Saw what I came here to see today – the big guns . . . . .
Angkor Wat. It was amazing in the
same way that Chichen Itza in Mexico is amazing, but it didn’t blow my socks
off like seeing the Grand Canyon did.
Maybe it’s because the Grand Canyon was so unexpected for me. It was not someplace I had even put on
my wish list, but Angkor Wat . . . . this was on my list. I guess it is all a matter of
expectations.
Not to say I wasn’t interested and impressed and
amazed. I have over 200 pictures
to prove that I was quite interested (don’t worry I’m not going to post them
all or make you watch a slide show when I get back). There are actually numerous temples around Angkor Wat
(angkor means city), and then a number of other groups of temples. We went to 3 main ones on the tour that
I took today. There were 3 people
on the tour (including me), so it was a nice intimate group and the couple from
Ireland were quite nice.
They were in the middle of their 40 day trip. 2 ½ weeks exploring SE Asia (which included getting engaged
in Vietnam), and then they were going to spend 2 ½ weeks in Australia with
friends.
I’m glad I took the tour to learn some of the interesting
things about the site, but I don’t think I could go with a tour guide again
tomorrow. By the end of the tour
it was so hot and we had seen so many temples, that they all started to blend
into one another and I couldn’t focus on what he was telling us. I hope I haven’t got “temple-itis”
already. I got the 3 day pass, so
I have arranged for a tuk-tuk to take me around to different places tomorrow. Hopefully going at my own pace will help.
In the evening I went to a free cello concert at a
hospital. Not something you would
have expected me to do I bet. The
hospital is for children and the cellist is actually a Swiss doctor who helped
to build the hospital. He was a
doctor in Phnom Penh during the war (1975) and was eventually forced to
leave. In 1991 he went back to
help with the reconstruction of the hospital he had worked at back in
1975. He intended to stay for 2
years. He is still here. In the meantime, he has built 4 other
hospital sites for children where all of the services are free (including
medications), and a training facility is a part of the hospitals. So, in Siem Reap, he began with about
50% of the staff from Cambodia & 50% foreign staff. Now there are only 2 foreign staff at
this hospital. He is very much in
charge of fundraising for these hospitals, so one of the things he does is hold
these concerts for tourists where he alternates between playing and just talking about the
hospitals. It’s a pretty
interesting story and he has some pretty interesting views on health care in
general.
Here's to day 2 in Cambodia!
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I made it!
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| The big guns. |
