Feliz 2010!!!! Happy 2010!!!!

Sentimientos encontrados. Angkor Wat es, sin lugar a dudas, uno de los lugares del mundo más fotogénicos ……y a la vez más fotografiados. Ocurre como cuando uno llega a Nueva York por primera vez, esto es, que mucho de lo visto te suena. Sea a través de algún documental o leyendo algún National Geographic todos hemos visitado virtualmente alguna vez Angkor Wat.

El complejo arquitectónico es inabarcable y eso que hemos estado 4 días. Los templos laberínticos y profusamente decorados se extienden en un radio de 40km₂. Hemos visto unos 4 o 5 al día algunos maravillosos otros no tanto y aún nos quedaron los más alejados a más 70km del centro de Angkor.

Pero, y aquí está la nota negativa y recurriendo de nuevo a un símil, Angkor Wat se ha convertido en una especie de París que hay que visitar, sí o sí, para todos los turistas de los países del sudeste asiático, en este rincón del mundo, los más numerosos. Recuerdo que me comentaba Carlitos al volver de China que lo que más le había sorprendido era el número de turistas chinos visitando los distintos lugares emblemáticos de su país. Pues aquí, ocurre lo mismo, chinos, coreanos, vietnamitas, japoneses….llegan en centenares o millares y en grupos organizados de 50 o 60 personas. La consecuencia de esto es que a la hora de visitar los templos has de mirar siempre el número de autobuses que hay a la entrada. Si ves mas de uno mejor decirle al conductor de tu Tuk-Tuk que te lleve a otro lado. De entre los templos, el que se lleva la palma en sentido negativo es el Tha Prohm que National Geographic hizo tan famoso con la foto del monje saliendo por la puerta escondida en una maraña de raíces. En este sitio hasta han tenido que poner una plataforma para que estos turistas no se subieran por las raíces de los árboles. Así, que nos gustaría mandar el consejo siguiente: si queréis visitar Angkor Wat hacerlo lo antes posible mientras aún quede algo…..Lo peor de este turismo organizado es que además dejan poco dinero en Camboya ya que se alojan, comen y beben en sus hoteles. Se trata de hoteles que empresarios chinos y coreanos han ido abriendo principalmente en la carretera que comunica la ciudad con el aeropuerto. Hoteles que destacan por su arquitectura ecléctica dando como resultado final que parezcan un Salon de Bodas tipo Lord Winston pero de 5 o 6 plantas…..

Pese a todo esto, hemos disfrutado de la visita y sacado buenas fotos, aunque nos hayamos metido una paliza en el cuerpo tanto por lo andado, como por las horas a las que hemos amanecido. Para poder visitar los templos tranquilos y hacer fotos, nos levantábamos a eso de las 6:30 de la mañana.

Fuera de la ruta arquitectónica vistamos una ong-museo que nos impactó bastante, fundada por un tipo, Aki Ra, que desde hace mas de 15 años se dedica a limpiar los campos de Camboya de minas y artefactos explosivos que tanto americanos, como vietnamitas como los propios Jemeres Rojos han dejado por el país. Él solo ha desactivado más de 50.000 minas pero quedan más de 3.000.000 por aquí. También se dedica a ayudar a los afectados y mutilados por estos artefactos….impresionante el sitio.

Dejamos Camboya y pasamos 48 horas en la vibrante Saigón. Cuidad de neón y motor económico de Vietnam. La mitad de la ciudad se dedica a vender algo de ahí que tenga cierto parecido a un Zoco inmenso. No tiene el encanto de Hanoi pero sí que merece la pena verlo. Como sitio imprescindible, llevando un paquete de Klennex, el museo de la guerra americana (la que conocemos nosotros como guerra de Vietnam).

Termino de escribir estas líneas en Krabi, Tailandia. Por lo que se puede decir que nuestro viaje termina aquí. Como lo más fascinante que vamos a hacer en los próximos seis días será escoger el cocktail que llevarnos a la hamaca, quiero ya cerrar este blog. Ha sido un viaje magnífico, lleno de experiencias y emociones. Traemos la maleta cargada de recuerdos y fotos que ya compartiremos…..

Terminaré como empecé todo esto: muchísimas gracias por vuestros regalos, habéis sido todos vosotros, amigos y familia, los que hacéis posible que Diana y yo hayamos podido disfrutar de un insuperable viaje de novios…..Muchas gracias!!!!

No tenemos ganas de que esto acabe pero si de verlos a todos. ¡Feliz año 2010 a todo el mundo!!!! Que traiga salud y alegría!!
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I am writing this having landed in Thailand, and sitting happily with a gin tonic in the last part of our trip and the one that we are jokingly referring to as "the real honeymoon", meaning that most likely there will be no more entries into the blog because our main concern for the next six days will be which restaurant to eat at and which cocktail to start the evening off with. Aitor and I have had some pretty amusing moments like pawing our way up the waterfall, slipping and sliding and inspecting each other's legs for lychees (similar to the way that chimpanzees groom each other) and one of us will say, "yup this is definitely not your typical honeymoon" But I digress...

In my last entry I left off saying goodbye to Laos and entering the majestic world of Angkor Wat. Both Aitor and I agree that we have mixed feelings about the experience. Angkor Wat itself is absolutely spectacular. People are not kidding when they say there's nothing like it on this planet. It's the concept of an EMPIRE in its most literal sense, spreading 40km wide with temple after temple beautifully displaying the most elaborate carvings one can imagine. It really feels like they are Temples built for the Gods. And you're just a teeny weeny observer. In some of the temples (one of our favorites was called Preah Khan) you really feel like an explorer cause it's full of doorways and mazes and massive stones that have topple one on top of the other and branches and parts of trees intertwined everywhere. It really is fantastic, a sight to see.

But the other side of the same coin is that Angkor Wat has become a MAJOR tourist attraction for I think all of Asia. So it's very quickly becoming a massive tourist destination. So this means that at the most "popular" temples, (they have probably earned this reputation because they probably are the most spectacular ones, if gazillions of people were not at them) there are many people at them and worst yet in groups. We're talking bus-full after bus-full of tour groups of thirty or more people clustering around the major areas of the temple. We really felt that we had no moments of serenity at these temples, to just stand there in awe of what was in front of us. Instead you were faced with a feeling of being swarmed by people and this naturally took much of the beauty of the moment away. There were moments were it was difficult to extract oneself and enjoy. I particularly remember one incident where we had been recommended to go to one particular temple, Prerup for the sunset. We got there early, I climbed up a staircase onto a platform to have more of a bird's view and Aitor stayed a bit further down with this tripod and other camera apparel. The temple was overrun by people and tour groups but we did our best to ignore it and just enjoy what looked like was to be a spectacular sunset.

At the precise moment where the skies were red and pink and the beautiful red sun was just going down over the horizon, I am not exaggerating when I say that 25 people walked in front of me as I was trying to take a series of pictures. Some would even stop for an instance, standing and blocking my view, so they could take their picture. And i'm thinking to myself, if you came here to see the sunset, what the hell are all these people doing walking back and forth, moving up and down at the precise moment when the sunset is happening? Doesn't it defy the purpose? Isn't this the moment to just STOP, even if for an instance and just enjoy that one little moment? I'm definitely getting older. So our advice is if you have an interest in seeing Angkor Wat go ASAP cause God only knows what that place will be like in five years time...

Another highlight of our trip (besides the tuk tuk rides which were brilliant) was the land mine museum just outside the main temple complex. We hired a guide for two days and on the first day he had told us that his father had been killed by a landmine in 1992. He mentioned that there was a museum about landmines and we immediately expressed our interest in going the following day. This museum was founded by a very brave man, Aki Ra, who has basically spent the first 15 years of his life at war (and thereafter with the aftermath of war), first fighting for the Khmer Rouge, then for the Vietnamese and finally working for the UN demining rural areas of Cambodia. He has deactivated an impressive 50.000 explosives in Cambodia but it is estimated that 3million landmines and the likes still remain!!! One of the aspects that really caused an impression on me was the fact that this courageous man was about our age, he is currently 34 years old. So when he is describing his life events on the walls of the museum, he mentions that for example in 1988, he was 13 years old and with an AK47 in his hand he saw one of his friends blow up next to him as he stepped on a landmine.
The night that I had visited the museum, the date stuck in my head and all I could think of was how in 1988 I had just moved to the States and my biggest concern was whether I was going to be popular or make friends in my new middle school. One kid has only been exposed to war at the age of 13 and the other kid (myself) is once again a damn mega privileged child.

The museum is run by his wife and it has also turned into a sort of orphanage for kids that are victims of landmines. Their stories, beautifully described on the walls of the museums, made a cry muffin like myself go to town. If you want to learn more about this impressive project take a look at: http://www.cambodialandminemuseum.org/. Oh one more little thing, there are 15 countries still remaining in the world that have produced landmines since 2002. More than 130 have stopped or never produced them at all. Besides Russia, China and Iran, US still is on this list. Pathetic if you ask me… So here is my little appeal to any Americans reading this entry to unite forces and start pressuring Mr. Obama to sign the anti land mine treaty and stop producing fucking landmines once and for all. It´s embarrassing…

After days of absorbing this incredible culture from 10 centuries ago, we spent a quick 48 hours in Saigon. Our first reaction was, Wow is this really the same country as Hanoi??? That place is bustling- people, lights, motorbikes.. You definitely FEEL that this is the economic hub of the country. I think they have as many shopping malls in Saigon as we have bars in Madrid! We had a particularly fine dining experience that will stay with us for many years to come (if anyone comes to this side of the planet, tamarind sauce is the way to go!) but I have to say that in general I have more of a liking for Hanoi. One of the more memorable moments (besides the absurdly strong saigon coffee... why do the turks get the reputation for the strong coffee?? These people make their coffee so that your hair stands on end like a porcupine!) was the War Remnant Museum... This museum is brutally honest, it´s about the American War (as they call it in this part of the world) and the god damn pictures… brutal… as I walked slowly through the museum with my sunglasses on to prevent onlookers from seeing my emotional state I just kept thinking of Heart of Darkness and its film adaptation, Apocalypse Now… “The horror, the horror….” How does human kind reach this level of atrocity? And for what? I´m sure it was done on purpose to drive home the point but all I saw was in those god awful images was kids and more kids…

But I suppose being exposed to these types of images and first hand accounts is so important. It definitely triggered a whole lot of chats between Aitor and I and I suppose it does that with most people that visit it.. it´s a necessary evil..

And after that little stop over in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City to be politically correct ;) we have landed in the beautiful kingdom of Thailand ready to do absolutely nothing and really enjoy doing absolutely nothing. We deserve it ;) Since we don´t know if we´ll have any more entries after this one (we think probably nothing too eventful will come from lying at the beach all day, drinking cocktails and eating thai food) we wanted to say THANK YOU again for making this absolutely incredible honeymoon possible with your super generous gifts and since tomorrow is new year´s… HAPPY 2010!!! We wish you all a year full of happy times, lots of adventures and lots and lots of love!!! Good night and good luck ;)