About 4 weeks into teaching we realized that we were going to have to make a "border run" to get a new visa since our original 30-day visa was about to expire. So we made an executive decision to take a week to visit Cambodia, applying of a 60 day Thai visa at the embassy in Phnom Pehn and a quick jaunt to visit Angkor Wat. Our flight to Phnom Pehn was flawless, after that not much went according to plan.
Our plan was to go to the embassy immediately after landing because we knew the paper work took about 3 days. However we showed up way too late to even get an application form as the embassy was filled with people attempting to get back into Thailand. Most of these people were foreign businessmen, non-Thai spouses (mainly males), and a few backpackers not unlike ourselves. With our initial embassy run failing we decided to go to the hotel we planned on staying at. A rather seedy set up, the "Hotel Califonia" (seriously) only had a room for 1 night not the 3-4 nights we thought we had booked. At this point our confidence was high. We finally got a hotel reservation at a place down the street which was really nice and right on the Mekong River. We vowed to get up early the next morning and make it to the embassy before anyone else did.
We arrived at the embassy, filled out all the forms and waiting our turn. When we were called to the window we were greeted by a Thai woman who was clearly unhappy with her immigration job. She gave us the run around asking us for our return trip plane tickets not only the Thailand but also our plane tickets leaving Thailand back to the US. So clearly we pulled out the plane tickets that all airlines send you through the mail and gave them to her......what?? How can you honestly ask me for plane tickets when my flight is over 2 months away. We did in reality have a confirmation email which barely passed her inspection of reading it, flipping it over, and upside down at least once. Even then we were told to wait as her "boss" had to check it all out. After waiting for about 3 hrs, nervously talking to an Austrailian backpacker that hadn't showered in 15 days and continuously tried to convince us that we would get it (inspiring tremendous confidence) and fixing some of our paper work we were given a receipt and told it would be ready in 3 days. This gave us an opportunity to check out Phnom Pehn.
We visited the Grand Palance which was amazingly beautiful, the national museum which had interesting Khmer and pre-Khmer art, but the most interesting but gut wrenching of our visits was to the S-21 prison and the killing fields. The S-21 prison is where Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge tortured and killed hundreds of thousands of people. There were grewsome pictures and accounts of their methods. Our tour guide even had her own stories of how the Khmer Rouge killed her entire family. The killing fields were no better as it was the spot where millions were mass murdered. The bones are housed in a huge glass tower standing about 75 ft high. Walking around the pits in the killing fields you can still find small bones and bits of clothing floating to the surface of the ground. These stops on our tour of Phnom Pehn were interesting and well worth it but also incredibly depressing.
After our three days of waiting for our visas and recovering from the low spirits the Khmer Rouge ruthlessness had put us in, we picked up our passports with their new Thai visas in them, jumped on a plane and landed in Siem Reap about 45 min later. Siem Reap is about 4-5 km away from Angkor Wat at the surrounding structures. We hopped in a tuk-tuk and went to visit some of the smaller temples. Ta Prohm was our first stop. I can hardly do it justice but there were huge trees growing in and around the temple itself, swallowing walls and sections of the temple whole. It was a really awesome place. The next morning we decided to bicycle to Pra Baekeng for sunrise which again was truly incredible and something that even our pictures couldn't do justice to. We continue to bike around, exploring Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom the the two biggest temples. Angkor Wat was just stupid huge and detailed. Our favourite place, however, was Bayon. Bayon is home to 52 different massive stone faces spread throughout the pyramid shape temple. Again, pictures can't do it justice so my words won't even come close. A really cool place a one we thought should still retain its wonder of the world title.
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Monday, September 3, 2007
Thai Angels
During our stay in Thailand, the Buddhists celebrated the Candle Festival. We wrote a little about this before, about how we went to Ubon Ratchathani with Pi Kung and Chev to see the big parade itself. It was there that we were inundated by students asking to take pictures with us. However, the candle fesitival held many surprises for us.
Before the parade we spent the night in Pi'Kung's parents home just outside of Ubon (this is where we met Toto and Yoyo). Around 9:00 pm that night Pi'Kung's father asked us if we wanted to go to the temple with him. There we sat with a plate that had two candles on it, incense and lotus flowers. We listened to the monk chant and listened to the others in prayer. Then everyone, including the two of us, stood up and followed the monk outside. There we circled the temple three times each time chanting something different representing the three stages of Buddhist thought. Then we all removed our candle from the plate and put it down on this one tree and said a prayer. It was really a powerful experience, one that we will not soon forget.
However, before we even made it to Ubon our local village celebrated the Candle Festival. All the students spent all their free time preparing floats and practicing Thai dance for the event. There were about that 14 surrounding villages that also joined in the festivities. That morning (the Friday before the actual candle festival held on Monday in Ubon) we were very excited to watch the students perform and showed up at school quite early. It was there that the director of the English department, Pi' Noo told us that it was time to get ready. She put us in her car and told us that we would be dressing in traditional Thai costume and that we would be leading the entire parade. She dropped us off with the dress maker and said she would be back.
There we were with people who spoke very little English unsure of what was happening. Then a "lady boy", or a man dressed as a woman called Brigid over and she started to do her makeup. And by makeup, we mean clown makeup. Her face was painted white and thick brown eyebrows were drawn in with dark thick eyeliner. She wore the most unnatural shade of pink lipstick and then was sent to the back to put on bright spandex pink leotard and then she was wrapped in pink Thai silk to form a skirt. Meanwhile, when Brigid emerged from the back Brian was on the floor having his makeup done by the lady boy. It was the same as Brigid's pink lipstick and all. Then Brian was asked to put on a bright yellow leotard. The one thing that Brian wouldn't budge on was that he would not take off his boxer shorts and despite please from the people there he came out a vision in yellow spandex with boxer shorts hanging out the end. he was then also wrapped in Thai silk that was formed into pants that Brian later complained about a great deal of chaffing. If this was not enough both of us were then adorned with more costume jewelery then we had ever seen complete with a giant crown for Brigid that weighed her head down and felt like it was constantly pulling out her hair. Brian's hair was gelled and combed over (much to the delete of his father) and then he was also adorned with a crown. Finally Pi Noo came back and picked us up where it was a whole new adventure to try to get Brigid into the car as her crown was so high that she did not fit into the car. She literally had one lady boy grabbing her feet and then two others pushing her into the car.
Finally we made it to the start of the parade where we took hundreds of pictures with the students, teachers, directors and even the local government officials asked to take pictures with us. Then we were given a sign to hold and started to lead the parade. Two students were given the duty of following us with umbrellas to shade us as it was about 95 degrees out and we were in full spandex.
At the end of the parade we were seated with all the important members of the government on a leather couches (much o Brigid's dismay) and watched all the villages perform different Thai dances representing the challenge of devil versus good. The Thai dancing was actually quite good but after the 3rd hour with no drinks or anything we were certainly ready to call it a night.
When we left the school after our 6 weeks of teaching the presented us with a photo from that day with a caption that read, "Brigid and Brian, Thai angle and Buddhist Rent."
We promise to post the pictures as soon as we are able!
Before the parade we spent the night in Pi'Kung's parents home just outside of Ubon (this is where we met Toto and Yoyo). Around 9:00 pm that night Pi'Kung's father asked us if we wanted to go to the temple with him. There we sat with a plate that had two candles on it, incense and lotus flowers. We listened to the monk chant and listened to the others in prayer. Then everyone, including the two of us, stood up and followed the monk outside. There we circled the temple three times each time chanting something different representing the three stages of Buddhist thought. Then we all removed our candle from the plate and put it down on this one tree and said a prayer. It was really a powerful experience, one that we will not soon forget.
However, before we even made it to Ubon our local village celebrated the Candle Festival. All the students spent all their free time preparing floats and practicing Thai dance for the event. There were about that 14 surrounding villages that also joined in the festivities. That morning (the Friday before the actual candle festival held on Monday in Ubon) we were very excited to watch the students perform and showed up at school quite early. It was there that the director of the English department, Pi' Noo told us that it was time to get ready. She put us in her car and told us that we would be dressing in traditional Thai costume and that we would be leading the entire parade. She dropped us off with the dress maker and said she would be back.
There we were with people who spoke very little English unsure of what was happening. Then a "lady boy", or a man dressed as a woman called Brigid over and she started to do her makeup. And by makeup, we mean clown makeup. Her face was painted white and thick brown eyebrows were drawn in with dark thick eyeliner. She wore the most unnatural shade of pink lipstick and then was sent to the back to put on bright spandex pink leotard and then she was wrapped in pink Thai silk to form a skirt. Meanwhile, when Brigid emerged from the back Brian was on the floor having his makeup done by the lady boy. It was the same as Brigid's pink lipstick and all. Then Brian was asked to put on a bright yellow leotard. The one thing that Brian wouldn't budge on was that he would not take off his boxer shorts and despite please from the people there he came out a vision in yellow spandex with boxer shorts hanging out the end. he was then also wrapped in Thai silk that was formed into pants that Brian later complained about a great deal of chaffing. If this was not enough both of us were then adorned with more costume jewelery then we had ever seen complete with a giant crown for Brigid that weighed her head down and felt like it was constantly pulling out her hair. Brian's hair was gelled and combed over (much to the delete of his father) and then he was also adorned with a crown. Finally Pi Noo came back and picked us up where it was a whole new adventure to try to get Brigid into the car as her crown was so high that she did not fit into the car. She literally had one lady boy grabbing her feet and then two others pushing her into the car.
Finally we made it to the start of the parade where we took hundreds of pictures with the students, teachers, directors and even the local government officials asked to take pictures with us. Then we were given a sign to hold and started to lead the parade. Two students were given the duty of following us with umbrellas to shade us as it was about 95 degrees out and we were in full spandex.
At the end of the parade we were seated with all the important members of the government on a leather couches (much o Brigid's dismay) and watched all the villages perform different Thai dances representing the challenge of devil versus good. The Thai dancing was actually quite good but after the 3rd hour with no drinks or anything we were certainly ready to call it a night.
When we left the school after our 6 weeks of teaching the presented us with a photo from that day with a caption that read, "Brigid and Brian, Thai angle and Buddhist Rent."
We promise to post the pictures as soon as we are able!
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