The Owl Outside My Window: Day eleven (I think) in Cambodia: "If you look into their eyes, you can see tears."

Riding elephants sounds like a wonderful idea, right? Until I got to the place near Bayon Temple and actually saw the elephants...and Vuttha told me they were crying...which made me choke back a couple tears...Who ever thought seeing and elephant at an ancient temple would be that emotional?

But tourism...I realized today as we went from Bayon, to Ta Prohm, and Angkor Wat, that we are annoying. And that I want no part of being the person who sticks his tongue out, and poses with his leg in the air next to the strangle tree at the jungle temple...Nope, no parts.

Nor do I want any parts of exploiting the elephants. When Vuttha told us we could ride them, I was thinking bare back, not elephants with carts strapped around their bodies. Knowing they are also endangered and that they are mistreated while being trained also turned me off BIG TIME. Who wants a fat American riding on their back in a tacky red and gold cart? I sure wouldn't want that, so why do the elephants have to?

The crying elephants

When you think of ancient temples, you think freedom to explore, nature, and serenity, right? Until you see the massive crowds, reconstruction, and all of the rules because of the tourists. I think that there were moments today where the tourist aspect of the temple visits really overshadowed it, but then there were moments of awe and amazement. I think the latter definitely outweighs the tourism. But yet, there is something about tourism that gets under my skin that I just haven't unwraveled yet. Since I'm tired and really need to lay down and try to sleep, I will leave you with some awesome pictures and maybe talk about the tension I am feeling about tourism while being in Siem Reap at a later date.