Yangmingshan and Plans for Cambodia

Today was the first day back at school, so I saw all my little students again. They were all happy to be back at school and play with each other, which is gratifying to see (especially since they used to cry every day).

This weekend B and I went hiking at Yangmingshan National Park, which is a very mountainous and beautiful area close to Taipei. We climbed Mt. Tatun and admired the view of greater Taipei, which was unfortunately somewhat obscured by smog. The air looked so dirty! For that reason alone I was glad to get some time in the relatively clean air of Yangmingshan.

We will be traveling to Thailand and Cambodia soon with B's Dad. Afterwards he will stay in Taipei for a few days before traveling on to Hong Kong solo. We will be going to Angkor Wat, which I am very excited about. I have been trying to learn something about it and its history is quite interesting. The temples are mostly Hindu, because when they were built (800-1440), Cambodia was officially a Hindu country, with a cult of the divine god-king (who was an incarnation of Shiva, one of the three most important Hindu gods). Cambodia now is Buddhist. Angkor Wat was "forgotten" (at least by the outside world) until 1860, when a young French botanist stumbled across rumors of its existence from local peasants and decided to explore. He died less than a year later in the jungle of fever, but his journals were published and sparked public interest. Since then Angkor Wat has been famous and a tourist attraction.