A Visit to the Palace

12/21/15

   
    
   

  

  

  

   
    
    
    
   
I am not a religious person (well, I do invoke Jesus and Christ’s name a lot daily though), but I do appreciate religion. The world is a confusing place and we all need some comfort. Personally, I actually quite envy those with strong religious conviction: knowing you will be saved probably allow you to sleep much better. I, on the other hand, occasionally act like Charlie Brown and ask stupid questions to the ceiling. It is also interesting than monarchy and religion always seem to combine with one another. The Chinese believe the emperor to be the son of heaven. King Henry started his own religion to obtain a divorce (that is quite the egoistic thing to do…). Both sectors are equally powerful, especially on controling and persuading masses. In Cambodia, it is about the same. The citizens used to treat royalty as deities, which partly led to the eventual mess.

I was trapped by my own plan. When I started, I assumed I would spend more time in Cambodia, and so I applied for a Vietnam tourist visa to start on 1/1/16. This, combined with my ever lessening bank account, made me realized: I can schedule a short visit to Laos before I travel to Vietnam. With this in mind. I booked my ticket today to fly into Vientiane for Chirstmas and Luang Prabang for new year. With the morning spent on planning (a tuktuk driver actually got mad that I refused his service all day, saying that I have been doing nothing everyday…), I decided to take it easy the rest of the afternoon: a short visit to the central market, and a longer visit to the palace. 

The central market is actually around a newly developed building designed by the French (I have noticed a lot of joint ventures in Cambodia. My tour yesterday was also a joint venture with China, with the Chinese lady in charge complaining quite a lot about the problem with local labor), and it actually looks really good: except it is also covered around the sides by stores and stands. Nonetheless, it is impressive on the inside (as a nerd, I have to say: that is what counts!) and I spent some time admiring the structure and the layout, much to the confusion of the sellers. I think, like the tuk tuk driver, they were confused on why someone is looking up all the time at the beams and down at the columns, while ignoring the items on display. This is not to say I did not buy anyhong: I did buy a coconut juice while looking at all the fresh seafood. It made me hungry for some good sushi. 

In the afternoon. I visited the royal palace very bear by hotel (to the aggravation of the tuk tuk driver once again). The entrance fee was $6.50, abd by now I am more or less used to their use of local currency mixed with US. (This is the irony I noticed a lot: everyone say they do not like US, but adopt the currency for simplicity and stability). The palace of Norodom Sihamoni, King of Cambodia, is impressive and beautiful. It contains a lot of Buddhist statues and relics (which I isually expect from a museum), with auperior architecture and style. There are also quite a few tombs of the past emperors (known as stupa). These towers are a few stories high with immaculate etchings and decorations. I guess being a royalty does allow one to have a nice tombs within a palace, allowing your ghost to sneak a peek at your descendents, while seeing tourists snapping selfies everyday. 

I ended the day drinking $0.50 draft beers at the waterfront (again near my hotel. I think that tuk tuk driver must be boiling with rage when I turned down his service once again). As I was typing this up while somewhat inebriated, my mind wanders (yeah, it does that a lot) about religion and monarchy. People like power, and so it makes sense on why people in power always try to consolidate their power (repeat that statement 5 times fast!). I am a big fan of money and luxury, but power is not quite my turn on. After all, one of my superheroes once famously said “with great power comes great responsibility”.  Most tend to forget: it is dissociate to grab power, it is even more problematic to hold onto it. After all, it is not something you can carry it to the afterlife (well, you may be able to, I have no idea what happens after death. I do really want to float around and scare my friends though…). Maybe you could gain a nice tomb acting like a monument for tourist. Me, I much prefer to end up in the drinking water supply so everyone can ingest me (ah, old joke. You may need to read early entries to know what I am talking about. I have this weird desire on where to spread my ashes….and several good friends have agreed to try to carry that out. I suggest a good filter for your drinking water once I die). M

The King and I

12/9/15

   
    
    
    
    
    
   
  
   
   
Since I hold a British Overseas National passport, which usually cause lots of confusion among fellow travelers and custom agents. (So you are British? No I am not. But you have a British passport?! Well, U.K. Passport, but there are many difference. You don’t have an accent?! Actually I do, just not the cool British one. So you must be a fan of the monarchy?! Well, I am a person, not an object for cooling. It would be awesome to be able to turn into inanimate objects though.) Since I am technically the Queen’s subject, I do have an interest in different system of governance. Living in the United States, I am always amused by the overuse of “democracy”. I think most USA citizens tend to forget: USA is not a democracy; it is a republic. Also, the true democratic state was Athena, which also allowed the citizens to exile certain residents once a year. (Before people complain: USA is a federal constitution republic. I recommend Google for answers!)

I woke up in the hotel room feeling nice and cool (the joy of airconditioner). Wandering downstairs, I realized why my room rate was so cheap: breakfast was excluded. Undeterred, I washed up and went to the next door cafe for breakfast. While a little more expensive than street food, they served a really good cup of coffee. (Living in the Starbucks capital has its effects). Caffeinated and refreshed, I set off to my destination: the Grand Palace. According to my free brochure, the complex was built in 1782, consists of the royal residence, throne hall, government offices and the Temple of (doom, no just kidding) the Emerald Buddah. It is not a large place: 218,000 meter square and surrounded by 1900 meters of tall white wall (reminds me of the Macklemore song….). 

The sun was blazing as I walked to the palace. Being in the older neighborhood, it is not near the train stations, but is near a river boat dock. I decided to walk through Chinatown to get there, enjoying the various sights and smell of unidentified food products and my copious amount of sweat. My lungs were on fire from the pollution, and my peripheral vision strained to catch motorcycles going against traffic aiming for me. It was like playing a real life version of frogger: except the cars moves in irregular directions. ( I highly recommend this as a training ground for wannabe ninjas…) After about 45 mins, I managed to get to the entrance of the Grand Palace. 

It was a scene out of a disaster movie. The place was filled with tourists: both individuals and giant tour groups. The PA system blasted instructions in English, reminding everyone no shorts are allowed. (The visitor office does rent out pants for free though.) Having been told by many people about this, I came prepare: with my conversion pants. Zipping up (my covers ion pants!), I paid an exorbitant 500 bahts entrance fee, finally setting foot in the palace. The place was like a zoo: tour hides were herding their groups everywhere, yelling out historical facts and instructions. Everyone was aiming their electronic devices from every possible angle at every possible objects. It was like a convention of the latest photographic equipments: camera, phones, iPads, etc. was in my face constantly and in every photograph I took. I think I must had walked into dozens of other tourists photos too. While it was hard to take pictures or appreciate the views, I did get the benefit of a free tour: standing still in any spot resulted in me “joining” a tour group, and hence getting free history lessons. (Well, also because most spoke on mandarin.) I learned more about the emerald Buddah: how the king performs a ceremony three times a year to change the clothes Buddah wear, according to the season. In the throne room, I got a lesson on Thai culture and coronation details. In front of the wall painting, I got the direction to the nearest bathroom when I needed it most. All in all, it was an interesting experience. 

Sweating profusely again as I found my way back to the train station, o stopped by a roadside beauty stand that specializes in threading. I decided to give it a try. They covered my face with some fragrant white powder, before using threads on my face to tear out small hairs. I was not sure who was more disturbed: me sitting in the chair getting plucked, or the audiences watching me getting de-haired. The process took almost 25 minutes, and my face felt extremely violated. I mean, every nook and cranny was reached and rubbed. I now have extreme respect for ladies who undergo waxing for that smooth skin feeling. Of course, I guess being plucked at roadside did not help the overall experience. 

As I was sitting in a cafe typing this up, I could not help but marvel at what happened today. I am visitng a country of monarchy, joined by residents of a communistic society, while spending money made from a federal republic. Chairman Mao once said “it does not matter whether a cat is black or white (just like the Michael Jackson song), it is a good cat as long as it catches nice”. (Well, I think he would be excited to learn we have found more use for cats: memes!) No matter what style of government we belong to, all everyone want is a chance to succeed and lead a useful life (and make a living, procreate, enjoy some luxury along the way, of course). People are amazingly similar after all. 

(Well, then again, we need to manuplate people to earn money….)