04.02 "Inside The Termite Mound"(Killing Joke)

Asia

Thailand->Cambodia

Bangkok->Siem Reap

MDK->SEP

After a sleep-deprived short night, an early wake-up is a blessing! (sarcastic emoticon here). After a walk thru layers of increasing temperature + humidity,  we arrive to the BTS (elevated train); as soon as we finish the tiresome process of climbing the stairs in this suffocating weather, a train arrived. The message on the speakers was saying we were in the wrong direction, but I followed the sign I saw as I entered… and we were in the wrong direction. We rode one stop, then rode back in the right direction! Before transferring to AirLink (train-subway) we checked twice we were on the right direction… and we were right! Great success!

After almost an hour we arrived to BKK; we stopped at a screen and started looking for our flight…and not finding it; puzzled, we looked again at our booking… and we realized the most dreaded fear of a traveler had happened:

We were in the wrong airport!

Immediately we jumped into a taxi. The drive takes an hour, but we should make it on time… will we?

But before answering, an entertaining thing we saw on our own taxi:

(No dogs, no weapons, no farts, no food, no drinks, no (smelly) durian fruit, no smoking)… what a repressed man!!! I had to break one of the rules, just for fun ;)

…back to the question: did we make it in time?

…

Something more important than that answer was an advertisement we saw on the side of the road:

(I checked the website of these guys… intolerant fascists! And they think themselves righteous Buddhists…)

Where were we?… Ah, if we made it or not! OK, OK; the answer is…

…

(We made it ;)

Once at the airport… more happiness!

In the line to check bags, a monk just walked to the counter bypassing the long line… I definitely DO NOT like monks here!

I regret I didn't have a "monk chat" at Wat Chedin because maybe that way I'd have a different interpretation of their behavior. What I see is arrogance. I didn't even find any reference to humility in the phrases I saw hanging around the temples. To that observation I add the emphasis on donations (even if the temples are subsidized by the government) the disdain to women (expressed in details like the dress code and more limited access to temples than men), and the emphasis on the own enlightenment instead of trying to help others to achieve it (as in Mahayana Buddhism)… Theravada Buddhism does not present me a pathway I'd like to follow.

DMK->SEP

We arrive to the Hostel in Siem Reap (Siem Reap Rooms). Very nice! But the heat is high outside, so we have a delicious meal…

… we walk back and enjoy the view…

… and then, like termites, we decide to hide until nightfall…

… but kindred events are usually clustered in threes… I should've considered that because we had only 2 mishaps today…

…without setting an alarm, we fell asleep… Hunger woke me up after 6 hours, at 10pm!

"Well" I wondered, "I guess nothing else will be done today but for one detail… the Monster has to be fed"!

Basia decided sleep is more important than food, so she stayed in… and I headed downtown

Pub Street, where night life happens in Siem Reap… (but dinner was not that good this time)

 

Then I slept like a baby, dreaming of temples…