An Unplanned Trip Friday / 10 March 2000 On 9 February 2000, the Cambodian government changed the rules for people entering the country on an NGO (non-governmental organization) visa. Unfortunately, because I was arriving on 14 February, there was not time to comply with the new rules. Previously, new personnel would enter on a business visa given at the airport and then apply to have it changed to an NGO visa. I got the business visa when I arrived at the airport, but when I applied for the change to NGO status, it was refused and I was told I would have to leave the country and re-enter. We tried to work around it, but the immigration people were adamant and so now I am planning to leave for Bangkok on Monday. As of today, we know that my application has been approved so I will come back next Wednesday to Phnom Penh. Maryknoll had already planned an orientation trip to Angkor Wat this weekend as part of our inculturation here, and luckily I will be able to participate in that. Then I will fly from Siem Reap, site of Angkor Wat, to Bangkok.

Siem Reap and the Temples Monday / 13 March 2000

Wow! This was really an intense weekend! I just arrived in Bangkok from Siem Reap (Cambodia) where the Angkor Wat and many other similar ancient wats (temples) are located. It was quite an experience. I won't be able to do much now. It's too late, but I'll start getting some stories and photos here on Tuesday. Be sure and come back!

Siem Reap and the Temples Saturday / 11 March 2000

We left at 0600 for a five-hour trip from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap on a needle-like fast boat about 8' wide and 80' long. The trip up a tributary of the Mekong River reminded me of the gunboat scenes in "Apocalypse Now." The boat was way overcrowded without any safety gear visible at all. About three hours into the trip, we ran aground in a shallow section of the river and were stuck for 30 minutes. The boat didn't dock at the northern end but just stopped near the shore of the lake there and was surrounded by a dozen smaller motor boats hired by hotels to take their passengers the remaining 30 minutes up a small stream full of floating houses, a police station, shops, and even a school. After checking into a hotel, our first visit was to the Landmines Museum run by a man as his contribution to ridding the world of mines. He was conscripted by the Vietnamese to fight against the Khmer Rouge and has piles of mines, grenades, and weapons he has collected in his work in demining. Then we went to the entrance to the Bayon Wat as the starting point for a drive through the huge ancient temple complex area. Over dozens of square miles, there are many ancient wats with varying architecture and religious influences and in different states of preservation. It was good to get an overview of what we would be seeing in the next two days. Our last stop was a 40' working waterwheel, made entirely of wood, used for lifting water from a deep river channel to the fields above. We then returned near the Bayon Wat to a sacred hill surmounted by another wat where the tourists flock to watch the sunset. Elephants are available to carry weary tourists to the top. We then went into the town of Siem Reap and ate in one of the many restaurants there. Siem Reap is a really beautiful small town built along a river and with wider avenues and many park areas throughout.

Siem Reap and the Temples Sunday / 12 March 2000

We started off the day with mass with small Catholic community in Siem Reap--17 adults and four children plus eight or nine visitors. They don't have a church but use a "Catholic house," a large home open on the first floor. The priest was an Indonesian staying in Siem Reap to learn language. He distributed ashes since there had been no Ash Wednesday service to start Lent. One of the adults at the mass was the man, a double amputee, who received the Noble Peace Prize in 1997 as the representative of the landmine groups. We then went to a park-like area up on a sacred hill (most hills have some religious significance here because most of Cambodia is extremely flat and swampy). We rented a little thatched-roof open cabin where we ate lunch and then climbed the hill to where there is a large reclining Buddha statue. We crossed one small stream notable because it has carvings on the rocks under the water. We then drove to a beautiful ruins which was a wat for the use of women. It had probably the best reliefs and carvings of all the ancient wats that we saw. Often in one of the interior rooms of the wats, someone will have placed a Buddha image and some old Buddhist nun will be in attendance, keeping the incense burning. These wats are located over a very large area geographically and we spent a lot of time driving on very bad roads. Almost none of them are paved, and the dirt roads are extremely rough, with huge holes, and covered with thick red dust. As we got back near the Bayon Wat, it was sunset and it was a beautiful picture across one of the moat-like lakes around the Bayon Wat so we stopped and took pictures before heading back to the hotel, cleaning up, and then going out to eat.

Siem Reap and the Temples Monday / 13 March 2000

We started off the day at the Bayon temple, one of the largest and most magnificent. It has 54 huge stone towers, each with 4 ten-foot stone faces facing north, south, east, and west. Most impressive to me, though, were the different levels of temple. Visitors can go down inside tunnels and chambers below ground and also explore other chambers two levels above ground. We visited several other temples nearby, lesser known wats in varying stages of ruin. It is interesting to see the jungle reclaiming the ancient stone ruins with huge trees completely surmounting the massive stone walls. We then drove to the gates of Angkor Wat which was to be our final stop and ate lunch at a French restaurant. Numerous children tried--and succeeded!--to sell us various souvenir-type articles, mainly the kramara (the cotton scarves/towels/sarongs that the Khmers wear and use for everything), flutes, bamboo toys, and T-shirts. It is hard to acknowledge that this is the only life those kids know. They cannot go to school and don't have much of a future. After lunch we crossed the road to Angkor Wat and started exploring the massive ruins, the largest in the whole area. We didn't allow nearly enough time for this part of our expedition. There are three levels of temple to explore, surrounded by and complemented by huge courtyards and "tanks" or large cisterns which were probably more decorative than functional. After too short a time at Angkor Wat, we headed back along the dusty roads to the hotel where we had fifteen minutes to wipe off the dust before we headed to the airport. Siem Reap airport was jammed with people. Now that the government has allowed international flights directly to Siem Reap, the city has taken on a positive new prominence and tourism is strong. It is a beautiful city to begin with, and with all the ancient ruins surrounding it, it is a magnet for tourists. The rest of the group flew back to Phnom Penh and I waited another hour and took a flight to Bangkok where I stayed about 36 hours. I searched for a computer printer and a clock radio, but didn't buy anything, and then updated my home page from the Maryknoll center house there in Bangkok. Then I caught an early morning flight back to Phnom Penh where I was successful this time in getting my Official Category NGO visa which was denied on my earlier entry. All was not smooth sailing, however. It seemed the officials had never seen an "attestation letter" required by the new rules and so no one wanted to make a decision about it. It was almost comical as 16 different immigration people, looked at it, held it up to the light, felt the embossed stamp, and then passed it on to someone else.