Cambodia is a magical place to visit. Before war ravaged this country starting in the 1970’s, it was the premier tourist attraction in South East Asia. Judging by the amount of tourists we saw at the temples of Angkor Wat, it looks like Cambodia is once again heading in that direction. We last visited Cambodia in 1998 and were very curious what changes had taken place during the last few years. At the time of our last visit, Pol Pot had recently died and the Khmer Rouge still controlled the north of the country. Tourists were only allowed to travel to three cities and authorities recommended tourists not venture too far from their hotels at night. We crossed the Thai-Cambodian border which had been open for less than two weeks and observed nervous border guards more interested in watching over a shed full of hand held rocket launchers than the trickle of tourists coming into their country. Well, this scene has changed greatly. Now, a large bureaucracy ushers in hundreds of tourists per day and the shed of weapons has been replaced by large casinos designed to draw the gambling loving Thais. The entire country is safe and tourists are free to visit all. The influx of tourists has brought significant changes to some parts of Cambodia. Hospitals, clinics, and pharmacies are now found in the tourist town of Siem Reap not far from the Angkor Wat ruins. Roads and bridges destroyed during the war are being repaired. The "Beware of Landmines" sign (and hopefully the landmines themselves!) have been removed from around the temples. As the tourists dollar begins to trickle into outlying areas, we can only hope that others will also reap the benefits from the hordes of visitor entering their country.

And the hordes are coming, primarily to explore the magnificent Khmer temples. Around the town of Siem Reap dozens of beautifully adorned temples emerge from the dense jungle with the most famous of these being Angkor Wat, the largest religious structure in the world. The complex is awe inspiring, especially viewing the main temple from afar with its 5 spires soaring to the heavens. Up close is equally as breathtaking: the temple is highly decorated with carved reliefs of numerous Hindu epics. Originally built as a Hindu temple, Buddhism subsequently took hold of Cambodia resulting in all statues of Vishnu being replaced by those of Buddha. It is still an active place of worship and as we explored, we periodically ran into small shrines holding ancient statues of Buddha wrapped with saffron colored saris. At their feet were with offerings of flowers and burning incense. Many of these statues were badly damaged during the reign of the Khmer Rouge. Adding to the ambience of this place, even those statues without heads were wrapped in the bright saffron cloth – very beautiful.

Angkor Wat is not the only magnificent ancient complex rising out of the jungle, there are dozens out there. The December weather was cool and we bicycled for hours from one temple to another. Reaching the gate to the palace complex of Angkor Thom, we had to stop and admire the view. There, a large stone bridge crosses the moat and leads to a monumental gate crowned by 4 huge heads of a Hindu god, one set at each cardinal point. ting both sides of the entrance are faces of a 3-headed elephant in stone. Lining the bridge are 54 statues of gods and 54 of demons, each side pulling on the body of a large serpent whose heads rise up like Cobras to be the first to greet anyone approaching the ancient palace. The sheer size of this monumental gateway adds to its beauty. Each god/demon statue lining the bridge stands over 10 feet tall and a tour bus can drive through the entrance! No wonder why the temples here remain a highlight. As roads continue to be cut through the dense jung le to long isolated temples, I am positive we will return to Cambodia in the near future to explore more of this amazing country.

From glorious Cambodia, we traveled to Bangladesh. With 130 million people, it is the most densely populated country on earth. Bangladeshis are not accustomed to seeing many foreign tourists. Walking down the streets of any major town, we’d be surrounded by throngs of people – all staring in disbelief. Thirty or forty at a time was not uncommon… we really could have been from another planet. We were pleasantly surprised with our visit to Bangladesh. Although the cities are extremely crowded and outrageously polluted, the vast countryside is tranquil and appealing. I will always have fond memories of boys playing cricket surrounded by fields of blooming mustard greens and newly planted rice. A cricket pitch in the center of a blaze of yellow flowers is a beautiful sight.

While we expected to witness abject poverty everywhere, we instead found Bangladeshi farmers working in productive fields. By our standards, these people are extremely poor, however most do work the land and are able to feed themselves. But there are those unfortunate souls that do live and die in the streets. Entire families live on the sidewalks, begging. One of the few possessions many have is an empty burlap sac to protect them from the cold winter’s nights. Unfortunately, this has been one of the coldest winters in Bangladesh and Northern India in over 100 years. Temperatures dropping near freezing at night have caused countless deaths.

In our experience, there is much more abject poverty in India, presumably due to beggars being more visible as the frequent the tourist enclaves. In Calcutta, for instance, an entire community has grown around Mother Theresa’s famed Hospital for the Destitute and Dying to beg from the tourists that visit there daily. Even though it is heartbreaking to see half clothed infants crawling around the street on a cold winter’s day, a visit to the hospital in truly inspirations. It is not until you experience the enormity of the poverty that you can truly understand the impact this organization has made on the community. Here, the poorest of the poor are nursed back to health or at least given a clean place to die. Staffed by a few nuns and a multitude of volunteers (many work only a half-day, others stay for years), this bare bones hospital has helped tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of people. Short-term volunteers engage in feeding, bathing, and washing the clothes of the s ick while long term volunteers travel to the city slums to look for those in need. I can only imagine what they experience when they travel to those areas. Although at first it was hard for me to stomach the surroundings, I found the attitude of all those who worked there to be inspirational. The poor are treated with kindness – the atmosphere is positive. The few long-term volunteers we met all said that it was a privilege to work with the poor. The charity also has a hospital for lepers, the mentally ill, and children’s orphanage. Mother Theresa has given a great gift to the poor of Calcutta.

Currently, we are on our way to South India, to the state of Tamil Nadu, famous for a plethora of ancient monuments. We plan to spend the next 2 months in India before heading up north to the Nepal and the Himalayas.

Best to all,

Love, Lisa and Jeff