We spent our first full day visiting Angkor Wat and the surrounding temples. How incredible! The detail and magnitude together must have been an outrageous undertaking in the 12th century. Elephants and rafts carried huge stones for over 50km to the sites. Entire cities were created stone by stone then carved with emaculate detail. It is an archeologists dream. Unfortunately, due to the extreme heat and humidity, we only stayed through the afternoon.
The rest of our time in Cambodia was spent in Siem Reap. The city resembles the quietness of Luang Prabang in a larger setting. Along with the larger setting, you get ruthlessness. The tuk-tuk drivers won't take no for an answer and neither will the children. Our best defense was a polite "No thank-you", over and over and over. Sometimes the children ask "Why no" and it is difficult to explain that we don't want to positively reinforce child labor in Cambodian culture. One kid who sold postcards was smart enough to offer games of tic-tac-toe. If you win, you get a free postcard; if you lose, you must buy.
We went to a cello concert on our last night in Siem Reap. It was a free concert offered by Dr. Beat Richtner(?), hence it was called Beatocello. He is a Swiss doctor that has built four hospitals within Cambodia offering free healthcare to ALL children and pregnant mothers. His main battles are against dengue fever and tuburculosis (65% of the population), as well as the WHO. They claim his facilities offer too high a standard of care for a poor country. The concerts main purpose is to attract donors of money and blood. The most amazing fact that we learned was that an average stay for a child is 5.5 days, costing them only $170. Most of their funding is from private donations. Hearing from Dr. Beat really put a light on for how easy it is to help these countries.
The rest of our time in Cambodia was spent in Siem Reap. The city resembles the quietness of Luang Prabang in a larger setting. Along with the larger setting, you get ruthlessness. The tuk-tuk drivers won't take no for an answer and neither will the children. Our best defense was a polite "No thank-you", over and over and over. Sometimes the children ask "Why no" and it is difficult to explain that we don't want to positively reinforce child labor in Cambodian culture. One kid who sold postcards was smart enough to offer games of tic-tac-toe. If you win, you get a free postcard; if you lose, you must buy.
We went to a cello concert on our last night in Siem Reap. It was a free concert offered by Dr. Beat Richtner(?), hence it was called Beatocello. He is a Swiss doctor that has built four hospitals within Cambodia offering free healthcare to ALL children and pregnant mothers. His main battles are against dengue fever and tuburculosis (65% of the population), as well as the WHO. They claim his facilities offer too high a standard of care for a poor country. The concerts main purpose is to attract donors of money and blood. The most amazing fact that we learned was that an average stay for a child is 5.5 days, costing them only $170. Most of their funding is from private donations. Hearing from Dr. Beat really put a light on for how easy it is to help these countries.
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