Offerings

Saturday August 4 was a day of offerings.

My first day in Siem Reap I was somehow led to three different Budduhist monasteries in and around town. And one or two additional shrines (for lack of a better term). The first one I visited in the morning when I was riding on the bike I rented from the Guesthouse. just to get the lay of the land. I really had no idea what the week's itinerary was going to look like. I knew I wanted to see the temples around Angkor Wat; I knew I wanted to bike. So I set out to see where I was and maybe figure out how to do these things. The bike was easy enough to organize. It is quite suitable for riding around the town--it has no gears, and the brakes work more-or-less, but the front break slips regularly on to the tire so as to be constantly breaking, so I am regularly leaning down to un-slip it. No bicyclists wear helmets, though many of the motorcyclists do. And the tuk tuk drivers.

It is hot--weather: high 85, low, 80, humidity 85, chance of precipitation, 60%. That's the forecast everyday.

So I am riding by the river and I spot a Buddhist "pagoda."  I consider myself Buddish, plus it's interesting looking so I go in. In a while I'm approached by a tuk tuk driver. This is not unusual (except for the fact that maybe we're in a Buddhist pagoda off the street). It's low season, they are every where and every where I go I'm being offered a tuk tuk. We got to talking, and so I decide, well, yes, I could use a tuk tuk to take me out to Tonle Sap--the very large lake the rises with the rainy season, home to floating villages, among other things. He's kind I think, and, hey, we met at a Buddhist temple; I simply trust. We agree that I will meet him there at 11:30 am (about 2 hours from then).  Before leaving, I sit some time in the cool of the temple where there is a large standing Buddha. I make my offering.

On my way back to Mom's Guesthouse (yes, that's really its name), I pass a small Buddhist shrine situated on a traffic island. Several young women are tending it (shoes placed on the curb, traffic zooming by), several others have come to give offerings: money, flowers, birds which they free from cages after sprinkling them with water. Across the street there is another shrine, bigger, under a kind of pagoda. There are musicians and a number of people tending and praying. I go in (shoes off first), make an offering (there is a Cambodia Red Cross box there) and contemplate my loved ones. Some who are struggling with illnesses seen and unseen.

At 11:30 am I meet Rea (the tuk tuk driver) and he takes me Tonle Sap--it's a pretty interesting 45 minute ride out. He asks me if I'm afraid of boat rides. No, I'm not, though I wonder if I should be. Especially when he asks~me two more times. We arrive and he warns me not to buy anything out on the lake. I wonder what I could possibly buy out on a lake. Famous last wonderings! When I get to the boat, I start to understand why he asks. There are multiple boats of various sizes, some with tour groups. I seem to be by myself on a really quite small boat which seems to be run by two 15-year-olds (one is 16, the other 20). There is quite a bit of water in the bottom of the boat. And we are locked in the "dock"by several much bigger boats, several boats deep. I imagine we will back out, but we go forward, pushing our way through two big boats tipping and rocking as we go. I figure they must do this all the time, even as I think we will tip over! I, in fact do tip over. I'm sitting on a wooden chair (one of about 6 or 8) and as the boat rocks as it squeezes through the two bigger boats, my chair flips over. I can't help but laugh because, well we are beyond the boats by the time I get myself up and there's nowhere else to go, so I'm on a boat (as my son would say)! It's an interesting ride with interesting conversation about the nature of the lake its inhabitants. We pass a floating orphanage, and the my boaters give me a spiel about how westerners buy food and deliver to the children. I must look incredulous (I think actually foreigners are encourage to help and volunteer at orphanages but no visit them as tourists), for they assure me this is a good thing to do. The next thing I know they stop at a floating store where I am asked to buy some food for the orphans. The prices are exorbitant (for Cambodia), but I'm fresh off the boat (in so many ways) and so I end up buying something. On our way back, I refuse to go in, but we deliver the food to one of the teachers. Even though I'm sure I was duped on some level, I also felt like the kids got some food, and the store owner got some money--it all goes into the local economy, in sore need. That's the story I tell any way, and I'm sticking to it. In any case, it was another offering. And it was only noon.

After my boat excursion we are on the way back and Rea asks me if I've seen Lotus flowers. No, now that I think of it, not in person. Though I was considering getting a tattoo of a blue lotus because of its symbolism. It is the symbol of the victory of the spirit over the sense, of wisdom, knowledge, and intelligence, the embodiment of the "perfection of wisdom. We stopped by a "field"where they were harvested--the flowers for offerings at Buddhist shrines, the seeds from the pods (after the flowers bloom and die) as a sweet. Rea leans into the edge of the wetlands to get one of these pods for me to try. He is kind and open and I trust him for some reason.

We returned to Siem Reap, I to my bike. On my way back to the guesthouse I took a side street where I came upon on the one side of the street the Peace Cafe (where they have free Khmer lessons on Saturdya and Sunday) and on the other a bicycle touring business--Grasshopper Adventures. It looked intriguing so I went inside and found myself checking out a number of tours around the area and ended up signing up for a 75 km bike trip out to a (more remote) temple of Beng Mealea.

I will show up at 7 am tomorrow at the bike shop to go to place whose name I hardly recall an hour later.