10/12: Wats North of Siem Reap, Cambodian Landmine Museum and Beatocello

Our plan for today, a Saturday, was to go to the Artisans D'Angkor store ("one of the best places in Cambodia for quality souvenirs and gifts - everything from silk clothing and accessories to elegant reproductions of Angkorian statuary"), and also take a free shuttle to their silk farm about 30 minutes out in the country.  I had read a lot about the shop before leaving Denver and was disappointed when we walked all of 4 minutes there from our guesthouse only to find that all their shuttle drivers had gone to temple that day.  We immediately signed up to go the next day.

We called up our driver, Mr. Sarath, right away and were so lucky that he was available to pick us up right away at the shop to take us to the wats 31 kms north of town and to the Cambodian Landmine Museum on our way back to town.  We also told him that we would take him out for dinner after all that before he dropped us off that evening for the  free cello concert held each Saturday night by the Swiss pediatrician Beat Richner.  He said his fee would be $23 for the 12 hour day but we gave him a $7 tip and paid for his 2 meals.  

It was going to be another long day with lots of different things planned but at least not just temples!

What we had planned on seeing and doing today!

I was always interested in the large variety of vehicles seen on the roads by Siem Reap and elsewhere in Cambodia.

I remember counting the number of occupants in the tuk tuk in front of us - 9!

I bought a hat at this roadside stand for all of $1 because we left for the day thinking we were just going to the Artisans store and the Silk Farm and thus hadn't brought my hat for the day.

The hat seller.

Filling up with gas.

Quite odd for us to see gas in these recycled glass pop bottles at many roadside stands throughout Cambodia.  We didn't realize initially that it was gas in the bottles being sold by families at their roadside stands together with fruit and vegetables!

Fascinating seeing students of all ages riding their bikes to school.

Wish I had gotten a picture of the whole cart being pulled by a motorcycle.

Just think -  these kids had to ride their bikes miles to school - I only know that because we would pass the schools miles later.

Arrived at the Kbal Spean parking lot to see this woman selling kramas, i.e. the combination scarf, head wrap, baby sling, face mask, blanket, shawl  et al.  I don't know what the temperature was but it sure seemed WAY too warm to us to be wearing pretty heavy sweaters and gloves when it sure felt like it was in the high 80's.  She wasn't the only woman dressed as warmly - most sellers dressed like she at the other temples too.

Kbal Spean's petroglyphs, carvings etc are from the 11th century but were only discovered in 2009!

Not surprising it was only recently found because it is located pretty deep in the jungle in the mountains well north of Siem Reap.  

Hadn't planned on a hike today but this turned out to be one of the highlights for me of our whole trip since it was so far off the beaten track and a real treasure.

This family was living in the jungle just off the 1500 meter long path to Kbal Spean.

As you can see, not exactly the easiest of paths to get to Kbal Spean!

Halfway there, NOT that we were looking for each sign indicating we were 100 meters closer of course!

Photo above and those below of prayer offerings en route to Kbal Spean.

In case there was any doubt we were in  Cambodia's jungle, these trees reminded us.  I kept expecting Tarzan to come swinging out on one of the vines!

Finally at Kbal Spean itself - had to be careful though where we walked.

Our first sight of the carvings - remember these are ONLY available in the dry season as otherwise all the underwater carvings and petroglyphs are covered totally with water.  If we had been there just a few weeks earlier, we wouldn't have seen them - what a loss that would have been.

This was our guide who took us alone to see the many sights at Kbal Spean as we would never have discovered all of them as not only were they pretty far apart but under water, under bushes, by trees, etc.

My culottes bought from one of the previous temples and the dollar hat -don't I just look fetching!  Ended up buying several culottes as they were so lightweight and comfy AND met the dress code for visiting the temples.

Some people were just relaxing in the water here - they had come prepared with swimsuits and towels.

A pretty view of the surrounding mountains from the trail at Kbal Spean.

This woman was carrying trash down the trail at a very fast clip. She obviously knew the most efficient way of getting down because she knew just where to place her every foot compared to our carefully examining each  rock and log so we didn't trip and fall.  She positively scampered down -we felt so old and out of shape!

The map indicates how far apart the various carvings, etc are at Kbal Spean.

One of the mountains near Kbal Spean.

More of the bottles of gas for sale at a roadside shop.

After seeing Kbal Spean, we headed back toward Siem Reap; our first stop was at Banteay Srei, "considered by many to be the jewel in the crown of Angkorian art.  It's a  Hindu temple dedicated to Shiva and cut from stone of a pinkish hue and includes some of the finest stone carving anywhere on earth."

Photos above and below of Banteay Srei.

Our next stop was at the Cambodian Landmine Museum, our first brush with the horrors of the civil war in this part of Cambodia.  Spent well over an hour touring the museum and watching a video about the museum's founder, Aki Ra, who had been a child soldier, then part of the infamous Khmer Rouge army, and later very active in helping to dismantle many of the mines left over from the civil war in Cambodia.  He was so good at destroying the mines because he had planted thousands of them himself.

Hard to read I know - sorry about that.

Pretty compelling entrance to the museum, don't you think?

Below:  Aki Ra's story.

I felt ignorant seeing that Ottawa, my hometown, played a big role in banning landmines as I had had no idea of it.  US, Russia and India are the three major non signatories to the treaty.  It was sad discovering that the US is in that company.

Just some of the several thousand landmines at the museum.  FYI - it costs just $3 to make one landmine but $500 to destroy EACH ONE.  According to the information at the museum, there are still an estimated 6-7 million unexploded bombs in Cambodia, mostly along the border with Thailand.

After the disturbing images from the Landmine Museum, it was a welcome relief to see such a peaceful sunset on our way back into town,

One final stop though before we got back to Siem Reap: on our way north that morning to Kbal Spean, we had seen were 20 or more stalls all within a mile of each other all selling these beautiful woven baskets.   Siem Reap is justifiably famous for their intricately woven baskets, mats, etc.  I had told Steven I wanted to stop there on our way back but it was so late when we got there, I was more than a tad worried that we would find them all closed up for the night.  Thank goodness, I was in luck - it did mean though that we ended up having to buy one more suitcase before heading home to the US!

• After dinner with Mr. Sarath, he dropped us off to see and hear Dr. Beat Richner, aka Beatocello, the Swiss pediatrician and musician who has built 6 pediatric hospitals (each called Kantha Bopha but Kantha Bopha I, II, etc) that cover 85% of Cambodia's children.  
• We had thought we were going to a free cello concert but we should have known better based on what I had read on Trip Advisor about him before leaving home, seeing the massive banners promoting the Saturday concerts going to and from Angkor Wat every day and getting flyers about it every day we passed the entrance to Angkor Wat.  
• It may have been billed as a concert but it was more of a commentary on the horrific state of the Cambodian healthcare system and a fundraiser for his hospitals with some music interspersed. 
• He asked for money from all of us and blood from the younger audience members, the latter because just one patient earlier in the week had required 18 units of blood!
• We saw a short video about him and the hospitals; when it was made 7 years ago, $5 million has then been raised just through the weekly concerts.
• Richner said 450 children are admitted to the hospitals daily and over 150,000 just last year. In 1992 he built the first children's hospital which "happened" to be on the only street to and from Angkor Wat so all tourists coming to see the temples' sights would have to see the lines of Cambodian parents waiting with their children to see a doctor.  90% of the money spent on saving the children's lives at the hospitals and also inoculating them against children's diseases comes from private donations, much of it from Swiss citizens and their government.  
• The hospitals he has set up in Siem Reap and Phnom Penh, Cambodia's capital, and elsewhere employ 2500 Cambodians and only 2 or 3 foreigners, he emphasized.
• Facts and figures I also found alarming about Cambodia:  80% of the population have an income of $1 per day; a farmer's income in cash is only $240 a year.  Because of this, all treatment at the hospitals is free.
• Dengue fever and Japanese encephalitis are both rampant in Cambodia; 92% of Cambodian children have been treated/inoculated against the former by the hospitals Richner has set up.
• During the civil war, there had been 300 concentration camps which became a breeding ground for TB which then spread out to the rest of the population like wildfire; Cambodia now has the highest density of TB in the world with 65% of the population infected.
• He talked at length, in between playing the cello, about there being NO public health system in Cambodia; fully 90% of the money running through the Ministry of Health, he said, is lost to corruption.  Virtually every Cambodian we spoke to throughout the country decried the massive corruption endemic to the country; also the same story in all the travel literature and Trip Advisor forums I read too so I wasn't surprised about this 90% figure as disturbing as it is.
• The hospitals are, he said, "islands of justice and peace without corruption.  Without justice throughout Cambodia, there will never be peace."
•  Steven and I both felt we had been in the presence of greatness that night listening to Dr. Beat Richner play his cello and speak of his work in Cambodia.