Vietnamese, tối ngày sáng đêm

Monday morning was supposed to  be my second to last class with the 2nd years. A few minutes before class was going to start, I got a text message from the students, asking if we could meet in the canteen instead of in the classroom. I wondered if this was because it would in fact be the last class, but they said no, next week would be the last class. About five minutes after I joined them at the canteen, the student who acts as a class representative got a text from the teacher, stating that it would be the last class. So much for that. I texted the teacher to confirm that I would not be teaching next Monday, and it took about five texts for him to definitively tell me the same thing he had just told the student. So, all of a sudden, it was my last class after all. I usually try to plan something special for the last class. Usually a lot of review games and probably some course evaluations. I was disappointed that I didn't have a chance to make the last class special, but I was glad that at least our time at the canteen (about the first half of class) felt like a celebratory change of pace.

Goodbye K8 students!

While at the canteen, the students asked me a lot of questions about my trip to Cambodia. Among other things, I told them that many Cambodians thought I was Cambodian. My students all laughed. One of them asked me why they thought so. I said I didn't know, and one student slyly replied, "I do." I was about to tell them that many people mentioned my skin, and pointed at my arm, but before I could say anything another student exclaimed, "because you're black!" Everyone laughed. And yes, I guess by Vietnamese skin tone ranges, I am pretty black.

This reminded me of something I forgot to mention about my time in Cambodia. By now you know that in Vietnam, women aspire to be fair-skinned, and take more pains than a vampire to keep the sun off of their skin. However, on my last day in Cambodia, I encountered a refreshingly different perspective. I was leaving the last temple and a saleswoman who had approached me when I went in saw me and tried to convince me to buy something from her. During the course of our banter, she asked me where I was from. She expressed surprise at the fact that even though I was American (and therefore expected to have light skin) our skin was the same color. And then, completely unexpectedly, she said, "our skin is more beautiful." Even though many Vietnamese people have understood and accepted that many people in the US actually prefer to be tan, it was a really treasured moment to hear that self-affirming assertion coming from the mouth of a Southeast Asian woman.

Anyway, at the end of class, I made a short impromptu speech about how much I had enjoyed teaching my students, and wished them the best in their future endeavors. I reminded them that even though I wouldn't be teaching them anymore, I'm still here, and encouraged them to come see me or have meals with me. And that was that. It was over and I'm down to Friday classes with first years and English clubs with whomever bothers to show up.

Last night I had a really good Vietnamese moment. A common recourse for a language student lacking confidence is to talk quietly. If you talk quietly enough, no one will hear you make a mistake. But if you're talking that quietly, no one will hear you say it right either, and when you're asked to repeat yourself you'll end up feeling less confident whether or not you actually said it right. My students do this in class and it drives me crazy, but the truth is I do it to with Vietnamese. I recently decided that I must have at least one Vietnamese beverage every day for the rest of the month (coconut juice, sugarcane juice, smoothie, ...). Last night I went looking for a coconut, but the woman I usually buy them from didn't have any at the front of her store. I saw her sitting in the back in a hammock and I didn't want her to have to come out to help me if she didn't have any and I wasn't going to buy anything, so I shouted to her to ask whether she had any coconuts. Without hesitation or an expression of confusion, she replied that she was out. It was a really simple question to ask, something I could have asked after my first few Vietnamese lessons back in Hanoi, but the fact that I asked it -- and shouted it (it's hard for me to keep tones when I have to shout) -- and was instantly understood was a great feeling. Since she didn't have any, I decided to get sugarcane juice, and my exchange with that vendor was similarly assertive and successful.

I sort of had a Vietnamese lesson with Trang today. I turned in one test, took another, and got one to do tonight. The tests are actually really helpful for both of us to see what I know and find gaps in my knowledge that Trang can subsequently fill. I can also sometimes see that I'm better at this than I thought. Reading comprehension is definitely my strength, but I think that's more because I'm a good test-taker than because I'm really good at it. Still, it was exciting today when I understood all but a few words of a whole paragraph that I had to read. It felt minor, basic, but then I reminded myself that that I wouldn't have been able to make heads or tails of that paragraph a few months ago. Whether or not I've achieved as much as I once hoped doesn't mean I haven't achieved anything. I learned that a sister-in-law is an em dâu. The second word is the same word as the word for strawberry, but a sister-in-law is not considered a strawberry sister; it's just a coincidence. I also learned a new favorite Vietnamese phrase: tối ngày sáng đêm. Literally it means something like, 'dark, day, bright, night,' and it's used similarly to how we would say 24/7. In other words, it means always. 

In the evening I had the teacher's English club. Before going I went out to get some dinner, and I think one of my students had that 'realizing your teacher has a real life' moment. She was behind me in line and when I turned around and said hi to her she looked and sounded just utterly flabbergasted to see me. I wasn't sure whether there would be English club or not (actually, I was pretty sure there would be but I was hoping that for some reason it had been canceled but no one had told me) so I texted Mr. Luan to ask. He is the person with whom I have the biggest language barrier, but today I realized that I was perfectly capable of asking him about it in Vietnamese, and decided to make his life easier instead of my own. I texted him in Vietnamese, and we had a whole series of exchanges about the club and whether or not I had had dinner. It was nice for me, and I bet it was way more comfortable for him to be able to talk to me in his native language.

My wish sort of came true, and only four people showed up for English club, and two of those four are required to be there. So, everyone decided to go out for smoothies and fruit salads instead. This fit in perfectly with my vow to make the most of Vietnamese beverages, and I got a jackfruit smoothie. While we were there, Mr. Luan kept showing everyone the text messages I had sent him, and people were quite impressed. I was glad that I had actually composed the message with my own ability rather than with the help of Google translate, so I could feel proud rather than guilty. I feel like I've turned over a new leaf with Vietnamese, and all I can say is better late than never.

From PP to HCMC

Saturday
Yet another early start, catching an early bus to Phnom Penh. The most notable things about the trip were the lychee-flavored fanta I had at a rest stop, and the giant basket of chili-seasoned crickets I saw right outside. I had seen a brown, crunchy looking heap and assumed that they were crabs or something and when, all of a sudden it came into focus as a mass of crickets, I had to suppress a shudder of revulsion. I'm not saying I wouldn't try them if given the opportunity, but it was a visceral response.

I made it to Charlotte and Wiley's place around 4pm. I wasn't going to pass up the opportunity to visit a high school friend who somehow ended up on the same opposite side of the world as me. They were getting ready to host a Tex-Mex party for their expat friends that night. That meant that I got to have tortillas for the first time all year. Wiley made sprite-marinated chicken fajitas that were incredibly moist and flavorful despite the odd-sounding recipe. I met about 20 of their friends, all doing interesting expat things like working for AIDS prevention initiatives, microlending, and transcribing human rights tribunal proceedings. And teaching English, of course.

Sunday
I took the morning for myself. Though tuk tuks are the main mode of tourist transportation (used by locals too, but surely at better rates), the fact that I've been in Vietnam and was traveling alone made me inclined to take a motorbike instead. I found a driver less than a block away from Charlotte and Wiley's apartment. Even though Cambodians use the US dollar, I found myself having to convert dollars to VND to evaluate prices. The driver and I haggled and agreed on a price and we sped off towards the Choeung Ek Killing Fields. I don't know much about Cambodian history, and this was a chance to learn some history in context.

Odd though it may seem, the Killing Fields were lovely. It was a sunny day; butterflies fluttered among orchards; birds flit about and sang happily. I took a map and an audio tour and followed the signs. Once I got under the veneer of the green grass, it was gut wrenching. 450 bodies are buried here. This tree used to have speakers hanging from it, and they would blast revolutionary music to cover up the sound of victims' screams. Babies were smashed against this tree and then thrown into this adjacent mass grave. It was hard to hear. Every few steps, I'd come upon scraps of clothing that continue to emerge from the earth. That was probably the most powerful element of the Fields. You could take off the headphones, take the signs away, but those scraps would just keep on coming. The last stop is a memorial stupa at the center of the grounds that contains skulls found on site.

The memorial stupa

Inside the stupa

In the afternoon I joined Wiley and Charlotte for a jam session with a band they have recently formed, and then we went out to dinner and then to a bar to listen to a live band. The whole weekend felt rather surreal. I was in a foreign country, but other than my trip to the Killing Fields I spent the whole time doing very western things with western people. At times, hanging out with the expats was so interesting or comfortable that it made me wish I could have met a similar community in my own location. At other times, it just felt strange, neither here nor there.

Monday
I spent my two nights in Phnom Penh in a hammock with a built-in mosquito net on the terrace attached to Wiley's apartment, and consequently I woke up at sunrise on both days. Sunday night I made sure to zip my camera in with me when I went to sleep, and so I was able to get some nice shots. I took a quick walk to the nearby Russian Market and then came back to say goodbye. Sadly, the weekend passed without us remembering to take any pictures together. Then it was time for another six-hour bus ride, this time to HCMC. I met Violet there, and we spent the rest of the day vegging out, catching up, and satiating our western food cravings.

Taken from bed

Tuesday
Another day spent doing not much, except that it was not much with company. Kelly joined me and Violet in the early afternoon, and we did some shopping, though none of us bought anything. In the afternoon we met Violet's friend Jesse, who lives in HCMC. We were supposed to go watch The Avengers, and it would have been my first time going to a movie theater since coming to Vietnam, but it was not to be. It was sold out. Instead, we ate at the food court, which was just as foreign and forgotten an experience as being in a movie theater would have been. Granted, there were way more Asian options and way fewer western options, but the atmosphere was the same. I positioned myself in a comfortable culinary center point, and ordered chicken tenders from one place and fried potstickers from another.

Jesse then led us to Big Man Beer, a place I wish I had discovered eight months ago. They sell dark beer and serve cheese-stuffed beef that was a properly rare teaser that has me salivating for my welcome home steak. We were joined by several of Jesse's friends, played cards, and enjoyed dark beer from liter mugs. It was a good night.

Happy Fulbrighters

Campuchia!

Tuesday
Like all Solis road trips, this one started well before dawn. I woke up around 230 to be ready for the 330am bus to HCMC that might show up as early as 3am. While I got ready, a pair of provespa scoped out my room. Does this happen every night or is it a recent development? I always feel a little apprehensive about the natural world overtaking my room when I'm gone for the weekend, and I wondered whether I would come back after a week and find out that I'd become a hive queen. It turned out that Trang had to go to the city as well, so we sat together on the bus. I may have been lacking my full faculties, but we were not lacking conversation topics, and we chatted the whole way.

I made it into the city at 5am. Then I just had to find a place to wait until all of the bus companies opened and I could get a ticket to Siem Reap. I watched the sky lighten and the park swarmed with early morning exercisers. Around 545, things started opening, and I started looking for my ticket out of Vietnam. I stopped at one company, and waited twenty minutes to ultimately be told that they only went to Phnom Penh, and not all the way to Siem Reap. I kept on looking. I walked in and out of a bunch of bus offices. A xe om driver overheard me asking about buses to Cambodia and followed me around shouting 'Campuchia!' and telling me he could take me somewhere that would take me there. I was going to give up and take the 630am bus to Phnom Penh and try to figure things out from there, when I ducked into one last tour company. Success! A bus to Siem Reap would be leaving at 730. I bought my ticket, bought some snacks, and waited to get on the road.

A thirteen hour bus ride might sound overwhelmingly long, but it went by quickly. We stopped at the border crossing and stopped twice for meals, so it was punctuated with enough breaks that it didn't get monotonous. For the most part, the Cambodian countryside looked just like the Vietnamese countryside, except that the fields featured a lot of Cambodian palms, and the people were generally darker. I finally made it into Siem Reap at around 8 and took a tuk tuk to my hotel. My tuk tuk driver, Vi, was an English student and managed to convince me to hire him as my driver for the rest of my stay.

Wednesday
The next morning, Vi met me at my hotel and I presented him with the must-see list I had made for myself. Using that as a guideline, he mentally composed my three day itinerary on the spot, and I put my touring in his hands. Our first stop for the morning was Angkor Thom, an ancient capital of the Khmer empire, within whose walls there are several temples. The first one I saw was Bayon, famous for being covered in faces. It was one of my favorites. Early on, I was joined by Gary, another solo traveler, who proclaimed himself my photographer. I had been gearing up to be alone all day, so his company felt like a bit of an intrusion, but not so much so that it was worth the effort to try and get rid of him.

If you look closely, you'll see that this pile of rocks is looking at you

One of the faces up close

Courtesy of Gary

We made our way to the next series of temples inside Angkor Thom. Gary was wearing a tank top so he wasn't allowed in. He then made the poor decision to give me his camera so that I could take pictures for him while he sat and waited. I proceeded to spend the next hour and half at the temples. I met a Frenchman, who gaped at me and tried to replace Gary, and an Italian couple. It was nice to be speaking Italian to someone other than myself, for a change, and I gave them advice for their upcoming trip to Vietnam. 

Baphoun

The top level of Baphoun

The top of Phimenakas

Inside Preah Palilay

By the time I made it back to where Gary sat waiting, Gary wasn't sitting there waiting anymore. Did he think I had stolen his camera? Did he just give up and go on without his camera? How was I going to find him and give him his camera back? I didn't want to sit there waiting for him for the rest of the day. I decided to retrace the path and see if he had somehow been allowed in. I hadn't gone too far when I heard shouting. It was Gary, from inside Baphoun. We reconvened and it turned out that he didn't think me a thief. Rather, he thought I might have fainted. I got guilted into quickly re-doing the whole circuit and then Vi, my tuk tuk driver, helped me make a quick getaway.

We went to a few more temples, most notably Ta Prohm, which is famous for the trees that are devouring it and for the fact that it was featured in the Tomb Raider movie.

Victory Gate of the Angkor Thom complex

Ta Prohm

Ta Prohm

The most amazing tree in Ta Prohm, took my breath away

After that, it was lunchtime. I tried Cambodia's famous amok, a coconut and curry soup, and my first of several different Cambodian beers. I took my time enjoying the meal and the shade before going back to the temples. I only saw a few more before heading back to my hotel to rest.

Local beer named for the first temple I saw

Fish Amok

In the evening I took a walk to the market and was lured in by a restaurant with a buy one get one free happy hour and extensive beer selection. I had an ABC Stout, which I had tried in Laos, and delighted in the superior taste of a dark beer. I followed up with a Thai Pilsener, Chang. I walked for a while more until Vi picked me up to take me to a dinner dance show featuring Apsara (traditional) dances.

Thursday
I was supposed to be on vacation, yet here I was waking up before dawn yet again. But with good reason. I was going to watch the sunrise at Angkor Wat.

Good morning, Angkor Wat

Watching the sunrise watchers

While we were watching the sky lighten, a rogue piglet appeared out of nowhere and began pillaging a couple's to-go box. Even with the silhouetted architectural marvel and the reflecting pool, it wasn't the most picturesque sunrise I've ever seen. The best part of the experience was being there early enough to beat the rush of tourists, because even though there were a fair few there for the sunrise, the wat was big enough to make them feel like a sprinkling of ants, and they were nothing compared to what would come later. I took advantage of being alone, and took my time. I found places to just sit and look, or sit and watch. It wasn't my favorite wat of the trip, but it's sheer size made an impact. Every time I thought I was almost done I would find a whole wing or floor or courtyard that remained to be seen.

From the outermost point of the wat

About halfway in

Near the innermost ring

Following monks to the very top

Reliefs I almost missed because I skipped the first floor at the beginning

Apsaras covered the walls

I ended up spending almost four hours at Angkor Wat. By the time I left, around 930, it was overrun with tour groups and I was happy I was leaving and not arriving. It was finally time for breakfast, and then headed to Banteay Sray, which was about 30km away from most of the other temples. We stopped at Pre Rup on the way.

Details

Banteay Sray is quite small compared to all of the other temples, and for this reason it is often referred to as the women's temple. It is known for its incredibly intricate carvings and pinkish stones.

Banteay Sray

There were even matching red dragonflies around

It was definitely a unique temple among all of the ones that I saw. It was also incredibly commercialized. There was a gift shop, a cafe, and a nature trail on the grounds around it. On the way back, I went to East Mebun, Ta Som, and Preah Khan. It was a good thing I'd seen some distinctive temples, because I was starting to feel like I was just taking pictures of piles of rocks.

East Mebun

Top of a gate in Ta Som

The other side of the gate

Preah Khan was being restored

and being taken over by trees

Finally, almost twelve hours after it started, my second day of touring drew to a close. I rested for a while, went back to the market and had another new beer, and then Vi picked me up to take me to dinner. I'd told him I wanted to try some real Cambodian food, not just the stuff available at tourist restaurants around the temples. He took me to a street covered in food stalls, told me locals ate there but that we wouldn't, and then took me to a restaurant. No! At least it was a restaurant for locals, rather than for tourists. It was dark and his English wasn't good enough to explain the dishes, so I don't really know what I ate, but it was pretty good.

Angkor draft

"The inside of a cow"

"Kitchen with mango glories" (Chicken with morning glory)

Friday
I didn't see as much on Friday because I went to a temple over 60km outside of town. For increased speed and convenience, Vi took me on his motorbike instead of in the tuk tuk. It was a long ride, almost two hours, but my several trips with Violet had given me the necessary endurance to go the whole way without stopping. Our destination was Boeng Melea. It was similar in layout to Angkor Wat and other concentric ring temples, but it was quite overgrown and also quite collapsed. There were some wooden walkways for the casual visitor, but everything was fair game. I spent a good deal of time clambering around on this temple that, in some areas, really was just a pile of rocks. I felt like I was in a video game, and that if I stood in any one place for too long, the stones might start to fall away from beneath me. Luckily, that was not the case, and the precarious looking piles were made of blocks of rock that weighed several hundred pounds, and my weight was unlikely to shift them.

After a slightly unusual lunch of pork, mango, and fried egg, I hit one more temple, Bakon, before calling it a day. I added two more beers to the list that evening.

Looking down from the sixth (top) level of Bakon

Overall, it felt surreal to be able to easily jaunt over to a faraway country -- far away from home home but closer to Vietnam than driving from one side of Texas to another. It was similar enough to Vietnam that it didn't really feel foreign in that way, and everyone I encountered spoke English, so it didn't feel foreign in that way either. With the number of people swarming the most popular temples, it was easy to forget just what a rare experience I was having. As always, I was mistaken for a fellow Cambodian or at least neighboring Asian. One shopkeeper told me that I looked Cambodian in my face, skin, and build, and claimed that she would give me a good price just for looking Cambodian. Vi told me that if people saw us together they would probably just think I was his girlfriend rather than a client, though that might have been wishful thinking on his part. Now that I am back, and apparently tanner, Trang has told me that I look like a Cambodian girl.

Next stop, Phnom Penh!