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Published: January 9th 2008
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Hello from Cambodia!
I want to respond to Uncle Barry's inquiry into my comparison of the Kiwis and the Aussies first. Of course I can't accurately compare the two because I had much more time in New Zealand than I did in Australia resulting in less time interacting with any "authentic" Aussies. Whatever that may be. But I did notice that the Kiwi seemed to be very laid back, with an I'll get around to it when I get around to it attitude. Kinda like a Texan, but a little more environmentally conscious 😊 Almost all of the Kiwis I interacted with joked around with me as well.
As I said, I didn't have much interaction with the Aussies, really only tourist related interactions, so I don't think I can really give a great example of their essence, but they appeared to be much like the Kiwi in the laid back attitude way, but a little more reserved and not quite as jokey. I don't know if that helps much, but that is what I noticed based on my time in the two countries.
Alright so I will catch you up to what we have done over the
past 2 days. We got up early to catch a bus from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh which took about 6 hours in total. The road was paved though, so it was much nicer of a ride than the bumpy road from hell, from Poipet to Siem Reap. Upon arriving in downtown Phnom Penh we were bombarded with people yelling "tuk tuk" as we exited the bus. It was pretty crazy for a bit there, but we managed to escape with all of our money still on our persons.
We got a hotel room for $6 for the three of us with two beds. Kam and I shacked up and I made him make the bed 😊
We explored the city for a few hours, checking out the local museum that had many great old sculptures from the 6th-14th centuries. The style of sculpture seems to be very much Egyptian influenced, including the idea of the king back in the day being considered a God-King. They totally ripped off the Egyptians.
A couple of Cambodians beckoned me over to the Koi pond and jokingly told me to reach in and eat some fish 😊 I just love
the people here. They are actually a lot like the Kiwi, they have a very fun sense of humor to them, and they enjoy trying to speak English to people like us whenever they can. Learning English helps them acquire better jobs in the tourist industry, so it seems that they practice as much as possible. I also greatly enjoy when children wave to me and say hello. I always wave back with a big grin on my face 😊 They are too cute.
Today was pretty intense emotionally for me because we visited Tuol Sleng, the Khmer Rouge's detention and torture center, and the Killing Fields, where it is estimated that around 1 million Cambodians were executed during the atrocious genocide under Pol Pot, that occured from 1975-1979. The detention center had pretty horrible pictures of prisoners who had been tortured and lay bloodied and dead. I walked through many of the torture rooms that were little more than a window and a bed where the unforgivable actions took place. Reading that children were forced to kill their friends and family made me sick to my stomach. My stomach felt terrible by the end of the whole experience.
Seeing the pictures and reading stories of the family members who lost loved ones was absolutely heart breaking for me.
It was especially interesting to read modern interviews of the people who took part in the torture and killing. They said that they really didn't have a choice, either do what they were told or they would be killed. I can't imagine being put in a situation like that.
After the museum we took a tuk tuk to one of the killing fields. Again it was pretty difficult to walk around the site and read the signs that explained where the truck loads of people came to be killed as soon as they got off, or where the children were killed. I hope we as a species have learned from these horrible atrocities of our past, to grow and become more understanding and open to one another. I would recommend reading up about the whole incident of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. It is a very upsetting but important part of history that everyone should know about so as to prevent it from ever happening again.
On that sombering note, I bid you adou.
Daniel
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