the only interesting thing I have done. I have mostly been in bed with a cold (it’s over now!). During my time in the hotel room, I also wrote a little about Cambodia. I have gone back and forth about whether to post a story that is so tragic. But I am not describing the real Cambodia if the only things I share are my isolated experiences as a privileged tourist.
The Cambodia banner at honeymoons.com
Sitting Here in Limbo
When I left my home in California in August, I told myself I would be disappointed if I didn’t somehow change in four months.
Same Same But Different
This is my second trip to Vietnam and both visits evoked many memories of my teenage years at anti-war marches in Los Angeles and that time of passion and change that influenced me so profoundly.
Cambodia Soul
We are supposed to love all of our children equally and I do, which is easy because he is especially lovable.
Ankor Wat: The Star of the (Cambodia) Show
Between the 10th and 12th centuries, the kings of the Khmer Empire built some very spectacular stuff in this part of Cambodia, which was originally called “Angkor.” Iconic Angkor Wat is the most dramatic jewel in the crown but Angkor is a 150 square mile park full of temples, each one a world treasure.
Magnificent Angkor Wat, originally built to honor the Hindu god Vishnu in the 12th century, it became a Buddhist temple in the 15th century
Camino Milagro 