One of the Seven Wonders of the World: Angkor Wat

We had another wonderful day here! We got up at 4:30am to go see the sunrise over Angkor Wat. For those of you that don't know, Angkor Wat is a complex of temples that were built in the 12th century. Originally they were Hindu temples then at some point in their history Buddhist monks took over. We were supposed to watch the sunrise but the cloud cover was too thick for us to see them. The main temple is Angkor Wat proper. There are a ton of temples scattered throughout the complex. We went through Angkor Wat while the sun was rising. It was beautiful to see the immense structures and to think that they had built this using only rudimentary tools. It was beautiful and mystic. There were a great deal of Hindu statues and Buddhist statues scattered throughout the temple. Many of them had "lost their heads" to thieves who have taken them to museums and other places over the years. There were some places where Buddhist statues had been placed on Hindu statues. It is the only place in the world where there is a marriage between Hindu and Buddhist symbolism. After walking around for quite some time we all needed breakfast and some coffee. We traveled back to our hotel and had an amazing breakfast! We gathered the group and checked out of the hotel. We then traveled back to the Angkor Wat complex to check out a few other temples. The first one we checked out was Angkor Thom.

One of the heads at Angkor Thom.

Another view of Angkor Thom.

A Hindu carving at the temples.

Sorry I can't help being a goof ball.

It's the one that many people see in pictures of the Angkor Wat temples. It has huge faces and towering buildings. Some historians said that quality was sacrificed over quantity but I still thought they were all beautiful. I took some time to sit outside of this complex and pray about all the things that have been going on in my life. It was a great feeling to sit there and see these temples in the most natural place. God gave those people gifts to build such beautiful things. After that we traveled to the Ta Prohm temples. This is the temple where there are huge banyan trees growing all around and through it. The trees were so immense it made you feel like an ant. These are the temples where "Tomb Raider" was filmed. It's been a long time since I've seen that movie so I couldn't really remember what scene or what part of the temple was in the movie but the temple itself was awesome so I didn't need Angelina Jolie to make it any better for me. After we were all done dying in the heat, we got on the bus for another road trip. I can't even begin to describe quite how hot it is here. I think that every ounce of fluid that I've been drinking just pours out of my body and my cells just scream out for water!! It's so unbelievably hot!! I don't think I've ever been so hot in my entire life. It was nice to get back onto the air conditioned bus. We ate lunch in Siem Reap. Mallory, Jessica, Brandie, Ashton and I ate lunch at a Mexican food restaurant. It was just as good as any Mexican restaurant we have in the US. While we were waiting for the rest of the group and the bus, we saw the lady that had cursed us the day before. It was scary because we could tell that she recognized us and came over to where we were shopping to ask us for money. We hopped on the bus the moment that it came to our meeting point. Then it was off again for another 4 hour drive to Battambang. We made a stop at a silk farm to see the process. Chris and Nicole might consider working with this particular silk farm on a more couture line of dresses later on after the Daughter's Project gets a little more credibility in the US and the market grows. We saw the whole process of how they grow them and what they feed them. That was pretty interesting because they feed them mulberry bush leaves that are a cross from mulberry bush plants from Japan, Malaysia, and Cambodia. We get silk from the cocoons that the silk worms make. They do the whole process at this particular silk farm. The artisans did beautiful work! It was a very clean work environment for those of you thinking that it might be like a sweatshop. Then we hopped back on the bus for the rest of our grueling bus ride. We are all just really tired of traveling since we traveled so long to get here and now we're doing a lot of our sightseeing. It takes its toll on the body really quick!! After a long four hour drive we made it to our hotel. It's absolutely beautiful here! It's just as nice as a lot of the hotels in the US. For dinner we went to a French restaurant. It was interesting having French cuisine in the middle of Cambodia, but it was a very good meal. I had lamb chops and they were very tender with good flavor. Mary Beth and I spent most of dinner asking Chris about the Center For Global Impact (CGI) and what it's different projects do. Each project teaches a girl or woman a different type of vocational training. byTavi teaches women to make bags and totes. The Culinary Training Center teaches girls to cook so that they will be able to work at restaurants and hotels. And the Daughters Project teaches girls to sew dresses. Each project is very different and interesting in its own unique way. After dinner we got massages and they were amazing. With tip it was only $10 for an hour of a full body massage. It was the perfect way to end a very long day of sight-seeing and travel.

So far the trip has been more touristy than it has been work so I still don't have a lot of feelings to process and write about. It is sad to see all of the poverty though. There is trash every where and what doesn't make sense to me are the amazingly beautiful homes that sit right next to a shack. It's all very strange to me because that would never ever happen in the US. There is a distinct line between where poverty is and where riches are at home. Here there is not as far as that goes. The thing that does upset me a lot is seeing the children of the homeless beggars. They didn't have a choice to be born into that, but they were and that makes me sad. If I could take them all home with me then I would. They don't deserve to have that life chosen for them. I'm still trying to work out in my head the impact that I can have for the girls that we work with once I come home. That's a struggle because a lot of people come home from mission trips and they are really excited about the cause still for a little while and then after some time it goes away and they forget all that they have seen. I'm not going to let myself forget.