Well, I am in Japan now. Work starts in earnest tomorrow for 4 days.
So, a little more about Cambodia (where Angor Wat is). I think it is technically still communist, but you wouldn't know it at all. Siem Reap is a boom town. Tourisum has caused a land boom, with new hotels sprouting like crazy. I guess the Japanese and Koreans come through only for a day (a day or two in Bangkok, a day in Angor, and then a couple of days in Vietnam). But there are a lot of them.
May starts the low season due to rains that run from May through October. And yes, it did rain on me - but I have waited for this forever so I slogged through.
So I feel a little wierd there, I mean we did bomb the hell out of them, and then let Pol Pot take over.
So my guide, So-Kot, and I are talking in between temples, and he explains that Pol Pot killed about 2 Million people. there are about 15 Million now in Cambodia, so he killed a little north of 10% of everone. He wanted to killed the upper classes - doctors, lawyers and the like. But people started lying, so he killed people who wore glasses. You only needed glasses for school. And educated people were rich.
So So-Kot asks me if the US had a Pol Pot type when I was growing up. I said no. But think, how fucking crazy is it that you grow up knowing you could be killed at any time. For no real reason. Just because the head of the country is crazy. George Bush doesn't sound so bad now.
So-Kot also asked me if there were a lot of landmines in California. You can't walk off the paths in Cambodia because of the land mines. And at some temples music was played by childern who lost limbs.
Cambodia, with some of the nicest most open people you would ever want to meet, was a study in contradictions. Communist, but full of private enterprise and a land boom in Siem Reap. A people who were tortured, killed and subject to terrible things - still some of the most optomistic and happy people ever. A new country with 1000 year old temples.
It was magical. It affected me in ways I won't understand for months or years. All of them, great. Cambodia made me value what I have .. and maybe take it a little less for granted.
And I brought presents. (Before Ed yells at me, it wasn't my fault. They took me to a school for natural arts where they teach crafts to orphans and people hurt by landmines. I mean Hard Hearted Hanna would have a difficult time not buying the place out.)
Okay, that is all for now. I don't want to appear like I have a heart.