A World Wonder: Angkor Wat.

Ankor Wat is as fascinating as everyone says.  These ruins they are intertwined with components of both Hinduism and Buddhism.  A little background, the Khmer King was first Buddhist.  After war and defeat by India, the territory and its people became Hindu. All the Buddha statues were destroyed during this time.  Buddhism made come back later under a new King and the presence of Buddha emerged once again.

TRAVEL TIP:  If you go, I would suggest going just as low season begins.  The days can be exceptionally long during high season so be prepared to stand in line and melt under the sun.

TRAVEL TIP: Go early in the morning 5, 6, or 7 am until 10 or 11 am, right as heat of the day begins.  Take a break, hopefully at a hotel with a pool, and then head back to the ruins around 2 or 3.

Cambodia Landmine Museum - Aki Ra

Landmine Museum.  Don’t Miss it. Truly an inspiration.

A wonderful friend of ours was so adamant about not missing this museum – I am glad she was. This place is of off the beaten track and allot of travels miss it.  Request it on your tour if you go.

I encourage you to read more about Aki Ra, Top 10 CNN Hero.

More tips for the socially conscious consumer: Cambodia

Beyond. Making money & changing lives!

This place offers tourism that benefits the community.  If you’re going to take a tour, which you probably will, why not opt to use them and make a little difference while you do.  Beyond employs locals & anywhere from 5% to 25% of their profits (depending on the tour) goes back into the community.

The same owner of Beyond owns a high end hotel Sojourn built in the village of Tac.  He uses the location to lure customers who want to feel like they are in the “real Cambodia” but there is a catch.  Almost all of the hotel activities are focused on the surrounding village.  Visitors can take a village walk, teach English at a school for a few hours, help in the rice fields, or pitch in building a water filter.

Their nonprofit arm is called HUSK! They provide trash bins for the village and pay for trash pickup for the community.

Our village walk with Beyond.

This was one of the highlights of our trip.  We got to see firsthand just how powerful a network of nonprofits working together can be.  In Tac, a small village there were a number of things happening:

Water filters. These filters are just $45 a piece but they are providing the community with safe drinking water. This means healthier kids that are able to attend school.

Compost Toilets.  Cleaner and safer for the community, ADDED bonus fertilizer to help the crops grow.

Stonger housing.  Each year during the rainy season it floods and many of the houses that have been built cannot sustain the damage caused by the water. New houses are being built for the poorest families that include a tin roof, cemented wooden pillars to hold up the house on stilts, and windows for circulation.

HUSK waste barrels. These barrels get the trash of the street. Cleaner streets, less rat, less disease = a more productive society.

The entire community receives education on how to use each of these. Our guide was a local from the community and told us how impressed he has been with the change.  He painted the picture of what the village used to look like and I can only imagine what is must have been like.

Little by little things are changing.

Cooking and Caring in Siem Reap

Le Tigre de Papier. 

One of the things at the top of our list was to learn to cook local cuisine so that when we returned home we could experience out travels through our palette. 

We chose Le Tigre de Papier as the location to take our cooking lesson.  This establishment donates a portion of the money to train a local to become a chef at one of the local restaurants.

On the menu: 

Fresh Shrimp Spring Rolls

Papaya Salad

Amak Chicken

Cambodian Spiced Chicken

Banana & Coconut Custard

Fresh from the market:

Where we started:

And just look how good it ended up. So yummy!

Other things for the Socially Conscious traveler in Cambodia:

Seeing Hands Massage Center.  If you’re in Cambodia trust me you most likely won’t forego getting a massage.   So why not opt to spend your money in a great place.  All massages are given by the blind

TRAVEL TIP: make sure you give your tip directly to your masseuse when people with vision aren’t present.  I know it is awful but money does get taken from the blind from time to time.  So do them a favor and just be aware of

who is around when you hand them the money.

Great Causes, good food, and a few things for the adventurous eater!

There are a number of great establishments, doing great things, and serving great food – so why not spend your money wisely.  Below are a list places that any socially conscious traveler should know about and opt to visit.  You won’t be disappointed.

Cambodian BBQ – it’s not just about chicken baby.  We opted to take the sampler platter that included  alligator and python!  The snake was a bit dry but the gater isn’t half bad.

WATER BUGS Anyone?

During our village tour we were welcomed by some of the most hospitable people.  While I was so thankful for their lunch invitation, we both opted to bypass eating.  Their lunchtime meals often consist of well BUGS – grasshoppers, crickets, water bugs and more!  Protein is protein.

Romdeng (Phnom Phen) is a restaurant that offers former street children and orphans a place to belong.  Seeing over 100 customers per day, they not only provide fine dining training for everything: waiter, chef, restaurant management;  they provide these kids with a family and a support system.  Each kid receives financial and housing support if needed.  This  provides the ability to continue to go to school and get the skills they need to be productive in the community.

NOW SERVING: TARANTULAST @ Romdeng!

Yes, that is right, I said tarantulas. My husband has a bit of an adventurous palatte and this place hit the spot.  He ordered Tarantulas for an appetizer & stir fried beef with RED ANTS!. He loved the tarantulas and decided he could forego the red ants in the future.

Friends (Phnom Phen) is a sister restaurant to Romdeng. The cuisine is a mix of Cambodian French style tapas. Check it out if your there!

And if your in the mood try a few crickets from your local market.

Not to Miss: The Killing Fields

Reflections from a foreigner:

After the Holocaust the international community said:  “Never again, never again”. Perhaps that has fallen on death ears as I keep counting how many times the “never again” has actually been the again. It is a story that is all too familiar.

The Killing Fields are proof of what humans are capable of - genocide. 

The Killing Fields were commissioned under Pol Pot and were the sites used for Khmer exterminations (men, women, and children) under his regime.

As you approach the Killing Fields there is a tall memorial dedicated to the victims, full of their bones that remind us that we must never forget.  We MUST NEVER FORGET.

A walk by the killing tree where so many babies were murdered will forever be etched in my mind.  An estimated 2 to 3 million out of a total population that was 7 million died over the course of 5 years.  Everyone in the country was and still is affected.

My trip to the Killing Fields coincided with my reading of Samantha Powers book A Problem from Hell.  Prior to my visit I had wondered why so many countries around the world stood by despite the atrocities that were being committed inside Cambodia.  I wondered why today so many countries and so many people still refuse to believe when such atrocities are being committed.

A few things she had written provided me a bit of insight:

1.) The human mind doesn’t comprehend this level of darkness.  It seems unfathomable even when it those people whom are the targets.  But eventually, most of us have an “ah ha” moment.  It hits you.  But it often hits us when it is too late.

2.) Politics. There is always politics. Without going to indepth (you can read a history book or pick up her book) politics always plays a role.  In short, from the US perspective we had just come out of the Vietnam War and we couldn’t afford to get ourselves into the same situation.  Bad sentiments hung in the air as some on Capitol Hill boasted that Cambodian’s had helped to harbor the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War so why would we go back for round 2?

In addition, the US was worried about rocking the recent positive developments in our relationship with China.  When Vietnam did decide to invade with the backing of Russia we looked at it as communism extending is rule over yet another territory.

The story is obviously much more complex than my one little paragraph but at what point do politics take a backseat and the need for actions against genocide take the front seat?  My mind was racing when we returned to the hotel.  I turned on the television to find the current events of Libya, Syria, & the realities of what was happening in the Middle East.