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Published: February 27th 2006
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Bookseller, PP
Street scene from Phnom Penh- lots of kids selling books about travel and Cambodia's dark past- this one was so sweet he got to us. From the profound, to the bizarre, to the horrific, so go our travels through Cambodia. Angkor Wat is, as expected, breath taking and exhausting all in one. The constant begging and postcard offering is both frustrating and sad but when a region, and in many ways an entire country, depend on the "walking white ATM", you have to understand. Then onto Battambang. Which, since we couldn't remember how to properly pronounce, quickly became "Bada Bing". This is the other tourist destination in the area and reachable by bus or boat from Siem Reap. We opted for boat as we had been told that the bus is complete torture and the boat only just a little painful. Ironically, our new buddy Mitch (let's hear it for Canadians moving to the USA) forewarned us that the trip was 8-9 hrs thus making us the least upset amongst the foreigners, many of whom were told 4-6 hrs. HA!
The boat ride was actually great scenically but after 8 hrs on a wooden bench we felt happy to arrive in our new destination. The trip travels across the Tonle Sap lake which is basically the life-force for the whole country. Fishing, farming, bathing,
Oncoming Traffic
They had more people than we. You guessed it- we had to, once again, pull our train from the tracks and let them pass. etc all take place in and around this lake which is fed by and feeds the Mekong River (see previous entries) at various points during the year. What was really great was that after riding across the lake and through the canals and tributaries, we saw a documentary on BBC World about pollution and over fishing of this lake. Crazy coincidence. They seemed to have done a good job since it really expained a lot of what we saw and were troubled by along the way. Speaking of troubled by... You may recall from our Burma Inle lake travels that I (Jon) mused about the disposal of sewage/toilet waste. At our lunch stop we had the opportunity to watch the WC shack empty directly into the river. Our worst fears confirmed. No fish tonite.
We took a Khmer cooking class at a restaurant in BB. Similar to it's Thai neighbors, this class involves a morning market trip and then multiple dishes prepared and eaten. Dissimilar is the more that 50% discount taking a class here is than in Thailand and an opportunity to try native cuisine, spiders, while in the market. Yes- spiders. We also recieved a pamphlet with
Trainspotting
Friendly children bid us adieu as we 'turned' our train around and headed back to town. recipes. No promises but we were the stars of the class. We also managed to check out the 6 legged "Buddha Cow" and the bamboo train. These sites qualify as 'the bizarre' part of this entry. 6 legged cow which is kept in a covered pen and people bring offerings for good luck. The bad news is that this is really a siamese cow with two tushies and tails to go along with the 6 legs. But really cute. The train is really a bamboo platform which runs by a lawnmower engine on train tracks. FUN. Of course every time another "train" comes the other way there is a short discussion and one group lifts their platform off the tracks and lets the other go past. Safe, probably not, but used often to transport goods and persons from village to village along the tracks which I am certain should not support an actual locomotive but do. Quick note on a recent victory we had. In the a.m. before our cooking class, we stopped by the Vietnamese consulate to see about a visa extension. We had to choose a date of entry for our original visa and, as you may imagine,
Armed, but not so dangerous
"secret" shooting ranges exist around Phnom Penh and are a popular stop on any tuk-tuk route. We opted for the AK-47 in 'honor' of Aneta's heritage. we have gone WAY! over that day and were left with little time for Vietnam. So these very nice men engaged us in a game of point at the calender and say a price until we agreed upon a date and price which was some 50% less (see a trend?) than what we expected for the same services upon arrival in Saigon/HCMC. I am pretty sure this was the only official task of the day, but in 6 minutes we had a visa extension and were on our way. Score one for the good guys.
From BB it's on to Phnom Pehn. Capital of the country and flashpoint for recent history of the region. I won't belabor the point that Cambodia's last 35+ yrs have been aweful, in no small part due to the good ole' US of A's interference in the region (see blog entry dated February 2040, Bagdad). I will say that the horrific part of the trip starts here. The Killing fields, where some 20,000 persons were murdered by the Khmer Rouge from 1975-1979, were rather tame compared with the three hours we spent at S-21. This was a high school prior to its transformation into
Some things should be self-explanatory...
If you only go to one toilet in Cambodia- make it this one:)
30 km from Angkor Wat, next to Bantei Srey temple. Far but worth the trip. a detention and torture center for the Khmer Rouge. Pictures, stories, a movie and feeling of suffering that stays at a place like this makes it very difficult to imagine not only how this happens over and over agin in man's history but also how this country will learn to manage their sorrow. For me it's just anger at a Western world which so easily says "Never Again!" for 60 yrs now and yet every decade they/we turn our eyes from Russia, China, Cambodia, Kosovo, Rawanda, Darfur. (Insert expletives as needed). Mentored by Stalin and Mao, Pol Pot succeeded in killing over 2 million Cambodians in only 4 yrs. Specifically, the educated and skilled, leaving the country with few, if any, human resources to rebuild.
After almost 3 weeks, today we needed an administrative day off, which usually means a trip to either a travel agent or airline (in this case Thai Air) then some shopping, and finally email. Thus your blog update. Speaking of blogging- not sure if you all know what goes into this. Usually we need to have at least 1-2 hours for the text followed by an indefinite and torturous amount of time with the pictures (due to technical limitations). We've met many people who are averse to blogging because, they say, it's too much of a task. So, we just wanted to say- we do this for several reasons- 1) it is actually like a journal in some ways- always a bit therapeutic. 2) we want to keep you informed so that you know we haven't been murdered by pirates, etc. and 3) so that we can enjoy your comments which have been one of the blogs biggest rewards- thanks for reading! Stay in touch.
Tomorrow we leave for Vietnam. More later...
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Stephanie
non-member comment
Is this the real date?
So finally to Vietnam. Can't wait to hear about it. I LOVE the blogs so keep up the stories. Love from the ATL - Me :) PS - nice army picture