CAMBODIA!!

Hello hello - I've just returned from cambodia! We had a few days holiday in vietnam, and it was past time for me to get away, so I decided on cambodia. Since I came to Vietnam, I'd been hoping to visit ANgkor Wat, the world's largest religious building in the world, and one of the seven known wonders of the world!!! I'd been hoping that I'd have time to get there before my return to the states.

I came here with two people I know from Saigon, but I didn't know them that well - Sam and Mel. Nonethelesss, they're good travel companions. It's quite cheap to get to Cambodia, only $6 bus fare to Phnom Phen, and then another $4 to Siem Reap (home of Angkor Wat). When we first arrived in Phnom Phen, I was at a loss as to why the capitol city (and presumably the rest of the country) was so much less advanced than Vnam. No buildings exceed 5 stories, some of the streets aren't paved, it's dirtier, things are much less advanced eventhough both countires have a recent tragic past.

A Brief Recent History: Going to Cambodia was quite an eye-opening experience. Let me start off by saying that I didn't know much about Cambodia before I came to Asia - I knew that Pol Pot was a dictator here...and that was it. I had no idea how numerous or terrifying the atrocities that he committed were. During the time he was in power (1975-78) he exterminated anyone and everyone who was remotely suspected of potentially working against him. This includes intellectuals, lawyers, doctors, people who sang songs from the time before his reign, people who wore glasses...essentially anyone who might (in his mind) be considered intelligent or sympathetic to the old ways. When he came to power, he, along with the Khmer Rouge, forced everyone out of cities and into the countryside to work and grow rice and vegetables. His people were literally starving to death, working in the countryside harvesting an excess of crops that they weren't allowed to eat. I can't imagine starving to death and being surrounded by food that I wasn't allowed to eat. (Incidentally, the crops were used to pay back debts to the Chinese government, so the country was further destroyed by famine). As a result of his overzealous desire for 'advanced socialism', approximately 40% of cambodia's population is under 15 years old.

Throughout the 1980's, the west tried to offer some support to those Cambodians committed to fighting against the Khmer Rouge. The UK trained men how to plant landmines - the only problem is that the Khmer Rouge also benefitted from this information, which they later used as part of their scare tactics in the mid-late 1980's. They planted landmines in streets, in rice paddies, in the jungles...essentially anywhere and everywhere. So, when you walk through the streets, there are many amputees begging and there are tons of street children (many more than I notice in Vnam). In addition to those who have already lost (part of) their limbs, there is the constant threat that undiscovered landmines will go off, so many parts of the country can not be developed for farming or transport. It takes hundreds of dollars to diffuse one landmine, so it's a slow process that they don't really have the money for.

I went to Cambodia for two reasons: 1) to see Angkor Wat, 2) to gain a better understanding of this country and it's recent history. That being said, this trip was both fascinating and sobering. My first day in Phenom Penh, we went to S-21, a prison where they detained and tortured people who were suspected of working aginst the Khmer Rouge. It's quite gruesome - still brown/red stuff (blood?) on the floors. The walls in each room are adorned with blurry black and white photos of prisoners after they'd been tortured and disemboweled, their bodies contorted and unnatural; the poor quality of the photos only confuses the lines of reality for your mind, allowing plenty of room for the imagination to fill in.

My second day in PP, I went to visit the Killing Fields - the complement to S-21. After they were sufficientlt totured, most prisoners were transported here to await execution. The compound contains a large multiple story stupa, which houses many of the skulls of victims. Same old story concerning mass executions: prisoners forced to dig holes which became mass graves. Rather than waste ammunition, the Khmer Rouge often killed traitors with a blow to the head via miscellaneous other agricultural tools (ie: hoe, shovel, etc). Some of the skulls in the stupa contain gruesome chunks missing from the skulls, evidence of how they were killed. While the skulls were sobering, what was really quite bizarre was the atmosphere of the place. Despite its haunting past, children were playing and running around in the fields, amoungst the graves. They ran up to visitors in twos, and grinning <gasp> chanted, "you take picture! smile, one, two three!". Or, for the tourist who wants a more authenitc photo, they opted to stand behind the barbed wire fences, donning less of a grin. My reaction was a mixture of a) digust with the tourists who would support this behavior -- and then pay them!! Thus reinforcing the business aspect, and b) fascination at the pragmatism and apparent lack of empathy that their behavior embodied. I tried to imagine that sort of thing at a concentration camp - small Jewsih children running and playing amongst the crematoriums...it just wouldn'y fly.

Anyway, the second leg of the trip, Siem Reap and Angkor Wat, was a much different experience. I spent the first day trekking through the jungle, seatching out old temples. It was the closest to Indiana Jones that I'll ever come -- actually, part of 'Tomb Raider' was filmed here because it's a perfectly accessible premade movie set! (and yes, I spent the better part of a day looking for the Tomb Raider Tree until I found it...who could resist? Why bask in the splendor of a Wonder of the World when you can search out the latest scrap of POP CULTURE??) The second day, we biked to the temples from town (a staggering 7 kilometeres - really, it was a bit difficult for me!) We walked around Angkor Wat and Bayorn, two really large temples (see photos). There's not much to say about the complex - attempting to describe it is futile. It's a fascinating, beautiful place, not really to comparable to anywhere else that I've been.

All in all, I give Cambodia ***1/2!! But I still like my HCMC better.

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