Indiana Jebreel

I've spent the past 3 days exploring the temples at Angkor, the ancient capital of the Khmer (Cambodian) empire. To be honest, I usually get bored by inanimate tourist attractions, and get 'templed out' very quickly. Plus after 7 and a half months, I've done enough sightseeing. So I was going to Angkor to tick a box more than anything, cos you can't come to Cambodia without seeing it (the main temple - Angkor Wat - is on the Cambodian flag, money, national beer...).

To say I was pleasantly surprised would be an understatement - I was pleasantly blown away! There's something magical about the temples. They're huge, but intricately carved and well maintained/restored. They're in the middle of the jungle, and not as crowded as I'd feared (partially cos they're so big, so the tourists are spread out). After I did my meditation course, a friend who's been here suggested I meditate at Angkor Wat. At the time I privately dismissed the idea as a bit cheesy, but he was right - it's the perfect location. I sat on a ledge high up the outside of the 1000 year old temple, where noone else would go, with a view over the jungle and the jungle birds and insects almost the only sounds (apart from the occasional Korean and Japanese tour groups, who seemed to think that if anything's worth saying, it's worth shouting!). So I settled myself in the perfect surroundings, and promptly fell asleep. I still need to work on the early morning meditating - I'd gotten up for sunrise.

The next temple was Ta Prohm, which is apparently special because it's where Tomb Raider was filmed. But despite this stain on its history, it's still amazing. The jungle has fought back against the temple, and there are huge trees which have wrapped their roots around the rock. It's really incredible and beautiful, a conflict between the power of man and the power of nature.

My last temple on Monday was Bayon, which is again very different - there are 54 towers, each with 4 huge identical faces carved in them, facing the points of the compass. Apparently they are faces of a certain god, but bear an uncanny resemblance to the king who built the temple. The faces look cool from the bottom, then you enter the temple, go up, and come out on the next level, face to face with them, which is quite incredible.

Yesterday I took a 2 hour journey because I wanted to see Beng Melea. Like Ta Prohm, it has been attacked by nature - but until a few years ago the area was full of mines and rebels, and there was no proper road - so there has been minimal restoration and clearing. Thus the place is half ruined and totally overgrown, not jut the odd tree. So I was clambering over mounds of rubble and onto the roofs of the buildings, having a bit of an Indiana Jones experience. To be fair, I could have taken the wooden walkway, but what would be the fun in that? (had a lot of fun setting the timer for the next picture and getting across in 30secs. That's me in yellow)

Then I went to Banteay Srey, which is small but has incredibly well preserved intricate carvings, considering it's 1000 years old. Today I went back to Angkor Wat and Ta Prohm, to try meditating again (lasted half an hour this time, but too many tour groups), and take more pictures (300 wasn't enough...). Tomorrow I go back to Pnomh Penh, and onto Sen Monorom to visit Catrina, my friend who's working out here, for a few days. In a week I fly to L.A, and then by May I'll probably be home!

Running all over Pnomh Penh

I'm in Pnomh Penh at the moment, the capital of Cambodia. I've been here about 5 days now, but the first couple of days were spent mainly on the toilet with the runs or in bed, due to a nasty case of Delhi Belly that started on my last day in India - kind of a leaving present I guess. But with the help of some magic pills from the doc, all is now good.

I'm liking Cambodia. I realised in my last few days in India that it was a bit too 'in-your-face' for me (especially Varanasi and Delhi), and I was glad to arrive in a (relatively) calmer, more easygoing country. It's also a country with a tragic history, which I saw at the genocide museum (a former school that had been turned into a prison/torture centre by the Khmer Rouge) and the 'killing fields' (where people were sent from the prison to be systematically killed). The memorial at the killing fields was a tall glass column, with rows of skulls from the thousands of victims.

Some people I spoke to before coming here, who'd been here before, found it a really sad place - for obvious reasons. There are lots of beggars, often amputees as a result of landmines, and a real lack of middle aged and old people - because so many were killed in the 70s. But I feel quite positive about the place. Maybe I'm desensitised as a result of 2 months in a refugee camp and a month in the craziness of India (which also has lots of poverty). Maybe it's partly because I've not ventured far out of the tourist bubble (running out of steam to be honest; illness didn't help). But I also see lots of positive work being done, by NGOs but even more so by private social entrepreneurs (who don't waste money like NGOs here do). In the past few days I've bought clothes in a shop that trains former street kids as tailors, eaten in a restaurant where the owner puts all the profits into the orphanage he runs, got a massage in a shop that only trains blind people as it's masseurs; and from tomorrow I'm staying in a hotel that gives free English lessons to poor local teens.

Not sure the government can match the work of its citizens. I saw a group of about 100 Cambodians sitting on the pavement opposite the Royal Palace a few days ago, being watched over by a group of policemen. It turns out they were peacefully protesting against illegal seizures of their land. But the government doesn't really like protests, so the protest was stopped and they were being made to sit on the pavement for hours (as a punishment?). What amused me though, was the police's official reason for stopping the protest, and holding them (opposite one of Pnomh Penh's main tourist attractions): apparently, a protest would have "looked bad in front of all the foreigners".

Going to Siem Reap tomorrow to see Angkor Wat, some impressive temples about 1000 years old, then after a few days I go to Sen Monorom to stay with Catrina in a less touristy area. Then on to the States on the 22nd.

Holi Cow!

I'm in Delhi now, waiting to fly to Cambodia tonight. Spent the last few days in Varanasi, which is one of the holiest places for Hindus, who go there to bathe and worship at the River Ganges (the 'mother goddess'). The main event was yesterday's Holi Festival, which is a celebration of the Hindu New Year, and of the triumph of good over evil. Bonfires are lit the night before, and the day is spent getting merry and throwing paint at each other. This being Varanasi, I was expecting some hardcore spiritual paint throwing - maybe something like 'le tomatina'.

Not quite what I got. The first sign that all was not as expected was when the locals rigged up some HUGE speakers across the road from the guest house, and proceeded to pump out indian techno until late at night and again the next morning - so loud that it sounded like a nightclub inside my room (memories of Buduburum, except even worse)! Although there was some traditional celebrating going on behind closed doors (which I'll describe later), and some kids out and about thrwing buckets of coloured water at people, the streets during the day mainly belonged to the lads.

They hung around in groups, and as well as being painted they were also plastered - this being Varanasi, where cannabis adds to the spiritualism, on both weed and alcohol. It was mostly good natured dancing, hanging around, hugging people (I narrowly avoided getting a full on kiss on the lips by a guy reeking of liquor) and smearing paint. But it regularly spilled over into people literally ripping each others clothes off (why??), and even getting into fights - although these were quickly broken up. Basically an excuse to get hammered and let loose. Women stayed strictly indoors - and unfortunately it doesn't take too much imagination to think what would happen if they were foolish enough to venture outside.

I went round with a member of the family running the guest house and some of his friends. We stopped at a few groups of guys for some hugging and paint smearing, but mostly went visiting friends and family, where at each house we sat around having nibbles and polite chatter, along with a smear of paint on each others' foreheads and a hug. Apparently this is what the families do in thew evening - obviously once the yobs have fallen into a drunken sleep. I'm glad I saw this side of it. Many travellers - and especially girls - came with a romanticised picture and then indoors out of fear once they'd heard what it was really like.

Varanasi itself before the festival was quite nice (except probably the most touristy place i've been yet, and scam central). These are the most memorable bits:

• Seeing cremations - they happen publicly all the time along the Ganges as it ensures better karma. The ashes then go into the river - along with the corpses of people not eligible for cremation, and lots of sewage - in which locals do laundry, bathe, and even drink for good health!
• Seeing an untouchable (the lowest caste), who deal with cremations, sifting ashes through a sieve into the water - looking for jewelry to keep. In front of a sign proclaiming "Fortunate are those who live beside the Ganges"
• Seeing some Naked Monks - apparently a privilege that they were in town, as they only emerge from their homes in the jungles & mountains every 6 or 12 years
• Having my 15 year old auto rickshaw driver bribe a police officer to let us down a closed road, then upon breaking down, taking apart the engine to stick his finger into holes and rev the engine
• Seeing a dog feeding on a human corpse
• Getting an outdoor shave, beside the river

Free!

Was released back into the real world today after my 10 days of silent confinement. The meditation course was a lot harder than expected, in fact possibly one of the toughest things I've ever done. The silence and other strict rules (the best of which is in the pic above) weren't that bad, although it made the breaks almost intolerable, with no reading, music or talking allowed - basically no form of entertainment at all! The point of it was basically to discover the Buddhist philosophy of letting go of cravings for pleasant things and aversions to unpleasant things (as craving and aversion are the cause of humanity's misery). It was quite uncomfortable for me with my feeble and inflexible back and legs to be sitting on the floor for the 10 or so hrs of meditation a day. Then, after a few days of honing our concentration of our bodily sensations, mainly by focussing on breathing, we were told that three times a day we had to meditate sitting in the same position for an hour without moving. Which is very painful. And in the meantime we had to focus on our bodily sensations.

Possibly worse than the pain was the diet (only breakfast, lunch, and a small evening snack) and the early mornings. Those of you who've seen me in the mornings will know that between waking up and breakfast I'm pretty useless at anything. So getting me up at 4am for two hours of meditation before breakfast was never gonna be a good idea. The session ended up an exercise in perfecting the art of sleeping sitting up - so that I looked like I was mediataing and wouldn't be woken!

The point of the course was basically to learn through mediation not to react to pleasure and pain, and that misery is caused by these reactions. I didn't buy into the details of the Buddhist philosophy (delivered over cassette buy a guy with a hypnotic voice), but the message was good and it was good to get some head space. And I can now bear the pain of sitting still for an hour without fliching. But I can't always bear the boredom!

In Varanasi now, by the sacred River Ganges where people bathe, worship and get cremated. Looking forward to the Holi festival this weekend, when the triumph of good over evil is celebrated by people running round the streets throwing paint at each other! Then off to Cambodia...