11/2013 - Liebe zur Erde... - Liebe zur Erde

Cambodia:
Angkor Watt , Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville

                 Image : the Angkor Watt region with the flooded areas and the lake from the plane

Cambodia - the Wild West of the East, a lawless land , this is how it is described by the Lonely Planet . And I have seldom read so extensive, pertinent analyzes and descriptions of a country in a Lonely Planet edition ( German edition 2010) - only to be recommended and a pleasure .

What do we know more about that country than that in the civil war the Khmer Rouge have ravaged? Millions of people have lost their lives at that time in this small country. To everyone who aroused the suspicions that he could think was slaughtered. Somehow the Communist hordes of various countries have proved (from Russia and China  up to here ) their desire to clean up with the intellectual elite of their country.
Also known are probably the many landmines that are still lying around everywhere in the country and still get their victims among playing children and normal farmers. Poverty, many amputees and the catastrophic living conditions have caused the world to come in for help ! - ....
But we are in Asia, and so this attempt contributes its  own special fruits between this bold and humorous people.  Alone in Siem Reap - the place close to Angkor Watt with the streams of tourists from all over the world - are said to be 850 NGOs. Just for comparison: Siem Reap has 60 000 inhabitants. Even if one counts a little more surrounding up in the number .... - seems to be a lot, no? Evil tongues say that the first money that gets to an NGO, is used to buy a great car for the boss / manager / CEO. The first and most regular paid salary gets the driver. And since so many people suddenly have a livelihood , the NGO must indeed continue to exist, even if the target group is gone and there is/would be nothing more to do. The orphanages for example: the war is almost 20 years ago - and still: these facilities flourish. The answer: hardly a child has lost his parents, but these are just poor and so they send their children there, so they can go to school and at least get a meal.

The success of NGOs is seen in the fact that most children which were former begging, today sell postcards to tourists: the grounds are full of them. Child prostitution is also a huge issue as the German journal SPIEGEL reported recently. Were the first new discoverers of Cambodia as a tourist destination a few years ago dauntless backpackers:  its wake next came the pedophiles. Regularly corresponding incidents are known. (see also below to Sihanoukville ). So this as the first impression of a tropical country whose infrastructure is virtually non-existent by our standards, whose inhabitants are mostly very poor, but very friendly and cheerful enjoy the peace. What could that be nice here !

Angkor Watt:

Meanwhile, we explored the world famous temples around Angkor Watt in Cambodia (but not with the elephants - which are meant for luxury tourists, which § 20 per head for a trip of 15 min) - and marveled our eyes out. Over 4 days, we went and climbed chronologically and tried to understand the development impulses that led to these huge buildings. This really is going to have its own page. Now, however that I have seen, that after a certain size of the structure, the whole temple is no longer reasonable to photograph from the " human perspective ", the page layout will probably take a while. But here are some impressions of the sites growing in their size, their ideas and their nature - as they emerged in the jungle and which makes them so unique :

One of the many gates in Angkor

The royal pool...

Photographed from one of the lower galleries - Angkor Watt





The so-called Temple of the Trees- so totally overgrown by the rainforest that the roots of the
trees became part of the buildinsg stability.

A temple for a spiritual Cleaning: the central basin and around 4 more
in the 4 directions

In the end, this brings this Australian that I have met in Angkor Watt in the upper gallery, right in the sight of the Blessed Sacrament, to the point in this (photo) attitude: a beggar for spirit ( again the comment was my contribution to the event )! Greetings to the unknown stranger!

Phnom Penh

A long bus ride across Cambodia's second best - and almost continuously paved - road brings me to Phnom Penh, where I fall again into the foothills of a festival. But mainly, I am pleased with the re-encounter with the Mekong, whom I embrace like an old friend happy in my arms. Here I meet and understand a vast and impressive natural phenomenon :

The Mekong River forms with the Great Lake / Tonle Sap River and the annual flooding areas a kind of water system in which everything works together through flows: one can not tell whether the water from the Mekong River, the Tonle Sap or rain bursts from heaven is (rainy season). Either way, everything is flooded with water and the lake stretches its wake from 2 700 km2 to now 16 000 km2 (!) .

On Wikipedia there is an amazing explanation for the phenomenon: The Tonle Sap changes twice a year in its current direction: because the Mekong swells through the rainy season, and from the waters pouring down from the Himalayas, it swells so massive that the Tonle Sap at the mouth where it enters the Mekong river its riverbed is pushed back. So the Mekong is contributing to the flooding and the rising of the lake. In November , the water level of the Mekong falls so far that the Tonle Sap returns to his original streaming direction . This date is celebrated with the annual water festival in Phnom Penh.

Last but not least :

Sihanoukville - the PPP city :
Party, pedophiles price rigging

and despite the nice image here my advice from November 2013: Not worth it - better go to Thailand !

But first things first :

I end up first in Serendipty Beach in a hotel right on the beach - with a fantastic view and all the facilities you need for a few days work . The long sandy beach is full of locals celebrating their 3-day water festival here, but it's really very quiet during the day and relaxed: I feel good. The infamous beggar - thieves and sellers flock are now to share with more people, so they remain a marginal phenomenon only. But then: In the evening it starts already and increases during the night: the disco operating at the beach shacks. Not until midnight, noooo - it is not so civilized here in spite of the many hotels: at midnight it gets real started, there is again and Happy Hour and at 4.00 in the morning the volume of the beats is turned up again really efficient until the sun appears. Despite a distance between me and the transgressors I am absolutely whacked in the morning. And as I check and ask around among the hotels around it quickly makes clear: this is ALWAYS like this - whether normal day or holiday.

The next morning I spend on the PC with google and then in the tuk tuk to run around the beaches. What I wanted: a nicely bright room with sea view, no further away than 400m from the beach , reasonably quiet, with Wifi and affordable (meaning the Sokha Resort eliminated). What I find - in addition to hotels of different classes which suffer from the noise - can be grouped into 3 categories:

1. high-priced **** houses such as the Independent Hotel and Casino Queenco that are so fucked away from everything that they squander their rooms on the Internet (and only there). The Sea-View of " Queenco casino and hotel " there emerges mainly as a view of the casino parking lot. The Independent Hotel looks absolutely extinct, although it is an old but beautiful area. In both cases, the question of where you get something to eat if you do not want to use the hotel 's own restaurant is open. The cost of great rooms - some within the Independent have 60m2 - in the next few days is just around the $ 35 - unfortunately without the desired view of the sea. Seaview you can get with the really expensive rooms in the Independent.

2. Robinson Crusoe Cottage for almost the same price (!) : This is just understandable if you look at the average tourist which comes here: mostly male, 25-40, tuff,  travel experienced tattooed guys who want to have fun. This naturally also contents the experience "bamboo hut on island without electricity" as a have to do. Also in Sihanoukville itself, there are a few of these shaks. And you can not imagine it: these are mostly huts or "bungalows", as they also build by the poor locals: partially open, without glass windows , full of gaps and cracks for the mosquitoes (malaria area with the dangerous malaria Tropika). On the mainland with electricity and partial AC - but in such a filthy condition, as I have never seen in my life (Queen Hill Resort, with a fantastic location) . Oh yes - and our strong boys pay for these fun easily 20-30 dollars (!) - by night!

3. Really quiet bungalow sites on Otres beach. At least I have none found on the internet which also has sea view. The bigger problem, however: here the hoteliers let you pay for the quiet location - and we 're talking about completely overpriced rooms and bungalows in the area beyond the 60 - 100 dollars. The same equipment in town would not even cost half .

The only joy was the small plce of the German Andreas and his wife (Guesthouse Sunset Lounge): they have sparkling clean small rooms with equipment, where you know for what you pay for money - $ 17 a night in a quiet stretch of beach. Unfortunately, the rooms are a bit dark , are transverse to the beach and are too warm during the day, as that it might work to work on PC , as AC is only installed in one. So it remains only a nice meeting.

Well - these are the joys of traveling.

As regrettable as that may sound for this extremely friendly and moslyt honest people here, but if you don´t  want to risk a failure (see eg reviews and travel reports from the tripadvisor), go somewhere else.



Another special tourist group I previously knew only by hearsay - here I experience it almost close : Men, usually traveling alone or in very small groups of male friends. Most clearly beyond the 50, but you can see also some from the 40th. I saw men nearly in their sixties which are escorted by escort young, barely 20 year old stylish girls. And it is a spectacle to watch the arrivals, when their journey coming here ends outside my hotel: so much enthusiasm in the eyes you can see in them - some of them seem to be surely. They look around with true enthusiasm and look clearly forward to the days ahead. Oh dear - here I am apparently landed in a place for sex tourists . Of course one can not refer to any of those men as pedophiles, that is clear. However, not only many of the west -run hotels, but also the streets a plastered with large posters of Child Care, an organization which tries to make aware to sexual child abuse. Which points to a regular happening problem.

Oh yes - there are no photos here: because you risk the theft of anything that is not encased in concrete and also the dangerous form of from the motorcycle thievery is practiced , so the camera stayed at home .

I'll stay a few days and work here. And I hope to get the page to the river travels in Laos ready sooner or later....

Laos - Country on the Mekong

That I would once bathe with an elephant in the Mekong , I had never even dreamed of - but yes, here we go: it is part of the adventure travel ...

Meanwhile, I 'm almost 3 weeks in this very remote Laos, I have experienced a lot and came pretty much around, tha´s why the website couldn´t say anything new. However, to whom who the updates take too long, you can accompany me on Facebook:  I try to post, there regularly short contributions from the mobile phone. But now to the adventures here:

Laos - is a fascinating country dying?
So you could describe the irritation when you travel here with open eyes. From the magnificent temples to the culture and the excesses of the modern gold rushs which are visible here, is among other things the introductory page:
http://www.liebe-zur-erde.eu/laos.html

Luang Prabang - City of 1000 temples! Absolutely inspiring is the festival of lights of the boats , Lhai Heua FAI , which I can experience here. There is a separate page on the website about that event:
http://www.liebe-zur-erde.eu/das-lichtbootfest.html

The temples not only in Luang Prabang are aesthetic and artistic treasures, as I have not yet seen it . And they make me marvel at this people, which seem so be so completely down to earth in daily life - and yet can produce such beauty! What is missing here up to now, are meditating Westerners. However, what also lacks is the ability to establish contact and substantive conversation to the monks: These worlds seem strictly separated. Below is the link then as soon as the page is ready:
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Poachers , dealers and child mortality: Originally lives of people along the rivers :
After my arrival in Luang Prabang, I have left again to explore the north by boat: from the 11 days I was 6 days in boats - some where tourist boats with roof and proper seats, some were native longboats with no roof and I was between the locals squeezed in. The regions are sometimes really very remote, many do not have road access. For this amazing round trip , there will be a separate page on the website :
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Handicraft, People, Villages:
Rarely I found it so hard to get in contact with the indigenous people: the Laotians are indeed absolutely friendly but very shy and they live quite introverted or reclusive. Only the help of a local guide helped to melt the ice: in result I got out some of the most beautiful shots of people I have ever made. And surprising insights into village life, where children can not go to school , life expectancy reached only 56 years old and only 30 % of women over 15 can read and write.
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The Nam Tha National Park - jungle without animals?
A few days I was traveling around the Nam Tha National Park . One of them in alleged primary rainforest / monsoon forest. Ok -  but now: where are the animals? No birds , nothing else living - only leeches .... Relatively quickly it becomes clear that poaching is still practiced here - China and its greed for all particular is near. And what there is more: Laos was once forested over and over, and that's not so long ago. Today is like a chessboard with huge parts just made tabula raza: the tropical wood is sold and rubber tree plantations take its place .
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Who wants to experience this country as it once was, should really come soon. Still traveling is tedious, but nature shows unspoiled places that make it an experience to explore it! The way the locals see the adventures involved in traveling this sign shows, which is hanging over the ticket counter in Oudomxai :

The bus company wishes good luck to all travelers: