Rolus group

Rachel and Lindy, an Australian couple i met at the guesthouse invite me on a trip to Rolus group, a group of temples located on East of Siem Reap.
Rachel (above left) specializes in Horticulture and Lindi is a social worker focusing on alcohol and drug abuse. Together they have 3/4 of an acre and a wooden house right outside of Melbourne. Inevitably they remind me of Wylda, my best friend/sister from Puelto Rico, and her girlfriend Nica.

at Prasat Preah Ko. the sign (can you see?) reads "no smoking/no littering/no eating/and NO SPEAKING" shhhhh!!!!!

Prasat Bakong. All three temples of Rolus group are far away from Angkor Wat, attracting much fewer tourists. Occasionally we see a large bus pull up and a bunch of Korean and Chinese tourists rush in, take photos and rush away. They are probably the most greedy kind of tourists who don't know to take it slow.

On top of Prasat Bakong. Sitting and exchanging our travel stories. Suzzanne, a stunning Swiss beauty joins us. She's been taking a year off traveling five continents, she's wearing the exactly same Buddha necklace as mine which she got in November of 2005 at the exactly same French-owned articrafts store in Luang Prabang, Laos where I got mine in February 2006.

on the way back on Tuk-Tuk. as much as i avoid tourists and being cynical about them, it's nice to be one sometimes.

Poum Steung School Project 2007

Patrick steps in and steps up. he's involved and committed for the further development of Poum Steung school. He and I, Sophat and Chey decided to raise a medium size fund for Electricity (generator and battery) Water pumping and sewage system, materials for children, maintenance equipment etc. This will be operated via our new website that Patrick's been currently working days and nights. we will focus on smaller, individual funding in number, and not through any kind of NGO that slows down the process of channeling money. Any donation will be sent to the school and will be used for their variety of needs immediately and we also provide personal, individual follow-ups to keep the donator connected to the school. More on this in later post, soon! I'm amazed by my big brother Patrick's energy.
Meanwhile at the school there's a big day of cleaning schoolyard. All the plastic wrappers are picked up by hands (kids immitate me saying in English "pick it up, pick it up") and while girls sweep the field, boys with a water-filled bucket repeat trips from the well to the toilet, which is first in unspeakable condition.
Patrick brought a French doctor and his family he met in his guest house. they are greeted with curious eyes of khmer children, a shy boy takes digital photos of the school from distance while a perky daughter with innocent smile joins right into the children's jump rope.

Wat Athvea/Phnom Krom

I need a day off. Away from touristy sites, the town, the team of Poum Steung project. this motorbike will take me anywhere. let's zip off and let the wind guide me. Headed south from Siem Reap towards Tonle Sap lake there are two old temples, old Hindu style with stone construction. They built bricks and heavy stones on top of another, gradually shifting alignment until four walls touch together and form the roof. Fascinating structure. After Hindu left those temples were inhabitated by Buddhists, adding and creating their statures and carvings, building Buddhism pagoda around the Hindu towers.
Above is Wat Athvea, just outside of the city, the opposite direction from the road to Angkor Wat, therefore very quiet, no toursits while I strolled around and climbed up on the top of tower (they would never let you do that in Angkor Wat) two boys who work for the temple (cooking and cleaning for the monks) find me and guide me through the temple, not in the pushy, money-after way of children at Touristy temples. Having heard occasional visitors with their tour guides, they memorize the history of the temple and detailed information, and are able to recite it to me in good English, that's very impressive. Yet Chey (the boy on the right in the picture on upper right) hopes to go to school for English someday to obtain more tour-guiding skills.
Continue on the bike southbound, about 17km from the city, Phnom Krom is a Shivaism/Hinduism/Buddhism temple up on the top of the hill, from which you see the breathtaking view of the wet land. patches of villages, rice fields and forests you see from the hill will be covered in water and become Tonle Sap lake by May/June (in wet season Tonle Sap expands FOUR-times as large as dry season) the temple is in a poor condition, only monk i see is an old one who asks for donation for the repair of pagoda.
As many statures you see here are, these ones are headless, presumably decapitated by Khmer Rouge. and i suppose someone later replaced some heads of different statures. monks are highly educated in this country, therefore Khmer Rouge persecuted Buddhism by killing many monks, destroying temples and smashing the heads of statures. Smashing only the heads instead of the whole statures, is actually chiling demonstration to threat those who wanted to follow Buddhism.
One straight road streaches between Siem Reap and Phnom Krom. Open fields of rice and coconut trees. Frequent travelers on the boat from Phnom Penh, the capital has kept this road relatively nice. while any other road in this country that's not related to tourism, are in horrible condition. Moo!

more at Poum Steung

Another visit to the Poum Steung, on my bike with Patrick on my back. interesting experience to ride piggy back on the bumpy route 6 and dusty dirt road into the village. i bring the gifts i bought the other day, -soccor ball, vollay ball, badminton set, etc., and a map of Cambodia for each class room.
Thai and Sophat are as excited about the maps as I was expecting the kids to be.
Patrick is disappointed by all the trash on the field of empty saturday afternoon school. we spent a little more time to discuss what other projects we need to make happen here.

Small but Spicy

so i take my new bike heading east of the town, to a remote village following Mark, the tuk-tuk driver who helped me getting the bike. He has a 6 month old daughter and lives in his in-law's house while he builds a new house for him, his wife and a baby. he tells me that his job as a tuk-tuk driver can earn $100-200 a month, but right now he takes many days off to focus on the baby and the new house.

his wife Lon and daughter Soknyta. just like anyone i met here his first concerns are to earn money for his family. new house will cost $2000+, and he wants Soknyta to go to collage and that's $500 a year.

yet, he refuses to take any commission fee of any sort for my getting motorbike. "I don't work for money. I work for the future. If you become my friend, that's gonna bring me 10 clients for me as a driver, then from them another 100..." Many people here are after quick dollar off the tourism, where he has a specific insight into the growth of the tourism, creating and networking his own market. and yes, with his broken street english adding extra fun to his kind and smart personality, i would recommend him to anybody who needs a driver, a tour guide or just a guy who organize your fun and needs while in Cambodia. if he picks you up at the airport where all the drivers and sellers swarm you up for your money, i can guarantee the rest of your trip would be safe and fun. As he says, like my 100cc Honda, like his new house, he is 'small but spicy'
contact him at bestdriverpp@yahoo.com
or call his mobile phone at +855(Cambodian int'l code) 12-352-698
or from Cambodia 012-352-698.

Life on the FASTER wheels!

I must be out of my head. This guy who's been coming to our Green Town guest house, one of many tuk-tuk drivers, started talking to me and I told him my needs of having a motorbike. (foreigners can't rent motorbikes in Siem Reap and the school is 25km away) Mark, the tuk-tuk driver, has been around for the past few weeks while i was satying, i never got to know him until now but have always noticed his broken street english "whass'up, man?" "what the fuck!" and now he's sitting across the table from me and telling me that it's better to buy one than try to find someone from whom i can rent one. "it's gonna be 10 dollars a day to rent it, but i can get you a second hand motorbike for $600, and i can also help you selling it back when you are done here for $500." off course i get alarted, i haven't been here long enough to know the way things work, and i know very little about the auto mechanic. nevertheless i let him take me to second-hand motorbike dealer he knows. and in a few hours i am convinced that i can trust this guy and handing the dealer $600. they together take my bike apart to do full tune up, install new battery and accessories.

so here it is, Mark fixed me up with a new second hand Honda 100cc. everywhere in Cambodia you see this yellow liquid sold in a 2L drink bottles on the side of the roads, i guess this is the gas... (1L is little less than $1 and runs my bike for 40km) so this will have to take me far, physically and mentally. After quick lesson of driving Mark wants to take me to his house in the village.

great personality?

in the book store where i bought some school supplies, i find this book of 'the great personalities of the world' but wait a minute, look who's there on top left corner.

life on the fast wheels

Thich Nath Hanh and rock blossom sangha (www.rockblossom.org) taught me of sitting and walking meditations, Shibata sensei and Toko Kyudo group (www.tokokyudojo.org) taught me of standing (and sometimes kneeling) meditations. But nobody ever speaks of biking meditation. Biking is actually very meditative activity, and something about the sights changing in the speed of bicycle, in the city or country side, is very relaxing. and bicycles, just like guitars, like cameras, and like bows and arrows, are some of those rare non-organic beings that sometimes, if you put lot of love and care into them, can house the same spirit that goes through within and out of us. so many times i have imagined reincarnating into a bike.

so here it is, guest houses here offer very basic bikes for rent to get around the town. single speed, squeaking breaks and chains that come off on the dirt road. but as china and vietnam have gone through, people's needs are shifting towards faster and motorized means of transportations. we still see lots of bicycles in town, students and old people and foreign tourists(they can't rent motorbikes) japanese brands like honda and suzuki have large assembry factories in thailand to cater the whole region.

Here i find Honda Cub!! screw vespa, this is the mother model, origine of motorcycles. they remind me of all the postal workers in japan from 70's growing up. you don't see these in japan anymore, but here in cambodia and vietnam, they are still tough and thriving in the streets.
Human civilization, after they fulfill their first needs -food, clothes and housing- then they want to develop 'leg'. yes, once you are not hangry anymore, you want to go to and find new places, build roads and transport things and people. looking at the busy traffic of route 6 makes me think of the line of aunts on the wall in my guest house room... people go East, West, discover this paradise called Siem Reap, Bangkok, Edo(former name of Torkyo) and California, back and forth, back and forth...
next step from the 'leg' of their civilization is the 'eyes and ears' yes, tele-communication and information exchange. we don't want to travel so far anymore to bring the news and stories, so they want to have mobile phones and television sets. In SE Asia you will find these two stages of development in their peak. Leg, Eyes and Ears. Brains and other parts of body will hopefully follow soon, but for now, building schools and hospitals would not bring any fast cash into the country. And when the civilization reaches the level of our western, modern nations, people actually start investing into the 'heart' creating the whole industries of leisure, entertainment and spiritual health. Then people go travel to SE Asia for yoga retreat, and meet the local people eager to drive you around with their motorbikes and tuk-tuks... ironic isn't it?

it's always fun to watch how much local people would load up their motorbikes. family of four, marchandice, tuk-tuk and live stocks like chickens, pigs and buffalos are transported by a simple 120cc motorbikes. unfortunately i haven't gotten much luck of getting good pictures of those, for most of them zip by so fast. but please visit this web site below my room mate once found. tell me that's not funny.
http://aistigave.hit.bg/Logistics/

Market place

in search of food i can cook and supplies for the school, i'm on my bicycle heading towards East and find this HUGE market place. Psar Leu market is doubtlessly the biggest market in town. and just like any market in SE Asia they are full of colors and smells, with little alleys creating a maze into the whole complex. i would say it's a size of madison square garden or tokyo dome, only far more condenced.

fruits and veggies, hanmocks and mosquito nets, shirts and shoes, jeweries and electronics, bicycles and motorbikes, everything is available for much lower price than in the touristy markets. vendors with large baskets on their head passing motorbikers with family of four crammed on top in narrow alley, frequent deliveries of rice trucks and banana rick-shaws.

the smelliest section of the market sells fish and meat. the ground is wet and flies everywhere. no tourists throughout the entire market, (therefore people are actually not so used to negotiating their price. they see me as a rich foreigner and try to rip off higher price than smaller markets in the touristy district in central Siem Reap. bargening here is tougher, but worthwile when you eventually get it) every corner i go i receive their curious eyes. after a few minutes of my routine getting to know them, some but not all, would open up and smile to my camera. a few joke at me asking for a dollar for taking picture of them.

Another Guitar!

Yes, i just bought yet another guitar....! this would be my... 20th? 21st? 22nd guitar? i lost track of it. no name or specifications on it, no case, very low quality, i just wanted to have one while i'm here. USD20. can't go wrong. i've been playing with love and care so it started sounding good. and soon enough i connected with other musicians in town, travelers and locals, guitar/singers and traditional musicians, and on sunday (jan 28) i got myself a gig at the one of the biggest bar in town. we'll see how it goes.

meditation at Wat Bo

to dos los dias me levanto alas sies de la manana.
i wake up everyday 6-6:30 in the morning. my guest house is two blocks away from Wat Bo, the oldest temple in the city. Wat Bo is just waking up when i walk over there. the beautiful pagoda and many tomb stones behind it would shine in rising sun, as monks wash up in the back and workers prepare for meals and morning prayer.

first i have to find this old guy who has the key to the pagoda, but i didn't actually know that there are two old guys just looking alike (brothers?) until the day i took these pictures above. no word of English, with gesture i ask him to open the pagoda. it has become such daily habit that all the people at temple know this foreigner coming around every morning.

Main Buddha sitting in the pagoda is 7 to 8 meters tall, definitely the characteristics of khmer face (thick cheeks, jaws, and lips) amongs 20, 30 of medium and smaller statures i light the candles and inscents, sit and breathe for half an houror 45 minutes on my half lotus cross leg. it's been only a month or so since i could flex my legs enough to do half lotus, but i'm hoping by the time i leave Cambodia i can do full lotus. sometimes Basil, this tabby cat comes and sits with me, but she also takes care of her sister KtomTso(garlic) and cuddles with her next to the statues.

surprisingly, nobody visits Wat Bo. in the last twelve mornings i heard only one visitor stroll into the pagoda. i guess everyone goes to Angkor Wat (which i haven't yet!) When i finish sitting and walk out of the temple the town sounds all busy and vital, sometimes i see monks on motorbikes going off to correct donation. another new day.

drunken interview with sewing girls

all the friends i made here, even Patrick, are all trying to find me a Cambodian wife... after their first questions of "where you from?" "How long you stay in Cambodia?" then they ask me "Do you like Cambodia?" and I would say "Are you kidding me? I love it here!" then they'd go "Do you want to marry a Cambodian lady?" hold on, slow down MetPear(friend), don't I have to know someone and fall in love with her first? if i find someone so fantastic that i fearlessly fall in love with her, i would marry her regardless of her nationality -Japanese, American, French, Cambodian, Sudanian or wahtever... I try to explain that to them but they just giggle.

With help of drunk crew Patrick and Sophat I manage to interview Savat and Bop, two sweet girls from sewing shop at the back of Chey's auto shop. It's definitely the first time anybody's ever pointing a video camera and microphone to them, they can't stand giggling, plus they see me as big-time TV producer or something (which I'm not) and Sophat here, translating, is obviously manipulating my questions.
Toshiuro: tell me about yourself
Savat: my name is Savat, I'm 24 and grew up in Poum Steung village and I'm single...
Patrick: what's your dream? do you want to get married or have children...
Toshiro: guys, stay with me. i'm trying to talk about education here...

Savat(24) and Bop(28) both grew up in Poum Steung village but it was before the poum Steung school was built with the funding by Cambodian School Project, the organization of Mr. Sarith Ou and Roger-san in Wisconsin, USA (www.khmerschool.com). So Savat went to this school with coconut leaves used as roof, and didn't finish the elementary school because she had to look after the younger in her family. Bop didn't go to school at all, for the same reason as many in this country --- to help family. now they both learn sewing from a person who helps orphans and the poor, make school uniform for the children. being asked how it makes her feel to see today's children having the uniforms she made, savat says "it makes me want to go to school but i feel odd, out of place being much older and not knowing how to read and write."
Toshiro: what was your happiest memory from childhood?
Savat: i don't remember. i was always busy taking care of my family.
Toshiro: what's your dream for the future?
Savat: i don't know. i want to be able to read and write, and i want my family to be safe and healthy.
Patrick: once you learn how to read and write and your family is taken care of, what will be your dream for yourself? Go out and have a good time with friends? travel other parts of the world? maybe have a boyfriend or get marry? (Patrick! no more beer for you!)
Savat: i don't know.
Many people here are struggling so hard for the very basic needs of the life that they are incapable of dreaming. Me and Patrick decided that should be one of the things for us to teach children in Poum Steung school. To dream own future.

Poum Steung Gardening project!

Patrick got over his sickness and today(Tuesday Jan 23), we are finally full crew. Chey drives his 4WD and picks me up in town, pick up Patrick at his out-of-town hide-away guest house (he really likes being away from the town) then pick up Sophat in the next town Puok, 17km west of Siem Reap where he lives. on the way we stop and say hi to this friend, give help to that friend, neaten up Chey's shop, etc... Waiting and waiting, Patrick and I would scoff at their lack of punctuality... oh well. At 3:45 when the class period is almost over we finally head out further west for Poum Steung. This is first time Patrick come to this remote side of Cambodia, curiousity and mixed emotions in his face.

End of the school day when the sunlight is beautiful, we find yet another new thing at the school field.

On my first visit, I had seen this beautiful garden that Mr. Thai made, and the team explained to me that each class of children is assigned to water and take care of each strip of the garden(growing this type of vegitable whose name i can never remember). To water this garden they had dug a large hole in a ground about 4 x 10 meters and good 3 meters deep, where the underground water sits. i had seen a wooden ladder into this pool of water and figured that children have to climb this down with buckets, and climb back up to get the water for the garden.

so i have, on that first visit (only 5 days before) suggested that we together build some kind of poll and pully to lift the water from the ground. and now 5 days later as me and the crew visit the school again, that's already built! just like water gun project, once again Mr. Thai leaves me in awe with his enormous energy. And the children love using it. they almost seem to be over-watering it.

end of the visit i give children some photos i printed from previous visits, figure they don't have mare oppotunity to be photographed, much less to see the pictures of themselves. as we drive off, as i sat in the back flat bed of the pick up truck, some children are shouting 'bye bye!' and run after the truck, which blows dust onto their faces but they don't care.... they run and run and run until i lose their sight in the dust back-lit by the setting sun. i am speachless, completely touched.

How to catch Khmer fish

Cambodian's main food is rice and fish. Especially Tonle Sap, "the great lake" located 20km south of Siem Reap, the largest body of fresh water in Asia, brings the highest number of fish caught in the world. The monsoon weather keeps the lake (and all the water system all around the country) furtile and rich, there is literaly a jungle growing at the bottom of the lake.

okay, so how do they catch the fish? it's middle of day when the heat is at it's peak, the school breaks for three hours from 11 to 2. Poum Steung (means River Village) is by the river, where dozen of adult villagers and teachers all go in the water. hey why not, i go in too. i never see any fishing rods, they HAND-FISH in cambodia, with use of large fishing nets.

bottom of the river is mud and tree brunches, you net off some section so the fish won't escape, then we all start sccoping the mud from the bottom. in handful of mud and twigs and brunches, small fish are caught flipping. after a couple of hours of scooping you bring the net all together and you can see big ones in the net(we caught 5-6 fish that are at least 30cm long!)

you grill the small fish right at the river bank, put some salt and chili and eat with hand, with some rice wine and mangos (yummm, just remembering it makes my mouth watery and wet!) but that's just the snack. as the whole net is lifted, gradually the women and children of the village start gathering with small basckets, take whatever they want and go home to feed the family. yes, this much of fish are caught everyday in this village but not for sale. the village is binded between the river and rice field -completely self sustained life style.

Sophat, Chey (I'm skipping Mr. from now because we became friends) and me and other teachers are invited to nearby house's 'dining backyard' where they pan-fry the biggest four fish for us -also freshly caught wild ducks. bon apetite! never tasted such fresh fish like these.
Two children of Mr. Thai also get their snack. Happy afternoon.

more projects at Poung Steung

Mr. Thai also made a target and brought several darts.



And I take the buckets which the kids were using to fill up water in their guns, flip these buckets and start drumming on them. They are smart, quickly they pick up the rhythm, notice all the difference in metal and plastic buckets wooden sticks and brushes and brooms. Okay, this is to be continued. Poung Steng Music project is on it's way.

Poung Steung water gun project!

so i come back to Poung Steung school, only a few days after i brought up and suggested that water gun toy idea to Mr. Thai, thinking that we might actually get to make those guns with the kids.

but as i entered the school yard i see dozens of kids already playing hysterically with water guns they made. Mr. Thai went ahead and brought bamboo and other materials, had some of the kids build their guns their own. just in a few days i didn't see him. What a guy! i'm in complete awe by his energy.

Mr. Thai lines up all the morning school children (200 students) to introduce "inventor/designer" of the water gun, yes, myself. i feel respect and adoration in the eyes of every single one of them. but soon this respect is paid by the splashes of water all aiming at me. i grab someone's water gun and start shooting back at them, it's me against 20, 30 kids. i have no chance. soon we are all soaking wet.

This is for sure the first time this Japanese traditional toy is introduced to Khmer children. we are making a history!

i can hardly walk to anywhere in the school yard without being followed by a flock of curious and smiling children. Look at these smile.