Cambodia is the first destination that I planned to visit before I came back to Bangkok. But I have been back for almost two months, I become a little panic that if I wait too long, I would never go. So I was planning to go there by myself but in the last minutes, my friend who was coming from Boston told me she would love to join me.

The bus left Bangkok at 4 am and arrived at Aranyapratet (the border between Thailand and Cambodia) around 7 am. We were greeted by the friendly staff from the Phototour Company and had breakfast. While I was having breakfast, I saw an army of both Thai and Cambodia people carrying tons of goods crossing the border. The picture of these people rushing out of the border with all kinds of goods on their shoulder and carts was amazingly beautiful. Then there were truck loads of Thai tourists crossing the border, cannot keeping my curiosity, I asked the local people and found out that they were going to the Casino on the Cambodian side. I had never known there were casinos there, I thought they were all on the off shore island called Koh Kong.

On our way to the immigration, there were a lot of Cambodian children begging for money. I have to say, my heart always drops when I see poor kids begging for money and I cannot resist myself of giving them some changes, so I decided to do so. As I was expecting, ten more children were storming behind me. I knew it, I told myself. People had warned me before that I had to turn my heart to be a stone and ignore them. What could I do? I did what my heart wanted me to do even though at the end one ungrateful kid called me a stingy bitch.

Once we crossed the border, we were picked up by our so-called limousine- an old 1996 (I guess) Toyota Camry with a pretty good Thai-speaking Cambodian chauffer. I was placed side by side with the driver. Just less than one mile from the border and those beautiful casinos, the picture was suddenly changed. It was like the car was leaving the civilization behind. It was the three and half hours of umm, I would say hell. Driving through the unpaved road for that long reminded me of a rodeo show I saw when I went to the Yellow Stone National Park. The road was constantly bumpy that sometimes I felt like my stomach and intestine were dislocated. There was no rule of the road here. People sped pass each other like no tomorrow. The only thing that slows them down was the dirt- the tons of dirt. I swear, there were times we could not see anything further than a yard especially when we had to follow big trucks. I wondered how much dirt I inhaled that day.


Motorcycles were very common on this unpaved road. They were everywhere. It was unimaginable to drive in that condition- tons of dirt, crazy drivers and bumpy road. On the way we saw a man was hit by the car and died instantly. But life went on like nothing happened. Death might be the common thing there and no one seemed to excite about it anymore.

Surprisingly even to myself, once the extremely bumpy road first appeared, I told myself I would never be able to sleep but the fact was that I felt to sleep almost the whole road trip. I have to say that was one of my gifts I got from heaven I guess. My brain seems to shut down every time my butt touches any kinds of vehicles’ seats. Once we arrive in Siamreap, I was condemned by my envious trip mates who had to bear the agony of bumpy road and eating dirt for three and half hours without sleeping.

Finally we arrived in Siamreap in one piece. “Hallelujah” we all exclaimed. Again the picture of life here had suddenly changed. There were tons of beautiful hotels and restaurants appearing in front of us. I felt like I was suddenly emerging to another world.

Our first meal in Cambodia was at the big buffet place owned by Thai business man. The buffet, or I would call, a school cafeteria was filled with Asian people, in particular Koreans. The food was not that bad at all if we went there 3 hours earlier.

After lunch, our car was upgraded to a mini van. The whole van was occupied by just 4 people. I have to say I felt like a real first world tourist.

On the way to our hotel, we passed all the beautiful hotels. I teased our tiny lesbian Thai-speaking tour guide if one of those hotels was ours. She laughed and made a turn to the trendy name hotel off the main road called Golden Orange Hotel. It was not that bad actually. It was clean with hot water and A/C. I just had to use my imagination as it was a small boutique hotel.

After resting for an hour, our trip continued. The tour guide took us to see the sunset at Pranom Bakang Mountain. It was a huge temple that was built on the top of the mountain. I was so excited since it would be my first experience of seeing the Cambodian castle. On the way to the top of Pranom Bakan, the road was filled with tourists who had the same goals; somehow it looked like a huge group of people were making a pilgrim to the sacred place or to be closed to God. At the top, although the condition of the castle was pretty bad, it showed how great of this civilization was. I was quietly watching the sunset. Somehow I felt so peaceful. The civilization is like a sun, it rises and it falls. It is just the law of birth, maturity, decline and death.

We had to get up at 6 am the next day in order to catch the early visit to Ankor Wat and Ankor Thom tomorrow. I was very excited. I wanted to experience why the people said, “See Ankor Wat and Die!.”

To see my pictures in Cambodia at Cambodia Picture Gallery

Tae Athikomvittaya

Nowadays, you can tell if it is Monday by looking around on the street of Bangkok. Everywhere is painted by Thai people who wear yellow shirts to show their love and loyalty to one of our greatest kings and to celebrate the most joyful year of our country. It is our king’s Diamond Jubilee year.

Why yellow and Monday? Our king was born on Monday and yellow is a color of Monday. So everyone- individuals and companies’ employees- is encouraged to wear yellow t-shirts every Monday.

Our king is the most respectful icon in the country. By constitution, the King is not allowed to intervene to the politics but whenever our society was in jeopardy; our king was always the savoir who everyone was looking for. Most of the time, he did not have to directly involve in the chaos but his appearance on the media showing his concern about situation could stop any hostility. Everyone loves the King because he has dedicated his whole life to develop our country. He has initiated thousands of projects to help the poor and the have-nots who every past and present Thai government has ignored. I cannot imagine how Thailand would be without our greatest king. Thai people would be poorer, the environment would be worse and the country would be in the hand of the most corrupted politicians.

The picture of our King sitting on the throne outside the palace looking down the huge space that was filled with millions of Thai people wearing yellow was like the sunflower field that there was no horizon in sight. It was very magnificent for everyone who sees that picture. I cannot imagine how hot it would be on that day in particular when millions of people were packed together. But everyone was still standing there for hours just to see the King waving his hand for couple minutes. Everybody was harmoniously chanting, “Love Live the King” and a lot of people could not hold their tears of joy and love towards our beloved King. My mom and sisters were crying when they watched it live on TV.

Even though I do not wear yellow on every Monday, I also want to say LONG LIVE TO THE GREATEST KING!!!

“Since your sister has a terminal cancer stage, don’t you think you should try to accept God as your savior? It might help your sister, I have seen numerous miracles happened to people who did so” my friend asked me. He was hesitating at first because he knew that I am a Buddhist who is not just a born Buddhist but I do study different religions and I come up to my own conclusion that Buddhism fits me with all its logic and peacefulness. I knew he had all good intention to help my sister so I sincerely said thank you to him but I politely declined.

I always believe in miracle that sometimes and somehow it happens to some people but I also always have questions about the miracle. With all due respect, I raised some questions to him as he mentioned about the miracle in the Christianity. Is miracle belonged to specific religion groups? Or is it subject to our own personal experience? I asked him if God is really the only one who performs miracles, why so many people who accept God as their savior are still facing death from all kinds of terminal diseases. If miracle is belonged to only Christianity, why we have heard so many people in every religion experience their own miracle as well. There are people who convert from Christianity to Buddhism experience miracle, or vice versa.

I do not think miracle is belonged to any religion. I would say miracle is like public goods like air but it depends on how one can tap it for their own benefits. Most of stories I have heard, in particular in term of recovering from fatal sickness, have almost the same pattern. They are facing desperation, then they are introduced to something that elevates their hope and without any explanation, they are getting better. So I told my friend that in this case their own hope (psychological power) might trigger their own immune system to fight off any disease. However, it is still called miracle because they do get recover from their terminal sickness but is it from God? In this case God might not be the one who performs the miracle but to believe in God might do it. Also to claim that all people who converted into Christianity have survived from near death experience is like saying that every cancer patient who receive the chemotherapy will survive. Those miracles are spread by a small fraction of people who luckily experience it while the majority of the people have failed but they do not have a chance to talk about it.

I think the key to miracle in this case is the belief and hope. But will everyone get it? To make this issue more complicated, I believe our personal past and present Karma that we have committed is the key to hinder or facilitate the miracle. But I stopped my conversation with him just that.

Nancy Pelosi has never been this happy before. She is going to be the first female house speaker in the US history. The mid-term election was like a reality show between the Dems and the GOP. Every tactic was used by both parties in order to win the election. Finally, the American people have spoken loud and clear that enough is enough for the Bush Administration and the corrupted Republican congress.

Democrats have taken back both houses after their absence of power for 12 years.

Increasingly unpopular Iraq war and corrupted Republican congress surely took the toll on the GOP. Their same old strategies seemed not to work their magic this time. Their same old message of being strong in the national security seemed to be buried by the unjust Iraq war. More Americans are frustrated with the increasing death toll of American soldiers and civil war in Iraq. The tired tactic of luring the conservative to the poll with their anti-same sex marriage was defeated by their own high Christian moral leaders’ scandals like Mark Foley who preyed on the under age interns and Ted Haggard - the most hypocritical Evangelical Christian leader who preaches his huge followers to hate gay but hires male prostitute for his own in the closet pleasure.

Just two years after Bush received the mandate to continue his job; his political capital once he claimed on his Inauguration Day that the American people had overwhelming delivered to him was depleted closed to zero. His once charming personality and decisive leadership could not carry the GOP. They lost both houses and now the table has turned to more balance in power between these two parties.

After the disastrous 2004 President Election, I have never been this happy either. It has been six years that the GOP has complete control in every branch of the government. They set agenda, they forced the rule and they abused the power. The human right, in particular for gay people was threatened for their political gain. The environmental laws were weakened in order to please their friends in the coal and mine industry. The treasury was broken by the big spender GOPs. Tax cut was given away to the richest while the idea of minimum wage increase was stalled.

Some people cry out the indifference between these two parties. Even though I believe politics are controlled by the big money and special interest, I still see the difference between them. There will be new direction from now on. The minimum wage will be likely to go up even though there will be tremendous lobby from the business side. The constitution amendment to ban gay marriage will be quiet at least for a while. The tax cut might be rolled back. The environment will be spared from those greedy corporate. I might be a little too optimistic with the Dems. But I think with all of their past experience, they will not repeat their own and the GOP’s mistakes. I believe the country will be different under the Dems congress.

The show is about to continue.

Tae Athikomvittaya