The doctor is in, but the freizes are out

Just back from Dr. Fish! What, not familiar? For $2 you lower your legs into a tank full of thousands of pirannha-esque minnows, who descend on your feet and eat away all the dead flesh. You even get a free beer while this goes on, I think to take the edge off the panic. I watched one fish work its way down the side of my foot like it was a corn of cob. The whole scene was prototypical Cambodia: the fish tank "spa" out on the street in front of a noisy Khmer bar, and in front of the fish spa, a band of limbless landmine victims playing those atonal single-string violins we often hear in the subway.

Speaking of which, I should quickly mention Cambodia's horrifically violent recent history. The aftermath is omnipresent: military and police linger uneasily everywhere here, and many people - from babies through adults - are blinded or missing limbs from landmine explosions, which continue to explode all over the country. It is estimated that over 3 million landmines remain uncleared from the farms, fields, and countryside - laid in the 1970's first by the US and then by the Khmer Rouge. I visited an incredible landmine museum run by Aki Ra, a former Khmer Rouge turned humanitarian, who is now the country's leading landmine defuser and also runs a boarding school for children maimed or blinded in recent years from explosions. Most say they picking up what they thought was a toy. The most heartbreaking part of reading all the kids' stories is that they all say how sad they feel when they think of their families - not because they miss them - but because, thanks to Aki Ra, they "eat so much better food and wear so much better clothes than their brothers and sisters and parents." Cripes.

Anyhow, I arrived at 5:30 AM at Angkor Wat (waved through by police) to see the legendary sunrise: the enormous temple and distinctive beehive towers are reflected in the moat as the first pink and red light emerges. Beautiful, yes. What stunning photos of this event don't show you is the 100s of tourists all positioned on the front gate, cameras snapping, and the touts running back and forth pushing coffee, eggs, postcards, water, bracelets, puppets, you name it. Always quick to flee my fellow tourists, I made a long hike to the backside of Angkor, and enjoyed the rest of the sunrise alone save the company of an enormous troop of monkeys, which was much more to my liking. Plus their funny monkey poses silhoutted with the beehive towers, as the blinding sun came up, made for better photos anyhow!

I then made it through 9 of the most famous ruins and temples before officially having my temple nervous breakdown, close to 11 AM. The moment came in Preah Kahn. I'm a fan of Vishnu as much as the next guy, but sometime around the 9th temple's 137th restored frieze depicting the puranas, and all Vishnu's arms started to make me dizzy. I began desperately searching for an exit (in the hot sun, clamboring over huge collapsed temple stones) when an Australian man nearby commentedto his wife "gosh, you could spend 2 days just in this temple alone, couldn't you?" Ahhh! No, I could not! Help me Mr. Kuhn!

Safely rushed to the nearest foot massage parlor, I recovered my strength and decided that for all Angkor Wat's majesty, and the dozens of amazing eight-foot faces carved at Angkor Thom, and the rose jewel of Bantay Srei, none of it holds a candle to Ta Prohm, my favorite temple from yesterday. All the restoration work on so many of these temples has a way of making things just slightly too sterile for me - I know others will disagree, but I prefer the crazy, raw, jungle-eaten lost temple of Ta Prohm. Post-massage I headed back to Ta Prohm to enjoy the enormous tree roots and mysterious tunnels and courtyards once more.

Later this afternoon, Mr. Kuhn took me to the Cambodian idea of a "crocodile farm," e.g. a big wooden box filled with two dozen unhappy crocodiles for tourists to look into and scream. We then headed out to Tonle Sap lake for sunset, which is a wild phenomenon - it's nearly the size of our own Great Lakes but is only a meter deep. Basically, it's an enormous bog. There are entire "floating villages" harvesting fish and fauna of people who live out there year round, and watching the sun set while they all began lighting their lanterns and fires on their small houseboats was beautiful. Apparently this was featured on the Amazing Race so perhaps some of you are already familiar.

The end of the day found me back on the FCC poolside lounger for happy hour, again. What can I say, this is my 2nd of 3 chances to hang at the FCC! And you can be sure I'll be there tomorrow too - except tomorrow at the Phnom Penh location. The six hour bus ride from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh begins at 7 AM tomorrow so I'm off with my freshly nibbled feet to bed.

Oh and last night's crocodile did die. The moral of the fable was something to the effect of "know your place" and "don't be ungrateful." Just the sort of message you hope to receive before bed from your hotel owner!