Day 3: Siem Reap

After assessing our "high-lows" from the day before we found that the more ruinous, jungle engulfed temples were our favorite, so we decided to spend our second day in Siem Reap travelling to one of the lesser visited, completely unrestored temples outside of the central Angkor area: Beng Melea.   

The guys had to work in the morning, so we got on the road at about 2:00 for the hour drive to Beng Melea.  Our driver's name was Dara, a government employee who makes $65 a month and decided to take three months off to work as a driver in an attempt to save up some money.  Like many of the men we met, he came from a poor family near Siem Reap.  After the Pol Pot years he went to live with the Buddhist monks, who supported him while he continued his education.  Cambodia has been a country run, not on government welfare, but religious welfare.  This is true in many countries in S.E. Asia and continues to fascinate me.  

For decades after Pol Pot was ousted from power by the Vietnamese he held territory in Northwestern Cambodia.  Dara's town was a few miles from this boundary line.  As a child, he said his mother always made him stay indoors.  This, he said, was very boring...with few books, little education and no T.V.  He grew up in terror of the jungles surrounding his home due to the land mines they held and told us many stories of friends and neighbors being injured or killed by the mines.  Nowadays, these signs can be found all over Cambodia and Vietnam, posted mainly by NGO's.

Dara's father had died only a month before.  When his father was younger he had been a Buddhist monk, but had left the monastery and married Dara's mother (it wasn't clear why...perhaps due to the Khmer Rouge when religion was abolished).  At some point after Dara and his two sisters were born his father and mother divorced and his father went back to being a monk.  Dara said this was not uncommon and it didn't seem like a problem to him at all.

When we arrived in the village, Derek had to take an important phone call.  While we were sitting and waiting for him, a group of children from the village wandered over and to see us.  They were fascinated by my big earrings and Alex's dog tags.  As time went on we decided to play some games with them.  We tried "Simon Says" for awhile and then settled on a game of "Duck, Duck, Goose" which was a huge hit.  Parents passing by even encouraged their children to join in.  We had a very memorable time playing with kids who have already had a harder life than we can imagine.  

Derek on the phone.

Simon Says

Duck, Duck, Goose

Eventually we said goodbye to our new friends and headed towards Beng Melea.  Beng Melea was made in the exact same layout as Angkor Wat, and is believed to have been a trial run of sorts for the more famous temple.  It has an overwhelmingly mysterious feel sitting silently in the middle of jungle.  The sun set as we explored it and the bats emerging in the growing darkness certainly added to its creepy ambiance.

The gatekeeper.  This man quite possibly took part in the building of this temple 900 years ago.  He was older than dirt, but as spry as a little hobbit.  He took us all through the ruins and practically climbed under a bolder in search of Justin's dropped camera.  

After taking our time to explore the ruins (and Justin and Derek almost getting an eyeball put out by a bat), we met back up with Dara and set off for Siem Reap.  On the way we passed his mother's home and he asked us if we would mind stopping.  We, of course, were happy to meet his family and pay our respects to his father.  A small shrine was set up in the corner of his mother's home and his father's pictures were everywhere.  According to Khmer tradition, the family mourns for a month after the funeral and then has a party with all of their friends and neighbors to celebrate the life of their loved one.  

When we got back to Siem Reap we ate dinner with Dara and listened to more of his stories and then called it a night.