Angkor What (part 3)

Sunday

No sunrise today. Woke up and had a normal breakfast at the hotel: pancake with chocolate. Read an old issue of Elle as I waited for it to come. It was surprisingly really good.

We made it out to the Wats (in Khmer, Wat = temple) around 9:30. We didn’t see too much remarkable, but it was a really fun day. We made friends with some local kids, I have some really cute pictures. The kids here are, admittedly, pretty adorable. The sad thing is that as soon as your tuk-tuk stops, they swarm it, trying to sell you postcards, bracelets, drinks. If you give to one, or buy from one, the rest expect you to give / buy from them. I made this mistake at one point and two boys almost started fighting each other. They walk up to you with the standard routine, almost every one:

“What country from?” “U.S.” “Capitol Washington D.C. You buy postcard, ten for one dolla?”

Or, the worst, hands clenched in a praying position, eyes dropped, lips pouty, and in a quiet tone:

“Sir, sir ... sir ... money ... sir ... please ... sir ... money ... sir, sir ....”

I always tried to talk to them about school or something, to try to be friendly, but of course, they just wanted my money, which is understandable. I don’t understand this level of desperation. Very sad. Many of the kids are forced into this profession by a parent or a "beggar pimp"; they know Westerners are disturbed by the site of desparate kids and send them out for money, collecting usually all of it from the kids when they get home, often to support addictions, etc. It's a problem in Cambodia, as is the child sex trade in general.

And it's not just kids. It's adults running food stands, book shops, t-shirt shops, all around the main entrances and exits of the temples. Literally, as soon as I walked out on the street, and they saw my white skin, I was swamped. Like, at times up to 20-30 people screaming at the four of us. My favorite exchange, which I got a lot:

“Sir, you want some cold drink?” “No, no thank you.” “Yes thank you why no thank you? Why no buy?”

I think they all learned English from the same person. I had the same exchange like 20 times this weekend.

So we saw a ton of minor temples today, and the temples took a backseat to us just generally enjoying the forests, the jungles, the countryside, and hanging out. Things are intense in PP and it was great to get out of the city and see something else. We headed back to Angkor Wat one last time, where Jordan pissed off a monkey – they have monkeys just chilling here – and it chased him 50 feet across a bridge, causing all the Cambodians to laugh at the stupid, silly American boy.

Exhausted, we left the temples around 4 or 5, did dinner in town, slept.

Monday

We took the bus home. 5.5 hours. No Titanic. I read half of White Noise by Don DeLillo and almost passed out from a lack of protein. Back in PP at 3:30 and I was sad. A great weekend was over.

I was sad to see it end. I can’t wait to show you all the pictures.