Life in the present tense: What a wonderful world

13^th November, a lazy morning in Siem Reap, our guest house owner knows and can sort everything so after a very good breakfast on a high indulgent scale, dragon fruit in the fruit salad is a superb touch, we knew we could get a tuk tuk for the sunset followed by 2 full days with an optional third if temple fever had not set in, we also knew he could get the tickets for the boat to Battambang and get the laundry done!

We wandered into Siem Reap, a town being rapidly developed on the back of hosting what is described as some pretty amazing temples, if you are in to that sort of thing. It is the most western tourist of towns and reminds me of my trip to Turkey awhile back when I came across ‘The Rovers Return’. Here we have ‘Pub Street’ and whilst that is not all it does, the remaining establishments serve up some very good food and of course for sir, a massage.

I swapped my book I bought with me but have unsurprisingly failed to get beyond the first page. There is so much to do and see. Retail therapy was my focus to ease the thinking/pain of my newly formed quadraceps and so to the market we went. I am learning fast, don’t look straight at anything use your peripheral vision, keep shades on even when you are under cover as it does make them hesitate long enough for you to maybe peer closer at any item and move swiftly away. I now have a kramar, kromar or as I refer to it Kermit for no other reason than I find it amusing. I also have a another shirt and opposite the market found the watch cap I wanted. So much better than a baseball cap and keeps out the glare more favourably than Mr Tilly.

This is a remarkably sensible load configuration, driver no where to be seen

We needed supplies for the temple days so went to the supermarket. Well Bootsbury’s is probably a better description. A cross between boots and sainsburys but with cosmetic products way out in front. This brings me to a point I have wanted to write about for a while but been challenged as to how to do it. So not one to hold back here goes.

In the west we are in the main, and despite all the health warnings, fixated with getting somewhat of a golden glow or tan or being sunburnt, fake tanned or anything other than white. Here in SE Asia to have the whitest of skins is what is required to get on and be both beautiful and successful. I have not ever seen whitening products before from deodorant’s, through hair care to various chemical applications all designed to remove any colour skin pigment. It is a wonderful world we live in is it not, I must look in Boots when I return to the UK to see if I can find said products. I doubt it and if I asked would I be a racist? This trait, belief or perception is not confined I now know to just SE Asia but India and anywhere where being white is seen as successful and being any shade of brown shows that you are nearer the earth and therefore bottom of the societies’ hierarchy. Absolute and utter rubbish however it is as it is and the large cosmetic companies are making a shed load of profit off the back of this misguided notion. L’Oreal, Revlon, Schwarzkopf (the latter making me not sure whether to laugh or cry) and the first rethinking my whole understanding of ‘because you are worth it’ I wonder if Cheryl knows what she is advertising. God I miss X Factor (so shallow)

OK rant over, quite mild for me but when I think of the absolute poverty and then see a weekly or monthly wage being spent on whitening products, it kind of makes me see the world in a different light.

We saw from a first floor window some of our Australian cooking comrades from Mondays lesson. It was too far to shout and the tuna salad I was chomping on, far too good to interrupt. Back to the hotel and met Wan Li our tuk tuk driver for the next 3 days. A quick change and we were off to see what is described as one of the true wonders of the world..ummm.

The queue at the ticket booth and ensuing organised scrum was a sight to behold but with some very careful parking we were first off to find the right hill temple from which to see the setting sun. It seems like the guide books are right, everyone else staying in Siem Reap has had the same idea. So we join the wandering snake of nationalities as it meandered up and up past the tourist carrying elephants and eventually emerged at the base of one of the temples. The almost vertical steps took you up another 50 or so metres and there we had a spectacular view standing on ruins that were original part of temples built from 800AD.

As the sun began to set so ooooing and aaaaaaing began, accompanied with the whirring of umpteen 1000 zoom lenses and the clicking of many shutters. It was spectacular and it was worth the climb down the almost vertical staircase and path in the stillness of the Cambodian evening.

Tomorrow my friends bodes well, I am very keen now to get in amongst the temples and discover for myself why Hollywood decided to base much of their filming of Lara Croft here and to fully understand the interplay between Hinduism and Buddhism, and not ever thinking of Angelina Jolie in shorts and a vest top!!!!