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Hello everyone!
Greetings from the beaches of Ko Lanta (Thailand) Between the bamboo beer garden, the snorkeling, and the massage huts, I’ve found a bit of time to write the next travel update…Combodia. It was quite a week in Cambodia, but I made it (well, my stomach would disagree) and it was quite a fascinating journey.
So we last left in off in the Mekong Delta of southern Vietnam. The final day in Vietnam, I started off in Cho Doc, where I got to see one of the many Muslim villages, thier mosque, and thier river life. The sight of Muslims in Vietnam was only slightly more surprising then seeing the hordes of Israeli tourists here….at least they all seem to get along.
A quick speedboats takes us to a border post (a set of huts along the river…easily mistaken for a resort, with volleyball nets, pools, etc.) …. a Cambodian in uniform looks at my visa, my passport, then spends about 5 minutes making a multicolored stamp in my passports (yes, took about 6 stamps of different colors….they sure like thier colors) By far the most artistic stamp in my passport. Hmmm….country does’t look so poor from here?
ok, end of fiction, up the river to reality. Phnom Penh, the capital city. So this must have been how the wild west really was. Kids walking around with guns, dirty dusty roads….I almost expect Clint Eastwood to walk out at any moment. But ok, time to see the sights…lets see what tourists attractions they have here….
I’m off to see the sights….first, the killing fields. Just a field outside the city, with many unearthed skulls (look closely to see if they were shot or crushed) neatly stacked in a memorial building, the ditches which served as mass graves, and signs in English describing how many people came from each ditch and how they died (for the few who don’t find everything self explanatory). Its awefully quite here…eerily so….only the little kids break the silence, playing here and begging for money…makes for such a contrast to the rest of the site. A bit more ironic is all the German tourists here….you’d think they’d get enough of this stuff back home….
Part II of this trip is the Torture Musuem. During Pol Pot’s days, victims were first taken to a former High school, called S-21, where they were tortured, and then taken to the killing fields. S-21 is now a Museum….you can walk through all the rooms, see the incredibly primitive nature of prison and if you still don’t quite get it, there’s an hour long movie to show you just what went on.
And despite of all this legacy, the people are very friendly…even in this big city (and more so in the smaller villages)….so much friendlier then the Vietnamese. That was my biggest surprise…the people don’t show much in the way of bitterness or hatred….just the hardships of life. And life is hard here….the country has so little infrastructure, then even most food for tourists has to be brought over from Thailand (obvously the locals don’t have this luxury).
Now the evening rolls around, and after what I’ve seen today, I really need a drink. Figuring its time to see the city away from the tourists, this quiet American ventures off to a far away bar. No tourists here…just expats (expats in this city consist of U.N. staff, do-gooder N.G.O. people, and your assorted businessmen).
They are amazed when they find out that I just ‘came’ here, without the apparently standard bodygaurd/driver. (ok, I’ll be more careful next time..). Now I notice, the bar is full of westerners inside, but right outside are a row of white cars, each with a patiently waiting bodygaurd. hmmm….not the usual way of bar-hopping.
So I meet some really interesting people here. One guy works at Radio Free Asia (are we still fighting commies?), another guy is trying to save bears in Cambodia (I guess they step on landmines too?). Finally I chat with this Bulgarian guy. After finishing his military service in the Bulgarian special forces, he opened his security agency here Phnom Penh (definetly the most lucrative line of work). He says he personally trained the Prime Minister’s bodygaurds….his 3 bullet hole scars help to convince me. But even he is shocked that I came to bar alone (jeez, how dangerious can it be?). After a few drinks, and some conversation in russian, he tells me the latest inside story about Cambodian politics. Fascinating stuff (lets just say, expect a bit of civil war in the city in the next few months).
Ok, its late, and I don’t think I should push my luck, so I ask the Bulgarian for help getting a lift home. no problem….a nice, heavily armed gentleman drives me back to my guesthouse. Ok, end of my bar hopping days in this city.
This is just more excitement then I can handle, so I go north, to find what I hope are more boring places. On the way up, I see a sign on the road near a construction site, “safety first”…..all of us look stunned out the window….never has sign looked so out of place! On to Siem Reap. This is where you stay to see Angkor Wat. Ah, nice small city, and hey, its safe to walk here after dark (such simple pleasures!) This is also where you get to see all the one legged, one armed beggers (Cambodia is the land mine capital of the world!) Apperantly begging from tourists is thier only welfare support system. Its also a subtle reminder of why tour guides keep yelling to us to stay on the path and not wonder off.
Angkor Wat — Angkor Wat is supposed to be the largest religious site in the world….nothing like touring an outdoor site this large in 100 degree weather! It is quite the place, almost a square mile! They must have kept thier gods very happy here. Each wall has engraved paintings, depicting legendary stories from different ages.
Well, that’s it for Cambodia. Definetly the saddest country I’ve been to. And the only country I’ve seen with such little hope for the future….still ruled by a dictator who takes most of the country’s money, funded by the ever imcompetent U.N. (who’s money goes almost exclusively to fund corrupt government workers).
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