Cambodia

February 28, 2008

We are back in KL after 1 week in Cambodia and 1 week in Thailand. Our trip was awesome; I have so many stories to tell, so many thoughts and impressions I am trying to make sense of, and thanks to Casey about 400 pictures. Our trip covered so much ground and we saw and experienced so many things worth relating that I don't know where to begin. Forgive me if this post becomes a little jumbled as I am not even going to attempt to organize my thoughts.

I will, however start at the beginning. We had a 7am flight on Wednesday 13th. The airport is an hour away and since we had to clear customs we decided to be at the airport early. We planned on leaving the house at 4:45am. Guess what time we woke up? 6:15am That is too late to get to the airport on time and we missed our flight. NO kidding - we missed our flight. It turns out Casey set the alarm for 4:15PM not 4:15am. We did not set a second alarm, trusting our internal alarms which failed miserably. We tried and tried and tried to get a later flight or even a flight the next day but in the end we had to wait until Friday and pay an additional $400. I was so psyched I could barely contain my happiness. Actually I am pretty calm when bad stuff happens. Miss a flight: "oh well, no big deal, we'll catch another one". Stroke out: "so it goes, what can you do". Total the car: "no problem, it's only a car". It's the little stuff that makes me crazy. Tape the wrong channel on the VCR, spill coffee on myself, stub my toe: watch out, that's the stuff worth spazzing out about.

Friday we made our flight and we were in Siem Reap, Cambodia having coffee with Drew and Erin by 9am. Cambodia was awesome! Cambodia was depressing! I knew very little about Cambodia last month. I knew it was a poverty stricken country, I knew it had a recent violent history, and I knew a few buzz words; Khmer Rouge, Pol Pot, landmines. I have since been educated about Cambodia, past and present, and it is a culturally rich, startling, amazing, and harrowing history. I recommend the book First They Killed My Father by Loung Ung - it's a slim volume but an insightful personal account of life during the Khmer Rouge.

Before I get to our stories and pictures I feel I should mention a bit about Cambodia's history. Angkor Wat: Angkor was the center of Cambodia's ancient Khmer empire. This vast network of temples and cities was built between the 9th and 13th centuries. The ancient Khmer empire was massive, ruling much of SE Asia and the largest city, Angkor Wat, had a population totaling 1 million people while London at that time could only boast a modest 50,000. Angkor Wat is a symbol of pride for Cambodian people, as it should be. This is definitely the pinnacle of human achievement at the time and one of the wonders of the world. The scale and detail of the wats (temples) is breathtaking. Every inch of every stone is carved in intricate and beautiful detail. This is the amazing and awe inspiring part of Cambodia.

The dark and sinister side is the Khmer Rouge: In 1969 Cambodia was sucked into the Vietnam War. Carpet bombings, invasion, and coups were the norm until 1975 when the Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot, seized power. In a radical social experiment the Khmer Rouge forced everyone out of the cities and into the countryside where they attempted to create a moaist, agrarian cooperative. The Khmer Rouge tortured and executed anyone they considered a threat; educated people, people who spoke foreign languages, anyone not of pure Khmer blood, those who wore glasses, and the family members of those suspected. There is little rhyme or reason to who the Khmer Rouge suspected and who they killed, eventually turning on themselves. It was a brutal and horrific time and the population lived in fear. 20% of the population died between 1976-1979. 20% of the population died of either starvation, disease, torture, or execution.

We visited S-21 prison, the Khmer Rouge's largest detention and torture center, the killing fields, where thousands were executed in the most horrific manner imaginable, and the land mine museum. I will spare you the details of these visits but they offered a glimpse into the darkest side of humanity. I would argue that a sense of this horror still underlines life in Cambodia. Anyone 30 years or older would have lived through these atrocities. Anyone 30 years or older would have lost a loved one to the violence. Cambodia is trying to recover from this recent and brutal past but signs of it linger around every corner; mass poverty, begging on a scale I have never witnessed, limbless land mine victims. Although Angkor Wat was awe inspiring and the countryside was breathtaking, Cambodia was a very grim place.

We did, however, have an awesome time and I have the pics to prove it.

A few odd curiosities about Cambodia: Although Cambodia has its own currency everyone uses the US dollar. Cambodia has the best food I have ever eaten! Thank God for the French - I know, I can't believe I said it either, but the French colonialists left a legacy of baguettes, cheese, and pastries easily found at any cafe. Motorcycles are Asia's primary mode of transportation but Cambodians take it to another level. I saw a family of four on one motorcycle. This is not an uncommon sight, what was uncommon though was that this family of four included a mother breastfeeding her baby. Beer is SO cheap. In Malaysia beer is expensive and sometimes difficult to come by. In Cambodia beer is cheap and it is everywhere. Sometimes it is the cheapest thing on the menu so as a budget conscious traveler I made sure I drank my share.

Angkor Wat entrance


So many temples


Giant Faces
The detail is amazing - every inch of every temple


Nature takes over

Worshipers at a giant Buddha


Casey and Ben with massive tree roots

are you kidding - how cool

An elephant walking down the street in Phnom Penh - what?


Why is this monkey so fat? We came across a troop of seriously obese monkeys

Cambodian Landscape - padi fields and huts





Memorial at the Killing Fields - look closely

In Cambodia everything goes as far as food is concerned; snake, prawn, cricket, betel, chicken feet, and some gross looking grub. Yumm!!
Eight legged delights - giant spiders for sale as food