The 7th Wonder of The World - Icy Cold Ankor Beer

The first changing of leaves. A winter breeze on a day in Spring. Snow falling and softly landing on the willow tree.

Things you would not find in Cambodia.

However, you would be able to find sweat-soaked tourists running around the streets of Siem Reap.

It’s day 2 of our study trip in Cambodia and the heat is intense. I woke up today to a beautiful late morning, the hotel room was dark and very little light came through our heavily draped windows. The rays of light that did come through danced on the floor in our air-conditioned room and seemed to play tricks with the shadows.

I walked from Popular Guest House and immediately was struck with the extreme heat that made Cambodia Cambodia. The heat gave very little life to the students of Monash. Even as I sit here and write, I could feel my body producing tears of hate. If my body could speak, it would say “WHY ARE YOU TORTURING ME?”. It would also say “Feed me!”.

Food here is friggin’ cheap. For 1USD I could get a plate of yummy noodles or a French bread filled with what seems to be pork and vegetables. Or you could get a small bag of fried crickets and pour it down your throat like our very brave Maxine.

We were gathered at Wat Damnak (Wat in Khmer for Monastery and Damnak meaning Resting Place) for our session on housing rights and evictions when Maxine pulled out a transparent bag of crickets. I cringed in horror as she spoke about pulling its head and feet off before masticating on the fried body. The horror, the horror! Chua Sue-Ann did try to persuade me into popping the insect into my mouth and as she came after me I karate kicked the cricket out of her hand and saved the day. Hoo-ray for me!

Today’s session really did speak to me. Depika Suerchan’s presentation on housing rights for citizens and evictions was well put together and as she was showing us pictures and documentaries on how the authorities react in forced evictions, I remembered seeing children following us on the way to Wat Damnak and wondered if their families were evicted from their homes only to find no place to live. The vivid images of families with small children having their homes torn down only to have a skyscraper built in place of their sanctuary really pisses me off. The feeling of helplessness and not being able to do anything about it makes me frustrated even more.

This is why you should vote for me for World President. There would be no war. There would be no anger. There would only be Communism…

And good cheap beer.