Trip to Angkor Wat, Cambodia (10)

The next day was more or less of the same temple trudging for me. The names elude me now, but there is one I do remember: Neam Preak : it's a man-made lake with a horse in the middle of it and in the middle of the jungle. It is forever etched in my mind, cos the walk there was the longest and most gruelling.... like walking on hot embers or stakes of iron.

Was dehydrated, in need of constant liquid replenishment and to be honest I had had enough of the temples. Had a picnic lunch of stuff I'd bought at the shopping mall (try that it's cheaper and much more convenient). Back to the town, but first, a final look at Angkor again.
Hordes of tourists were descending from buses upon one of the wonders of the world. The walkway to the temple was full of them. There was a Cambodian child in pram with a deformed and enlarged head. My mum who had once worked as a nurse in hospital children's ward said she had seen children like that and that their lives were short. She stopped to play with the child. It made gurgling sounds and gave us what we thought was a smile.
Some local girls in Cambodian dancer dress were lined up by an enterprising guy who was charging 10 dollars to photograph them or topics with them. My mum took a pic of them not realising it was a business venture and when the guy asked for some money she promptly erased the offending photo in front of him.
So to the swelling crowds, the dust and heat and famed temples of Angkor, I bid farewell. We were satisfied.

Ankgor had been good.

The carvings extrordinary. Certainly a place one should visit. Was a bits orry to say goodbye to the stone faces of Bayon and the Victory gate.

They were my favourite stone figures.
Maybe I will visit again one day.
One last trip to the tourist trinket market in the Old quarter of Siam Reap full of stuff mostly from Thailand. The multi-coloured rice-sack Saigon chique handbags were nice. But I really think the Cambodians should try a bit harder and produce stuff that is more of Cambodian origin.
Now it was for us to continue on to Ayutthya. The Cambodians say a lot of stuff was taken from Angkor and environs to Siam. So we were to go see on the morrow the remains of the place that had sacked the place we were in now.
We jump forward to Bangkok!

Trip to Angkor Wat, Cambodia (4)

I just got off the phone to my brother and mother, who are at the time of writing this blog, are in Bangkok, and tomorrow will be returning home to Myanmar, after a epic trip to Cambodan and Thailand (an epic trip for us ordinary Myanmars).
The trip was everything and nothing like they expected.
My mother is thrilled and happy and both of them are very, very tired.
Mom says that there is over 2,000 photos taken for these blogs. And is thrilled that her tour is going to be recorded and read all over the world.
But, dear bro says to give him a few days to recover from this Odyssey.

They are dying for some Myanmar food!

Visit this blog to read all about the journey in the coming weeks.

What would happen if the Thai Tourist Industry received in 2009, only 50% of the visitors of the previous year?

What repercussions would that have on Myanmar?
A certain number of free independent travelers (FIT) as the industry calls them, which come to Myanmar, are usually off-shoots from the usual beaten track of Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and the sort. If these sorts of travelers do not include Thailand on their usual tour, and Thailand is a favored spot for a lot of them, the few numbers from that population that ventured into Myanmar will further be decimated. A certain number of Myanmar’s working in Thailand will the first to be given the boot and shown the door if it comes to it I suppose. And that would probably mean thousands and thousands of them. Imagine them streaming back across the border back to their little towns and villages. Putting increased stress on the community systems that always have been at their limits. Many of them would feel it strange to fit back into previous lives, having grown clean out of them. Would crime and the associated abuses increase along with them?
Would anyone care to join into the prophecy of the year to come?
What say YOU!

Mom's trip (26th November 2008) to Angkor Wat, Cambodia, & Thailand, Suvarnabhumi Airport and Thaksin the Satan

We are Myanmar’s, and the happiness of our parents is one of the paramount tasks that we the kids, most willingly undertake. And this is a story of an attempt to fulfill that objective and the events that are happening even as I write this, that made it even more memorable. Really, really memorable!
A classic case of “if things will go wrong, then they will go wrong!” despite anything you can do.
My mother has spent the last five years dreaming about going on an overseas trip to a destination of her desire. It is not a simple thing for a 65 year old who depends on the financial support of her grown children to think about. The situation is even more difficult when she is from Myanmar (Burma). But we have all promised her that she would definitely be going, and mere lack of money would not stand in her way. She should just pick the places or places that she would like to go and the time of the year and one of us would accompany her in this trip of her life. It would be the first trip abroad in twenty something years and the first trip without her husband, our father who had passed away eight years ago losing a battle against liver cancer.
The destination selected was Angkor Wat, Cambodia, as she is a devout Buddhist, this destination came as no surprised. Thirty years ago in a similar situation like this the destination selected then was Buddhagaya in India. A trip enshrined in our family memory.
Originally I was the one who was supposed to take, dear mom, on her pilgrimage to tour Angkor Wat. But events transpired to prevent me from embarking on the trip. I got a job in Singapore which is from where this story is being penned. So it was up to my older brother to take up the responsibilities of ensuring that the trip took place.
Now my mother is a former nurse, an operating room nurse, a veteran of staring down all sorts of people, and also the mother of three boys and one boyish girl, and the spouse of a Myanmar diplomat, and the oldest of member of her generation on her side of the relatives. Although she has mellowed down quite a bit, there are times when the old fire and temper comes out, a lot less frequent then before but it still comes out when the occasion demands it. A few years ago when our district was collecting money for a community activity and funds had to be raised, people were wondering who would be the one to approach our mom for the required contribution, a thought that brought grown men of the district into a most sorry trembling state. In the end they made her the treasurer and a board member and got her to collect all the contribution of the community which she did so well that she still is the treasurer, Hillary Clinton would have been proud. And my sister has to top up the amount when it sometimes is short because she miscounted or something.
The first hurdle was getting a passport, even with the system currently in place that works at light speed compared to the nightmare of a system of old; it took her 3 months, mainly because she forgot to put in her old passport number, which was something 25 years ago before the common use of copier machines in Myanmar. The fire and temper settled that, so things fell into place.
Then she started saving money not only for the particular trip but also for the subsequent trips around Myanmar to tell everyone in the clan about it. And this was done in a cool 6 months.
Then on the 25 of November, yesterday, my brother came down from Mandalay to embark on the trip scheduled for the 26th of November 2008. Bear in mind that all and every tiny detailed had been ironed out, with my brother with extra cash, stashed secretly away to buy extra convenience and a little luxury, if it came to it.
Then,
Thaksin, the former prime minster of Thailand just got himself a new title – the Satan, as christened by dear mom.
Actually the airline staff of the airport got it first, even if they wore metal jackets and had the skin of old wild rhinoceros would not have soften the piece of mind my dear mom gave them when they told her the flight to Bangkok, and for her transit to Siam Reap, was canceled.
The hordes of antigovernment demonstrators had taken over the Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok bringing all flights and my mothers’ tour to a standstill. She was hopping mad, and literally jumped into a taxi and fumed the way home.
My brother also enraged because his shopping plan had been ruined.
He simply could not speak kindly of the Thai’s all afternoon and probably for the coming months too. But he was also quite amused as he observed that dear ol’ mom, still has every single bit of the energy and fire that we saw in her growing up. He said was refreshing to see the energy. The same could not be said for the airport and airline staff. He also felt sorry for all the family members who were going to have to hear this story over and over again for the years to come at family reunions.
And they are calling the airline every hour for updates of the situation in Thailand. For this will be a trip that will be taken.
Let’s see where this goes. Stay tuned for updates on this topic.
Now I finally understand why Burmese used to go over to Thailand to beat them up in the old days of old history.