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Most Cambodians consider themselves to be Khmers, whose Angkor Empire extended over much of Southeast Asia and reached its zenith between the 10th and 13th centuries. Subsequently, attacks by the Thai and Cham (from present-day Vietnam) weakened the empire ushering in a long period of decline. In 1863, the king of Cambodia placed the country under French protection; it became part of French Indochina in 1887. Following Japanese occupation in World War II, Cambodia became independent within the French Union in 1949 and fully independent in 1953. After a five-year struggle, Communist Khmer Rouge forces captured Phnom Penh in April 1975 and ordered the evacuation of all cities and towns; at least 1.5 million Cambodians died from execution, enforced hardships, or starvation during the Khmer Rouge regime under POL POT. A December 1978 Vietnamese invasion drove the Khmer Rouge into the countryside, led to a 10-year Vietnamese occupation, and touched off almost 13 years of civil war. The 1991 Paris Peace Accords mandated democratic elections and a ceasefire, which was not fully respected by the Khmer Rouge. UN-sponsored elections in 1993 helped restore some semblance of normalcy and the final elements of the Khmer Rouge surrendered in early 1999. Factional fighting in 1997 ended the first coalition government, but a second round of national elections in 1998 led to the formation of another coalition government and renewed political stability. The July 2003 elections were relatively peaceful, but it took one year of negotiations between contending political parties before a coalition government was formed. Nation-wide local elections are scheduled for 2007 and national elections for 2008. To be updated

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By Ezeur
June 20th 2005

First Day at Angkor

Asia » Cambodia » North » Angkor

Angkor Wat
Sunrise at the most famous of Cambodian temples.

I'm glad we waited a couple weeks instead of coming here first thing. The anticipation has been building and it was well worth the wait. Anisa suggested going to see sunrise over Angkor Wat, the main temple, which sounded like a wonderful idea to me. I didn't realize that if we watched the sunrise at 6am we would have to leave town in our tuk tuk at 5am, which meant waking up around 4"3O am. It was easier than I thought it would be and was a pleasure to be up at that hour since it's not swelteringly hot and humid [View Full Entry]

By Tanner
June 20th 2005

Clinical Fun!

Asia » Cambodia » South » Kampot

Even though I’d imagine the worst in terms of health care while mentally preparing for Cambodia, the reality still shocks me. After one morning at the Kep Referral Hospital, we’d been confronted with: 1) Active TB with severe lung scarring on the chest x-ray 2) Chronic glandular TB 3) 2 pediatric cases of typhoid fever 4) 1 adult case of typhoid fever 5) severe pitting edema with a 6 inch long abscess and rheumatoid arthritis Let’s just say that the Canadian medical school curriculum, with it’s weeks of heart attacks, stroke, cancer and Alzheimer’s isn&rs [View Full Entry]

By Tanner
June 17th 2005

The Epitome of Trendy!

Asia » Cambodia » South » Kampot

What’s Hot in Kep -the weather -30-60 min morning motorbike commute -4 inch wide paths between rice paddies -emaciated feral dogs running loose -bullocks, dogs, chickens and pigs in the middle of the road -free brown highlighted hair due to malnutrition -open-air air-conditioning with topnotes of eau de manure -people 5’6” and under -rice, rice, rice, and more rice -being first in line to diagnose TB, typhoid and acromegaly What’s Not in Kep -snow -8 min morning walk to MSB, the UofT meds’ dungeon -4 lane wide highways -l [View Full Entry]

By Ezeur
June 16th 2005

Bokor National Park

Asia » Cambodia » South » Kampot

Looking Down From Bokor
At a few points along the road we could peek out from under the canopy and see how high up we'd come. This is looking south towards the ocean.

Bokor was made a park in 1993, so it's still a new part of the budding national park system here. Anisa has wanted to visit it for quite some time and it's a common day trip out of Kampot, so we decided to give it a shot. I'll admit the road was rougher than I had expected, and sitting was out of the question that evening, but it was beautiful up there. The humidity and even the heat droped away as we climed up the "mountain". It might be a hill in Idaho, but compared to the rice paddies around it [View Full Entry]

By Ezeur
June 13th 2005

Serendipity Beach

Asia » Cambodia » South » Sihanoukville

Southern Cambodian Countryside
I couldn't help taking a few pictures as we passed through the country, the rice fields are just glowing with the green of newly sprouted plants.

Anisa needed a break after her last week of school so we went directly out to the beach on Monday. It's technically the rainy season - though it hasn't really rained much yet - so we were almost the only tourists there. It was very relaxing and we didn't do much besides sit around on the beach reading. I've been feeling pretty sick since Sunday morning: stomach cramps, probably from eating poorly washed vegetables in Vietnam. Poorly washed doesn't just mean washed with tap water it can mean washed in the river or not washed at all. The south along the [View Full Entry]

By Tanner
June 13th 2005

Attending the Attending

Asia » Cambodia » South » Kampot

Cambodia's sure full of surprises. And creepy crawlies. So far in and around the house, there have been sightings of: 2 scorpions, innumerable geckos and ants, 1 spider, and a large lizard who's taken up residence in one of my colleague's rooms. All in the span of 2 days. But the real surprise was the rather unexpected clinical experience us three meddies received the other night. It was a good thing we ended the year with brain and behaviour topics, because we had to manage a 45 minute generalized tonic-clonic epileptic seizure with clonus down the entire left side. Our supervisor [View Full Entry]

By Tanner
June 11th 2005

Who Knew Pant Legs Were Important?

Asia » Cambodia » South » Kampot

I think that I needed this trip, after the academic tumult and emotional histrionics that has characterized this last school year. The change to this rural setting has been surprisingly easy, full of sunshine, languor and rest. My brain is revelling in the lack of hyperkinetic memorization, wallowing contentedly from each full night of sleep like an elephant who’s just found a mud patch. The slower pace has also allowed me to rediscover the red, orange and yellow end of the colour spectrum as I relearned how to drive a 100 cc scooter. Culture and perception is a funny thing. Put [View Full Entry]

By Em and Andy
June 10th 2005

Bokor national park

Asia » Cambodia » South » Kampot

The church at bokor

Since i last wrote we have been down to sihanoukville, where the beaches are. We found a lovely guesthouse which had a balcony over looking the sea. Unfortunately for us the day we got there was also the day thre rain decided to come and never stop!! So we didnt get much beach action! We did though, manage to arrange our visa here for vietnam in only 1/2 hr which was pretty impressive instead of hanging around for a few days. After here we made our way to Kampot in a share taxi and actualy we didnt have to share it [View Full Entry]

By Tanner
June 9th 2005

Metaphorically meteorologically

Asia » Cambodia

The weather today's been fabulous - cooler than Toronto is apparently. It's been raining and cloudy all day and there's tons of breeze, so it was pretty comfortable when we went around to the Operational District Office, the Health Centres and the Referral Hospital today. We'll be starting to get up and running for next week. The weather in Cambodia's a bit like a moody mistress - hot and sweltering during the day with brief thundershowers followed by clear clear skies and more spitting rain at night. As we lunched the other day, the weather went from white clouds to grey [View Full Entry]

By Tanner
June 5th 2005

My love affair with fans

Asia » Cambodia » South » Phnom Penh

It's 8am Sunday morning and I'm safe and very warm typing this up in an internet cafe in Phnom Penh. The journey over was actually quite pleasant. Air Canada's really improved their international service to keep up with the Asian carriers' competition, but the dimsum was still the most disgusting I've ever had. Took one bite of some unidentifiable greasy blob and left the rest intact. The plane ride was my real start to vacation - until then it'd been rush rush to get everything done. On the plane, I reverted to my baby self: eat, sleep, watch a movie, repeat. [View Full Entry]

Links: Cambodia Travel Blogs (all) | Cambodia Travel Photos | Cambodia Travel Forum | Cambodia Facts | Map of Cambodia

Travel Blog » Asia » Cambodia