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Published: February 1st 2007
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We grabbed our backpacks from the minibus and walked through the jungle from Laos into Cambodia. After getting our passports stamped at the wooden hut/immigration office we were off!
Phnom Penh We took a shared taxi from Ban Luang to Phnom Penh as it was the only mode of transportation. (Try to imagine a five person car, but instead of five people, imagine nine. The driver sitting on the lap of a man, a little girl (throwing up) sitting on the lap of a man in the passenger seat, and Lindsey and I laughing hysterically at how ridiculous our situation in the back was with three women and a little boy...) It was a long, slow and unpleasant ride on a dusty, pot-holed road through the Cambodian jungle. Back to chaotic city life. The sounds of the tuk-tuks, street vendors, motorbikes, beggars constantly hovering around you (the trick is not to make any eye contact), and all the vehicles emitting an unlawful amount of exhaust into the air. I have decided that my red and blue cloth face mask is the most important item in my backpack.
Cambodia is a country of extremes. The amazing scale and beauty of the Angkor
the journey begins
leaving laos on our way to cambodia temples contrast sharply with the ghostly photos and skulls of innocent civilians murdered by the Khmer Rouge at the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. The Khmer Rouge was a communist regime whose mission was to wipe out all Khmer identity, culture and religion. From 1975-1979 they brutally murdered more than 2 million Khmer people. Our first day in the city we went to the Tuol Sleng Museum, in Phnom Penh, which was once a high school but was turned into a prison and torture center between 1975-1978. The classrooms are filled with metal beds, torture instruments, blood-splattered ceilings, bullet-holed walls and giant, gory photographs of bloody victims, post-torture. Other rooms are lined with thousands of black-and-white photographs of wide-eyed, confused and angry innocents. The prisoners came from all walks of life; Vietnamese, Laotians, Thai, Indians, Pakistanis, British, Americans, Canadians, Kiwis, and Australians. They were workers, farmers, engineers, technicians, and intellectuals. They were stripped of their identity, stripped to their underwear, stripped of everything they owned. They were not allowed to cry or scream while they were being beaten of electrocuted. They had to ask permission to move their bodies (even in the middle of the night).
As depressing as Tuol Sleng
was, the next day we forced ourselves to go to the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek. This was where the prisoners were executed and their bodies thrown into mass graves. There is a memorial which is nine stories high, filled with thousands of skulls, most of which have massive fractures from being so brutally beaten.
(While in Phnom Penh, we met up with my roommate from Boulder, Avi & her Mom, Jill for dinner. It was wonderful to see familiar faces, catch up and exchange travel stories)
Sihouanookville We spent a semi-relaxing five days at the beach on the southern coast of Cambodia. It was beautiful despite the garbage littering the beach and the constant sound of; 'You help me, you want bracelet, Madame, banana, pineapple, papaya, dragon fruit, spring roll?' 'You want your legs threaded, Madame, sarong Madame, water, beer, coconut shake, you want massage Madame, cheap, cheap for you.' One day as I was trying to read, I was quickly accosted by a woman (around my age) selling everything from soda to finger food. "Only 8,000 riel" ($2) while she dumped a bag of bracelets onto my lap. I was perplexed by her hard-selling technique, but I
tried not to make a scene and the bracelets were duly returned to the seller. She then looked at me expectantly, "only $2, for you, not expensive, you buy Madame." I politely tried to shift the conversation, making it clear that I was completely not interested in her bracelets. She then gave me a cold shoulder, but not before rattling off something in Khmer, perhaps to the effect that I was stingy. I felt such a sense of frustration and anger at being given the third degree just for standing my ground.
Siem Riep The Khmer Rouge laid thousands of land mines throughout Cambodia to prevent people from escaping. Unfortunately, their effects are still present as many have gone undetected. We visited the Land Mine Museum where the museum's owner, Aki Ra houses all of the land mines that he has recovered and dismantled. Currently, most land mine victims are civilians engaged in farming, herding, clearing new land, fishing, and collecting firewood. When Aki Ra was only 5 years old, his parents were killed by the Khmer Rouge. He was recruited to walk through minefields ahead of the KR soldiers (to protect them from land mines), taught bomb making and
shared taxi
we had 9 people piled into a 5 person car for 6 hours through the cambodian jungle. how to set and detonate mines. At 14, he was captured by the Vietnamese (who were building the Ho Chi Minh trail and trying to end the KR) and ended up fighting against the Khmer Rouge. Today, Aki Ra works to clear land mines in only his flip flops and his knife tied to the end of a stick!
Angkor Wat The world's largest religious building, Angkor Wat and the many other temples of Angkor are capitals of Cambodia's ancient Khmer empires. It was a moment of total ecstasy as I gazed admiringly at the massive scale of the Angkor temples. There was little that could come in the way to spoil my day. The sight of these ancient temples is a jaw dropping experience. It was incredible to imagine, that these 1,000 year old temples that we walked through, were once home to a king and his empire. My favorite temple, Ta Prohm was an excellent visual example of its antiquity. Built in the 12th century, Ta Prohm is a maze of crumbling stone walls and narrow hallways. Much of it is slowly being taken over by the massive tree roots that are entangling themselves over and
throughout the temple. It was quite the Indiana Jones experience!
Other highlights of Angkor Wat:
-Seeing a shooting star over Angkor Wat while we were walking in the pitch black before sunrise.
-The incredible details in the bass relief architectural carvings which depicted historical accounts on the temple walls.
-Seeing the destruction of the Khmer Rouge; missing heads of Buddha statues.
-Built around 1200 by King Jayavarman VII stands the magnificent Bayon. One of my favorites because of the 216 massive Buddha faces smiling at you!
-As you enter the royal walled city of Angkor Thom, elephants walk through the multi-Buddha faced archway. It was great fun to pretend that you are a civilian living in the kingdom.
After three days of exploring the nooks and crannies of the Angkor temples, I walked out of Angkor Wat, after sunset, expecting to be accosted by beggars (which I was) but, once I got past them, I glimpsed back at one of the world's most famous architectural creations and sighed. Anything can happen here, and usually does.
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