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Published: August 6th 2007
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serving all of your Gas needs: premium, unleaded and diet. It was like the huge temples roared at us. Even from the first sight of the drawing of the Cambodian flag in the distance, in the border between Thailand and Cambodia. It was an adventure to cross from Bangkok to Siam Reap. A full day adventure. We got on a bus from Bangkok to Aranyaprathet at 6am. Aranyaprathet is a border crossing town. From the station the only way to get to the border is by tuk-tuk. The poverty here is already a reflection of what we would see in Cambodia. After crossing the border on foot, excited about reaching the high-point of our trip, we got a "cab" to Siam Reap. Throughout all of our life (including travelling) me and my brother make a point to treat everyone as equals. So we shared the little food we had with the much grateful driver, whose only words we could understand was when he asked: "Pee-pee???" and stopped at the side of the deteriorated dirt roads.
We arrived in Siam Reap to look for our reservations at the much recommended Earthwalkers guesthouse. This small but clean guesthouse was exactly what I wanted. The owners, originally from Norway, seemed very committed to
Angkor Wat
speechless improve this poor country. They had founded numerous projects and supported organizations for the social growth of Cambodia. Their employees received almost double of what most 5-star hotels here pay (still not much...about 35 dollars a month). The staff was very friendly, and seemed most interested in knowing more about our country, Brasil (which not even our famous soccer was known here). We shared great respect for each other's countries. When I asked about the Khmer Rouge (dictatorship that controlled the country in violence between 1975 and the mid 80s) the voices lowered and a residual sense of fear took over.
Dok (who we nicknamed Doc. Brown, in reference to Back to the Future), would be our tuk-tuk driver for the day, to see the temples. And we started in great stile, arriving early at Angkor Wat. Mind-blowing. At the first site of it, you stop... you simply stop. It is unbelievable. And there is so much energy flowing in this place, I couldn't help to feel overwhelmed by it. And in such way the first and second day at Angkor followed. So many temples with such specific characteristics. It all seemed endless. I could picture myself here, at
the prime of the Khmer empire, at the rise of Angkor. We decided to keep Doc as our driver throughout our stay in Siam Reap. He seemed pleased by this. It seems most of the tourists that come here do not care much about the people of this great country. Doc became our good friend, and we treated him with equality. If we ate, he ate. If we drank, he drank even if there would me a bit less to go around (remember, there is a reason you don't see many brazilians in SE Asia: we are not rich!). We also found great friends in Nari, Enyeng and Samnieng, from Earthwalkers.
On the third day, on a suggestion made by Enyeng we decided to visit the distant, rawer temple of Bang Malea. It took about an hour and a half on a tuk-tuk to get there. But the scenery on the way was marvelous. The people of Cambodia seem to embrace us wherever we go. Families living in small shacks at the side of the road struggled to survive on small rice plantations, yet their cheerful children smiled and waved, practicing their limited English as our tuk-tuk passed screaming
"Hi!" and going right back to doing back-flips into the ponds formed by the recent monsoons. Bang Malea was definitely my favorite temple. It was completely dominated by the thick vegetation of the jungle surroundings. As we climbed through windows and up fallen walls like children after watching Indiana Jones, I noticed that Doc was following us closely and his eyes seemed to sparkle. I was shocked when he told me that he had never entered Bang Malea in the seven years he worked as a tuk-tuk driver in Siam Reap.
For the last day in Siam Reap, I decided to split from my brother Robert, since he wanted to go back to Angkor and I was quite "templed-out" and more eager to explore more of the culture of the common people here. At Earthwalkers, I had met Ken Oishi, a norwegian-japanese that had been living in Cambodia, starting projects to improve the life of Cambodians. I made plans to visit some orphanages and projects with him. The poverty is very visible in the outskirts of the city. As we visited one of the "better" orphanages, Ken told me that it was great that they finally had a toilet
and running water. I was quick to identify that a water filter, donated to the orphanage, had a mosquito larvae contamination due to a crack on the rock lid of the reservatoir. I also got to visit the local getaway of West Baray, a huge lake left by the khmer empire, that worked as a beach for the locals to cool themselves from the intense heat. I shared some sticky-rice with the children that played in the water. I finished the day volunteering a bit at the Children's Hospital.
We left for Phnom Penh at 6 am the next morning, and were amazed to see the whole Earthwalkers staff (even those who were off-duty) rushing into work to see us off. We exchanged e-mail addresses and hugs as we said our good-byes.
Phnom Penh
We arrived Phnom Penh under a lot of rain, to meet a driver from the guesthouse. As the raining ceased, we took a stroll to the riverside area, and the museum. I am not keen on museums, so I mostly waited on Robert. Phnom Penh is a surprising city. The mix of oriental and french architecture creates an interesting environment. The other
side of the story is seeing the large population of mutilated beggars, probably victims of the horrors of the recent civil wars and other struggles.
Near the city were the infamous Killing Fields, which we visited the next day. As I walked in to the area of the mass graves used by the Khmer Rouge a strong force overwhelmed me, and I needed to get away for a few moments to recompose myself. The Khmer Rouge regime is remembered mainly for the deaths of an estimated 1.5 million people (estimates range from 850,000 to 3 million) under its regime, through execution, starvation and forced labor. Although directly responsible for the death of a large amount of that number, the policies of the Khmer Rouge led many others to die from starvation and displacement. In terms of the number of people killed as a proportion of the population of the country it ruled, it was one of the most lethal regimes of the 20th century. One of their mottos, in reference to the New People, was: "To keep you is no benefit. To destroy you is no loss.". This was easily seen and felt at the Killing Fields, where about
15000 bodies were found.
From there we headed to the S21 concentration camp, where supposedly, out of the 14000 prisioners that passed there, only 7 people survived. The presence of yellow blood stains on the walls, and the rusty barbed wire that surrounded this place of torture and suffering gave me chills. The S21 was once a high-school, prior to the domination by the Khmer Rouge. It should now be a school to teach the World to never let violence and cruelty like this to take place. Graphitti on the wall, in bright blood-red, said "NEVER AGAIN!".
Peace.
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