Prom Rath Wat

Greetings,

I've been sitting down in Siem Reap for a week and it's delightful after the hysterical hustle of Saigon in particular and Vietnam in general. 

I've been exploring Siem Reap on foot, hearing and speaking with a variety of tourists and travelers and settling into the pace and rhythm. I will visit the Angkor Wat site and multitude of 7th-16th C. history, art and spiritual wonders down the road.

An orphan girl at a Christmas party.

Siem Reap population is about 130,000, a far cry from the 8 million in Saigon so you can appreciate the lack of motorcycles, noise and chaos as previously written. There are also 7.99 million fewer hustlers.

Minus small guesthouses and hostels there are approximately 110 hotels and 10,000 beds. Inflated stats say there is a 60% occupancy rate. Tourism is down due to world economics, tighter travel money, and small yet significant regional internal and border troubles. So it goes.

The Angkor National Museum was amazing. An excellent introduction into the Khmer culture. 

Angkor National Museum...

My first Cambodian photography gallery is of Prom Rath Wat, a serene temple complex in Siem Reap. Enjoy.

Metta.

This Waking Dream

Greetings,

I've been sitting down and exploring Saigon now for three weeks. Some travelers shared their story.

...The couple from Poland. They recently visited Borneo and camped for four days with an eco-friendly outfit in the jungle. Their operation has been going for 20 years. The couple said they saw orangutans, amazing plumaged birds, scorpions, snakes, and butterflies. Their future travel dreams include Madagascar to see the lemurs, Komodo Island dragons, and the Panda Conservatory in China.

It's refreshing to meet people traveling to experience the natural world, rather than those focusing on museums and cities. Some prefer their comfort zones, others take the road less travelled. 

• The Korean man and his family returning on a vacation. In the 60's he worked in remote areas of Laos constructing roads and airfields for Air America, the secret CIA funded airline from 1950-1976. He also worked in Da Nang.
• The family with two young kids from Darwin, Australia. The mother said, "This is a good experience for my girl and boy. It teaches them tolerance."
• The two girls from Chile and Argentina. They met by chance in Sydney and teamed up. They left their respective homes, much to the dismay and concern of family and friends to travel for a year. It's their first time away from home and they've settled into the routine and joy. They've headed north to explore Ha Noi, the coast and mountains before eventually turning south to Laos, Cambodia and Thailand. They have no time limitations. As one said, "I took the first step."

Metta.

Sculpture at Fine Arts Museum.

  Shirts made of tree bark.

Petrol and tires, Saigon curbside business.

Hanford novel excerpt

Here's an excerpt on Hanford from A Century Is Nothing. Enjoy.

My team dived into, under and through massive Columbia waterfalls near tributaries where the confluence of Northwest rivers gnashed their teeth, snaked, roaring past abandoned Hanford nuclear plants where 55 million gallons of radioactive waste in decaying drums left over from W.W.II slowly seeped 130 feet down into the ground toward water tables. 

Tribal survivors ate roots and plants garnished with entropy. 

Fascinating. 

He turned another fragile yellow page marked Top Secret Evidence.

“It’s called Technicium, TC-99,” said an Indian scientist on a shuttle between reactors. “This is the new death and we know it’s there and there is nothing we can do to prevent it spreading.” 

“The waste approached 250 feet as multinational laboratories, corporations and D.O.E. think tanks vying for projects and energy contract extensions discussed glassification options and emergency evacuation procedures according to regulations. Scientists read Robert’s Rules Of Order inside the organized chaos of their well order communities. 

“Hanford scientists, wives and their children suffering terminal thyroid disease ate roots and plants sprinkled with entropy.    

“The postal worker and the nomad talked over a counter while a frantic mother yelled at her daughter, “DON’T Touch The Stamps” because at her precocious age curiosity about colors blended itself toward planetary exploration developing her active imagination. 

“Holding a nebula in his hand he told the woman how, up in the invisible sky, are all these really cool galaxies which means we are a third the life of a 3.5 billion year old universe and she said, ‘That’s interesting. I never looked at the stamps before,’ handing him change.” 

He returned Omar’s papers to the folder and traveled beyond the forest on comet star tails.

Peace.

P.S. Zeynep in Turkey says the "Famous Dancing Meatballs" are alive and well, although some are in treatment for an anxiety disorder.