“Never Start A Land War in Asia…”

But only slightly less well-known is this: Never give a Cambodian barber free reign. The result could leave you lamenting the fact that you left your hair clippers back in the US.

I however had yet to hear this sage piece of advice. Furthermore, I started talking with a guy in the chair next to me. Before I knew it, I had a haircut that only a 17-year old Khmer guy could love: a full blown Mohawk that went all the way down to the back of my head, where, astonishingly, my hair had been shaved to come to a point. Oh, with a rat-tail intact.

That lasted about 2 seconds. I had him fix the back, but I was still left with the tightest Khmer tween haircut ever. So, I asked him to make the Mohawk a bit shorter. Reasonable request, no? Well, something was lost in translation and he proceeded to cut only the ridgeline of the Mohawk really short. This left me with…I dunno, a reverse Mohawk?

At this point, I gave up hope and just paid him $4 for the haircut, walked directly across the street to “7 Elephants” (the Khmer version of 7-11) and bought a pair of scissors. Tried to fix it, tried to make it somewhat presentable, but this was beyond repair.

My friend Randall spent last summer here. This year, he wisely brought his hair clippers with him. Someone had obviously told him about starting land wars in Asia…

A Brief Aside

Ideally, this blog would focus exclusively on Cambodia, as there is more than enough going on here to fill these here Internets. However, this bit on China in "Lens," the NYTimes' photojournalism blog, caught my eye.

It contains some of the most visceral pictures I've seen documenting China's pollution crisis. They are from Lu Guang, a freelance photographer, who just won $30k from some award.

Check it out.

Take that, Yemen!

The United Nations' Development Programme (UNDP) recently released its Human Development Index report, which rates the quality of life in 182 countries. Norway took the top prize, followed by Australia, with Iceland, Canada, and Ireland rounding out the Top 5. The U.S. checked in at Lucky Number 13. And how about my current, adopted homeland of Cambodia? Well, let's take a look:

Hmmm...Estonia, no. Mexico, no. Libya, no...

Still looking...Belarus, no. Grenada, no. Kazakhstan, no(?).

Must be around here somewhere...Lebanon, Algeria, the Occupied Palestinian Authorities...

BAM.

#133. Laos
#134. India
#135. Solomon Island
#136. Congo
#137. Cambodia
#138. Myanmar

Wow, that's quite a neighborhood.

Cambodia beat out such illustrious states as: Yemen (140), Pakistan (141), Haiti (149), and then basically all of sub-Saharan Africa.

All in all, however, I must say how much I've enjoyed my first week here in Cambodia, living in Phnom Penh. While I will certainly have more to say on the quality of life here and the pros and cons of living here, for now suffice it to say that I would rather being living here than in Congo.

Angkor Wat(er)

My friend Nate and I spent last weekend climbing and exploring the ancient Khmer city of Angkor (802-1431AD). At its height, Angkor was the pre-imminent civilization in Southeast Asia, controlling land and projecting military power into parts of Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand. The Angkor Empire achieved much of its power and wealth through its mastery of hydrology- that is, water. National Geographic had a cover story on the civilization in July 2009. It's well worth the read, plus there are some cool interactive features, too.

Angkor was able to harness the powers of the Monsoon rains, creating run-off basins that would remain full well into the dry season. Through a series of incredibly advanced dams and irrigation canals, Angkor was able to harvest rice up to three times a year (as opposed to the normal one time of most other contemporaneous civilizations). This allowed Angkor to accumulate huge amounts of wealth.

In turn, the rulers of the ancient civilization, who viewed themselves as god-kings, used much of this wealth to construct ancient temples, such as the majestic Angkor Wat, the largest religious building in the world. The temples at Angkor comprise, in my opinion, the most amazing sites I have ever seen on this earth. That's right, I said it.

So, given this mastery of hydraulics, it was ironic to say the least that the entire town that borders the ancient temples was completely flooded while we were there. Siem Reap was indeed flooded. The temples, with one exception shown above, were dry as could be. In the town center however, there was anywhere from 3-24 inches of water in the streets.

The flooding was caused, not by the French as an Italian friend suggested, but by the heavy rains of Typhoon Ketsana, which absolutely demolished the Philippines a few days prior. Given that we only had to deal with wet feet and gloriously dry temples, we were pretty lucky.