The morning we left Nepal we had quite a number of people seeing us off, including Sumita’s family and friends who stopped the bus and climbed aboard for one last photo opportunity. It was a very touching farewell after our time in Nepal.

A couple hours on a very crowded bus brought us to a border town in Nepal where we decided to travel open air on a rickshaw the few kilometers to the actual border checkpoints. With quick crossings out of Nepal and into India, we boarded yet another very crowded bus headed to the major train transportation hub, Gorakhpur.

We had a challenging time with the pushiness and the constant grasping that we experienced as soon as we arrived in India.  It felt like we were being hustled at every turn. I see it in the way they drive, doing anything to edge out other vehicles. We had a driver who terrified us and risked the lives of many other people and then asked us for a tip beyond an already exorbitant price. We were told that they thought of us as their “mother and father” and “I am your friend” unlike everyone else in Delhi, all the while asking for more and more. Although we slept fairly well on the overnight train to Delhi, exhaustion led us to a pretty basic hotel in a questionable area of town. We did have warm water one of the days we were there and occasionally even toilet paper. There was one quite sweet young man who made sure we had breakfast each day. Maybe in crowds they live in, aggression is a means of survival.

David and I have just finished reading Freedom in Exile by the Dalai Lama. The Indians provided him and thousands of refugees with land and a home and the possibility of creating community. I think, possibly, my experience coming after such a generous experience in Nepal and nearing the end of a lengthy period of travel overwhelmed me. Nonetheless, the result was that we left India as quickly as possible and arrived in Siem Reap, Cambodia after a two hour stop in Bangkok, hence our jet setting blitz of 4 countries in 5 days.

We stayed in a lovely small garden guesthouse, our room surrounded by windows all looking out at huge tropical plants, with what we came to call dog frogs (frogs whose croak sounded just like dogs) serenading us each evening as we fell asleep. In spite of a nightmarish history, we found the Cambodian people to be gentle, and soft spoken and welcoming in every way which actually left us wanting to give more to them.  We have learned of a number of non-profits doing everything from offering stability and education to street children to butterfly projects trying to create sustainable income to a landmine removal effort also supporting an orphange for children maimed by landmines (6 million remain buried in the countryside).

We enjoyed our visits to temples in the Angkor area, many of which have been there for up to a thousand years. They are generally built of sandstone with beautiful intricate carvings. Many are being overtaken by the plants and trees of the surrounding tropical environment. Much effort is going into stabilizing and restoring them. We arrived just on the cusp of the real tourist season starting so the crowds weren’t too think and we were able to take our time and soak up the unique atmosphere here.

We enjoyed a Cambodian cooking class and may subject some of our friends. The Khmer food is very subtly flavored with wonderful fresh ingedients which we are hoping to search out when we return home. We also visited a silk farm and saw the whole process from worm to beautifully woven fabric. This group is working to train artisans in the traditional arts of Cambodia.

We had the same tuk-tuk driver during our stay and he shared with us his experience of volunteering to help encourage the child beggers to get off the streets which has become an amazing successful project. One Australian woman read an article in a newpaper and on her way home from work, she stopped and booked a ticket to Cambodia. She found the work she was called to do which has led to the empowerment of countless children and their families. One never knows where one drop might reach.

I was very sad to leave Cambodia this morning and I hold onto the possibility of returning. For now I will work at finding a way to enjoy Thailand for the next 3 weeks.