Sarnath and Buddhism: A Peaceful Respite from Varanasi

the Dhamekh Stupa in Sarnath, India

It’s been days with this flu or virus, or whatever it was that took over my energy and my voice. I feel mostly weak and so I sleep, but I feel so groggy the next day because of way too much sleep. I’d love to run but I couldn’t, and the monsoon season has been hovering in my country.

Given my normal job and the extra work I took for additional income for my travel fund, I feel like my mind has been loaded with too much numbers and excel files. Which I’m not complaining, by the way, because I love numbers and excel file, and of course the extra money. But also with this flu that’s been zapping my energy, I feel like I need to go into my creative side. I feel like I need to write.

And so I remember the time I felt so down during my travels, physically and emotionally. It was Varanasi, the one place I was so excited to see and experience. But it proved to be too much for me – the burning ceremonies by the ghats, the claustrophobic and confusing alleyways, the men who insistently follow you, the dirt and smell that didn’t use to bother me but were magnified during our stay in the holy city. And at the end of our third day there, I started to get sick. A stomach flu that slowly got me dehydrated, feverish, and weak.

Phnom Penh : Surviving and Healing

bracelets that people have left behind, 
probably to tell those who lay in the fields that people were there
and that they will always remember

My first trip in Cambodia was back in 2010 with a group of friends exploring the temples of Angkor Wat. I remember meeting Mr. Sam, our tour guide who was a survivor of the Khmer Rouge Occupation. He told us his stories of the Occupation and of the loved ones he’s lost. I remember trying to stop, or at least hide, my tears as he told us his tragic and inspiring story. On our last day in Siem Reap, he took us to a Buddhist monastery where skulls and bones of the victims were put into a memorial. I told myself that someday I would have to visit Phnom Penh and maybe have the courage to visit the other memorials.