Mostly to share an image of the now-green rice fields, but the honking and conversation is a good example from a weekend work trip too…

Un-photo shopped and totally incapable of capturing how peaceful it all seemed.  Pretty sure the guys caught on after they sat down to take a break and waved hello to me, so I waved back just in case.

**

Not to stretch the metaphor too far or ruin the pretty pictures, but I’ve also been stewing recently about the seriously lame way US immigration procedures are carried out.  To begin with, Cambodians have a complicated relationship with America (understatement), but I’m always struck by how many people still see the US as the land of opportunity.  Once, riding squashed two-to-a-seat in the front of a Camry back from Siem Reap, a young entrepreneurial tour guide /bicyclist twisted around to ask where we were from.  His response?  “Oh! Your country is the dream country for my people.”  Moreover, I have never, not even once, heard of Cambodians treating tourists badly just because they are American.  All of this in the face of many, many reasons for Cambodians to be unhappy about America’s involvement in their history.

And in response we maintain a soul-crushing, antagonistic immigration policy.  A policy that includes absurdly high, non-refundable application fees (as in nearly $1,000) and deportations conducted so poorly as to justify entire reports just on the Cambodian-American context calling for reform.  Just in the past month alone, I’ve heard three or four stories of visa applications turned down for completely legitimate couples and individuals just trying to visit family.

I know each case is different and the immigration process can prevent fraud or worse, but  callous rejection and near universal exclusion is no way to defend our self-image to the world at a time when very few people still believe in it in the first place.

So on this week after your birthday, America, I’d like to remind you to try harder to live up to your aspirations – and how sad you make me when you fall so obviously short.

First off, post title inspiration:

Never mind the town was renamed to attract tourist in the past few years...

To be fair though, it is beautiful and a good requisite prayer flag picture:

See also:

Niru - two-day hike down the valley, the view from our homestay

The path in Tiger Leaping Gorge...

...plus morning shadows.

Know what’s not as beautiful?

A wide plain full of empty summer time houses during a snow storm...serves us right for wanting snow.

But snow on top of mountains, a-okay.  As is picking up after yourself:

Ah yes, and I promised nerdy politics?

Like a Tibetan stupa, made of pieces of script smashed during the cultural revolution, in front of Chinese airline-sponsored power lines?

Back in Kunming, enjoying the big city and all the related culture:

Like Tai Chi in front of the Parknshop and ancient arches

Ancient temples in apartment complex courtyards

Delicious food!

Our young suit-wearing table companions said "We like America and human rights," so I took a picture when them too.

Crossing guards and orderly traffic!

But captured in relevant modern art?

And just the modern, modern.

And lest you think I’m only making fun of English-translation signs and bemoaning change, I leave you with some surviving Ming Dynasty architecture:

"Can we not also realize the simple appreciation of living that this life demands?"

I was in Yunnan Province, China for two weeks last month – trekking some, experiencing more snow than I wished for, being stared at more than in Cambodia, and watching my very first 3D movie. All and all an amazing trip though and a wonderful way to refresh for a new appreciation of Cambodia.

Lots of (interesting) work and the oppressive heat of Phnom Penh has slowed the process of posting pictures, but I’ll link to a few soon! For now, imagine the process of going from a huge modern city towards the Tibetan plateau…

Out with the old, in with the new. Behold! I can make ice!

Kids running a karma labyrinth in Battambang Province before Khmer New Year

Easter brunch with banana pancakes on the porch

Stick? Bug? Mascot of Participatory Democracy at our event?

Since I don’t write often enough about all the small things that make Cambodia the “Kingdom of Wonder,” check out these for instances that I heartily endorse:

• Late Night Soup Messenger from Natalie though the guy on my family/residential street comes by right around sunset to serenade us.
• Fancy Geckos! – Sweet.  Also, I realized I find absurdly loud sound geckos make at night actually comforting, who knew it really sounds like “gecko?”
• North Korean Culinary Diplomacy? by Sebastian.  It is everything he says and more, plus around the corner from my house!  See this article for perhaps the most inspired true-life karaoke improvisation ever.

Just some quick links, so let me know if you (my twos of readers) find them interesting and I’ll try for a Part 2!

Kratie Tax Office in White

Kratie Sunset in Red

…from an early evening walk during a work trip to the provinces.  Followed by a coworkers stories of traveling through in 1993 with UNTAC soldiers.  Continued study in contrast.

More proper pictures to come hopefully, following a much-anticipated visit from Cousin C that starts today!

Sunset at the guesthouse, not bad for a dusty town, eh?

A new shrine at the nearby caves, replacing ones destroyed by the Khmer Rouge

The Mother of Buddha, a possible KR survivor?

Realizing some people in DC have excessive time on their hands and starting to get jealous of the prolonged winter-wonder, I thought about finding a nice beach picture from a trip to the coast last weekend. Please accept this picture of a pre-angkorian ruin by a modern Wat from the previous weekend instead, a less taunting and scandalous shot than one with bathing suits.

This particular temple sat in a small village where we had an event for work. The nearby pagoda was in disrepair and the monks even asked us to pass along a letter appealing for donations as I sat taking notes during our event. So you can imagine this structure – built sometime before 800 AD but too far from Siem Reap to lure many occasional tourists – isn’t a high priority.