Ki Earth Journey: Siem Reap, Cambodia

Dear friends and family -

I hope this finds you in good health and enjoying your life. I am. Both.

Pub Street - downtown Siem Reap

I am writing from Siem Reap, Cambodia. The weather is perfect in December, unlike March 2012, when I was last here--so hot. I love walking the streets of the world, engaged fully in life. Siem Reap is definitely an alive tourist town. People come here from all over the world to see the temples at Angkor Wat. I spent two days at the temples last time and took hundreds of photos. This time I’m enjoying the town, sitting in cafes or at the pool at my hotel.

Bopha Hotel pool where I'm staying

For the first time in my life, a month ago, I was held up at gun point. I fled from the robbers and although the thought of "I could have been” shot dead on a deserted street was bothersome, it too was part of the rich fabric of life. It reminded me to pay attention while on the dance floor. And to keep dancing, no matter what. It reminded me to live each day as if it were my last.

It also reminded me that most of my greatest lessons in life were/are learned from the everyday people of the street, the living classroom of being out there, experiencing life to the fullest.

Cambodian country woman

Last year in Pattaya I met this bar girl. We talked, but I was distracted, thinking something ‘other than her’ was more important. I told her that I had to go, but agreed to meet her there at 3 pm the next day “instead” of now. But right then I realized that she too was a person worth honoring, so I changed my mind and decided to stay and enjoy her company. The next day before three the thought came to my mind that she most likely didn’t understand the word “instead.” I went back at 3pm and she was standing there waiting for me. “I glad you come. You good man. Keep your word,” she said, even though in my mind we had concluded our business the day before. Big lesson on keeping your word. And the integrity of the common person. Both of us. Nothing and no one is insignificant. This is what I have learned from the people of the street.

Savin - my tuk-tuk driver
- click to enlarge -

When I was in Siem Reap over a year and a half ago, I found a wonderful tuk-tuk driver. He took me to the Angkor Wat temples for a day and then around the countryside the next day. I told him that next time I come to Siem Reap I would find him. Yesterday I found him. He was so happy to see me. He not only remembered me, he remembered everywhere he took me and things he had told me back then. “Remember we were here and I told you . . . It reminded me again that we have an impact on other people’s lives, usually without even thinking about it. This time he took me out in the country down dusty dirt roads. We went on one road for miles - most of the locals were walking, some road bicycles, now and then a scooter went by - but for a half hour I didn't see one car - not one parked somewhere - for miles not one car anywhere!

All the country children were so friendly - they
waved and smiled at me. The girl on the left had a
beautiful smile, but got all serious when I asked
to take her photo.

Country home

The Cambodians are very smart people. I was talking to a waitress last night. Her English was self-taught, like most of her friends. In Chiang Mai, even in the restaurants where its 90% foreign customers, hardly anyone speaks English. (which is why I continue to learn to speak Thai) Here is Siem Reap every food server, shop sales person, hotel bank employee, the hotel maids and ground keepers, tuk-tuk or taxi drivers - they all speak good English. The street hustler girls start working at five years old, and by the time they are ten their English is as perfect as any American teenager - their street smarts beyond any U.S. ten year old's imagination. By the way - the waitress felt she was very fortunate having her job. She has a manager who doesn't overwork her. She works nine hours a day, six days a week and gets a salary of $100 a month. That works out to $2 an hour. Her rent is $50 - so she lives on $50 a month. Her share of the tips isn't much. She is saving to buy a computer.

Country temple - click to enlarge -

Pow - my young wife (joking)

An out-going older western man like me in Asia (rich farang) needs to be discerning. The other day I had a two hour Khmer massage with an attractive, charmingly pure, sweet and innocent, 18 year old gal, Pow, pictured here. She spoke no English and I speak no Cambodian. But we realized that we both spoke Thai. We talked about all sorts of things and I learned about her life. She learned Thai while living in Pattaya for five months, working as a waitress. Here she works fourteen hours a day, seven days a week and has no possessions, except a cheap cell phone. I wondered if the stern looking manager even paid her, since she slept in the massage studio. At the end of the massage she said “I love you.” “I want to be your wife.” “I make you good wife.” “I go to Thailand with you.” I answered “I am an old man. You are a girl. You don’t want to marry an old man.” She answered, ‘I don’t care how old. I love you. I want to be your wife.” Now, I’m a 'man' and this is a willing young woman with a perfect looking body who says, “You come here eleven tomorrow night and I will go to your hotel and sleep with you. I Love You.” I’m sure she was standing outside the massage parlor last night waiting for me. I didn’t agree to come and didn’t show up. The right thing was not to engage in another’s unrealistic fantasy. It was best to pay for the service and walk away.

Angkor Wat Cambodia

I’m still writing novels. Last summer I completed my 580 page novel Shambala - The Path to Paradise. No matter how hard I tried, It attracted no one's attention - not an agent or publisher or yours--even my efforts to put it on Amazon as an ebook failed. I had previously worked on an American Indian parallel life story called Two Crows. In the Shambala story, the detectives arrive in Mandalay, Burma and I decided to inject the modern Two Crows - Lucky - a full-blood Blackfoot into the story. He becomes the lover of Taylor Banks, the beautiful detective from Portland, Oregon. They continue on the path to paradise together. It becomes a great love story and a significant ingredient that was missing from the last part of the original Two Crows story. A few months ago I decided to make the Shambala story a trilogy, beginning with Book One - Two Crows. I am now 240 pages into this wonderful story, which will lead right into the “Path to Paradise” story, which will be concluded with an espionage thriller, The Shambala Affair. You can read the first three chapters of Two Crows at my website: www.ki-earth.com

I'm in the first week of a four week vacation, of my life vacation. I will return to Thailand tomorrow and spend the rest of December near the ocean.

Please write and tell me about your “most important” life.

Love always,

David Dakan Allison