Since our last blog post, we went to Siem Reap and Angkor Wat which was much more interesting than we expected as we thought we’d seen some pretty impressive archeological sites. Clearly we hadn’t. We were especially taken with the carvings inside the Temples which are wonderfully-preserved. In this case, a picture is worth a thousand words, so just click on through to our Picasa photo gallery from Angkor Wat.
Post-Trauma
Things seem to have settled down from the excitement and sadness of the terrible accident that happened in Phnom Penh a week ago. No-one that we’ve met was personally connected to anyone who died, but the numbers of dead increased beyond initial estimates to well over 400 and they were pretty much all young people in from the provinces. For some reason many more young women than men perished. We really never got much more information about what happened other than people were crowding onto the bridge from both ends until they got completely jammed up for quite a long time… people started fainting and others just got crushed, many drowned. We were also told that during the Water Festival, the population of PP almost doubles to 3 million, so it's not surprising in some ways that they have crowd control problems. Still so incredibly sad and unnecessary.
Memorial Ceremony
All five of the AJWS volunteers were invited to a traditional memorial ceremony yesterday. The executive director of one of the NGO’s included all of us in the event to mark the three-year anniversary of his younger brother’s death. Sadly, the brother died in a motorcycle accident. We travelled 40 km out of PP to his family’s village – a small community where there was another memorial event and a wedding happening. There were about 150 people there - a big and expensive activity for the family, but apparently it has become the tradition. Some of the guests prayed diligently to the monks, but most, like us waited for the amazing food. We found people very welcoming and kind, and open to our constant photography. It didn’t feel at all depressing, rather more celebratory. A few more photos of the memorial ceremony, the food preparation and some lovely faces can be found if you click through here.
Vanity Rules
This may come as a shock to some of you, but I colour my hair. I have found a lovely young woman down the street from my apartment to help me with this task. She said it would cost me $5 and I think she expected that I would bargain to get the price down. Since I didn't, she decided to upsell me. She offered me a manicure and a pedicure, to which I agreed. Then she pushed me to allow her to blow dry and straighten my very curly hair. I guess I'm a pushover, but I fully expected to pay at least $20 for all these services, but in the end it all cost only $10. I may never come home.
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