On the way... alone on a dirt rode in the middle of somewhere
On the way...stone carved river bed over 1000 years old
On the way....on the hiking trail from the river bed site--sweating buckets but this time keeping fully hydrated!!!!!
On the way... one of the temples in the Angkor Area. This is the last one for me! They are truly amazing but too much of a good thing is too much.
I woke up this morning torn. Should I spend another day out in the heat? Do I really want to see more old ruins? If the day's schedule hadn't have included the Land Mine Museum, I'm sure I would have canceled. I'm so grateful I went out!
There isn't much spectacular in what I saw in the way of touristy things today. If I was hoping for some 'amazing' sights I would have been disappointed. The Landmine Museum was interesting but lacking in things to see. What it does as an NGO is powerful and I'm grateful to know of the organization and its international supporters. Even though the sights were just OK the whole day was hands down spectacular.
These past 5 weeks or so have not been about creating a resume of "have seens" and "have been tos". Instead this travel journey has been more about the journey itself. It hasn't always mattered where I was going to be once I got to where I was going. It wasn't about what I'd see when I saw it. More so this open ended journey has been so much more about being on the way. The 'on the way journey' has gifted me with new life.
My favorite part of today was not the really cool stone carvings in the river bed, the very old temple ruins with beautiful ornate carvings, or the very interesting landmine museum. Rather I enjoyed the peaceful drive out to all of the places I visited. I had not wanted to pay the price of hiring my own tuk-tuk yet it proved to be just what I needed today.
Today's journey like most of my trip created a lot of listening time. This vacation has definitely been a journey of listening; it has been a journey of listening on the way. I've listened to the people and places I've visited from China, Vietnam and now Cambodia. Even while I've not known them well, they've had so much to say. I've listened to a place in me where God's mysteriously beautiful presence meets my own voice. These things make me understand with more and more clarity what the Mother of Jesus meant when it is said of her, "She treasured these things in her heart." Some things we take into our hearts are beyond needing to speak out words. Maybe somewhere on the way on a future day they will find words. Today what I treasured is something a lot like that. As we drove and drove I had so much joy in what I was seeing. I had so much joy in just being where I was. Today's ride was again something I did solo (except for the driver in front of me) and yet again I noticed how un-alone I was. Today I was gifted with the surprise of unseen companionship. Not much was said but being in that presence in this place was for a lack of word--profound.
We rode through rice fields where people were working fields ripe for harvest. Underneath the homes on stilts people gathered together. Some lounged around in hammocks. In front of homes played half naked kids who couldn't have been much younger than 5 or 6. Others were buck naked running around with out a care in the world. Kids laughed as they played in the muddied rain filled ponds. How do they stay healthy? Motorbikes whizzed by us with entire families packed on them--father, mother and 2 children. A white sedan swerved in front of us with its trunk lid open. A father and son sat cross legged staring at me stare at them. Riding in a trunk? Yep! We raced by bicycles caring wood planks 3 times the cycle's length. The muddied gray buffalo grazed outside of their homes on rope looking hardly strong enough to keep a cat on its property. The scenes of the countryside were like something straight out of a documentary. It felt to me like I was watching my life go by on a television screen. But I wasn't. I was doing this right here and right now and the sights I was overlooking were real people doing real life.
It all feels so unreal. As I see where the people live, work and play it is almost like passing the summer camp grounds full of vacationing families back in the USA. Everyone is just on summer holiday, right? No one I know well lives, really lives, in places like this. At the end of the week the families will back up their bags and return home to where the REALLY live, right? Of course, I know they won't. What I've seen in these short 5 weeks just leaves my jaw on the floor gaping open in disbelief of how so many people do life in our ever smaller world. Today I headed back to a shower, air condition and a incredibly tasty meal. Tomorrow I'll check into hopefully one of the nicer hotels I've ever checked into. And the people in the villages of Siem Riep, Lugu Lake, and so on are NOT on vacation. It is the very same world I've made my life in yet not the same world I do my life in. How does one reconcile the two? I've asked this kind of question in other contexts.
I don't feel compelled to answer my question. Somehow there has to be another question. When I think about all I've witnessed in the past few weeks--heck the past few years--I'm aware of something else. Don't most human beings want similar if not the same basic ends? Peace and living beyond a place of survival are two of those ends. It can be so easy to live for the "ends" without living for today. It can be so easy to make a list of "must sees" and "must dos" without enjoying being on the way to those "must sees"" and ""must dos". Yes, there is unspeakable poverty. Yet, I sense that I am not much help at all if all I do is hope for peace and sustainable living for all. "Every day counts", I kept on thinking today. We all know what we hope the end will be for so many people around the world. Yet the journey of getting to that place we hope for is just as important. Each day on the way matters. The responsibility of the world feels so much more manageable one day at a time.
On the way....Land Mine Museum and Education Center --Amputees work and live at the Education Center. A former child fighter and landmine placement soldier (the NGO's founder) now works tirelessly to remove landmines all over the country. Personally he has removed 50,000 mines in the last 20 years. There is said to be some 2 million or more active land mines remaining in Cambodia. The new site of this museum had serveral landmines on it that needed removal (obviously) before building could commence.
On the way.... Hiking 'friends' who helped me on the way to the river bed. They were so kind to make sure I made my way down a rocky path with flip flops on. They laughed (in fun) when I slipped. We connected in a non-verbal way. I seemed funny to them. And if you look at the picture with my sun glasses cock-eyed I did look funny today! I had traveled far from the place of our meeting and we crossed paths in route back to Siem Riep City. They pointed at me with great surprise and waved with joy. I waved and aimed to get a photo. 3 adults on a motorbike!!
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