The holiday travels

Hello family and friends
Yes, the first semester of teaching is over. Amazing how fast the 5 months went!!! Had a really good time, and I hope the kids did too!!! I have not been asked to NOT come back so I guess everything is all good. Must be doing something right. Definitely growing in teaching confidence, as I am more willing to try new things and not as dependent on Luke and all of the other great people who help me out non-stop. But it has been awesome so far. Such a great school and it is even better since I have been on holidays since Dec 8th. But it did take a while to get there since as everybody warned me, the last 2 weeks of school are so very hectic with writing reports, planning events for the holiday season and working with the rest of the schools events that they have organized.

2 days after school ended, I left for Cambodia for 6 days. Left bright and early on Sunday (6am) and was there in a guesthouse within 2 hours. Didnt want to waist too much time as I knew that I only had 3 days or so to see all of the Angkor temples before heading to Phnom Penh for the last 2 days of the holiday. Basically, the Angkor temples (most commonly referred to as Angkor Wat when you visit it, which is the main temple along with Angkor Thom) were built back between the 7-12 centuries by the Angkor people. Incredible structures really when you think back to that time. The basics of them are 5 levels always leading upwards to the sky, the Mure mountain (if I remember correctly what my guide told me). And then it is often surrounded by water (the ocean) which was almost always a moat. Some of the temples still have the moats around them still with water, while some just have the depression where the water used to be. But I always found the most incredible thing of the height of these things and the steepness of the steps leading up to the next level. And with my large feet, compared to the common Cambodian, it was always a trial to fit my foot on the stairs while climbing. But, I did climb to the top of every temple and always regretted that as I realized I would soon have to head back down, on the extremely steep and narrow steps. To give you an idea, if you were climbing the stairs (sometimes probably 3 meters higher or in some cases to the highest point of a the temple, a good 5-10 meters in height) but each stair is maybe 4-6 inches wide...and smooth stone from everybody climbing it over the centuries. But good times!!! Only stumbled once, luckily it was on the first 3 steps!

Unfortunately, I am not writing this on my computer in Singapore where I have the pictures downloaded or else I would include the pictures to show you. When I get back in January, I will update this entry with a few pictures.

The 3 days in Siem Reap were great (this is the city that is 6 km out of Angkor Wat) and where I stayed. I even managed to meet up with Ang Roe and her friend Fran. We knew we would both be there but never really made any plans so it was lucky that I saw her the first night I was there, just walking in the streets. Nice to have dinner with them both nights.

After 3 days of touring around each day seeing the temples, I took off to Phnom Penh by bus. (Some advice for future travellers of Cambodia and the temples, take your time seeing them. I only spent 4-6 hours each day, driving around with my motorcycle taxi guy. Most people that I met said they were templed out but I attribute that to them seeing non-stop temples for 8-12 hours straight. I was up early every day, for the sunset with one...fantastic... but then I would be home for lunch, have a nap, read and have a massage. Then it was dinner time. There is outstanding food in Cambodia - soo good. And very cheap. Keep it short for each day if you have the time and appreciate the immensity of the temples and the work involved.)

Anyways, in Phnom Penh, arrived there after 6 hours on a bus. Found a guest house and took right to seeing the sights. For those like me that did not know much about Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge regime, I will try to summarize it a bit. The Khmer Rouge was a communist group who took over the country under the leadership of Pol Pot. And for 4 years (I think 1975-1979), they committed what is essentially genocide. From my understanding, they wanted to create an agragrian society, where everyone was equal and subsistent on farming. Thus they murdered millions of people who were either lawyers, doctors, teachers, engineers..basically anyone who was educated and also any resistance that they met. Two of the famous places to visit, the Killing Fields (I just finished the book yesterday) and S 21. A school that was transformed into a prison. The school is still there to visit with thousands of pictures of the people murdered and the torture methods used there. Crazy. And the Killing fields is quite a site. Dozens of empty mass graves in a small area. This is where the young children who were the Khmer Rouge murdered thousands of Cambodians. Quite depressing of course but definitely affects how you view our world and some of the other countries involved. I know it is only literature (The Killing Fields and Sideshow are two books that I will read), but it demonstrates how no one paid attention to this country, but instead to Vietnam where the US was fighting there. That is the reason for the title of the one book, Cambodia was a sideshow to what was happenning in Vietnam. Yet the atrocities are crazy. Millions of people yet the US did nothing. And it was largely their war with Vietnam that forced the Khmer Rouge into a power and into the cities, away from the country side and borders. Sorry, a little US biasedness but not too farfetched for our neighbors to our south.

Anyways......I am in Japan right now. It is great to see Matt and Yuko. Good times. We had a great dinner on Saturday with Yukos parents. Such nice people they are.

I am off for CAnada tomorrow (it sure is nice to break the flight in half like this by having a stopover here in Japan.) Am looking forward to being home and seeing family and friends. Take care all of you and go see Cambodia - it is not at all dangerous and the people are so kind. Really.