Well I started my world tour 5 months ago, and I swear I have been meaning to start this blog since the day I arrived in korea. So you may ask wha it took to get me off my lazy bum and into the blogosphere? It was my X mas adventure to Cambodia. I have 300 pictures, all posted in my facebook and soon to be on myspace, however these pictures can't express the feelings of the country, it cannot show you all the things that I saw and all the htings that went through my head as we saw them. I know that my words can only shed a small light into everything that Cambodia presented to me, but I believe it is worth the read. I will start from the beginning.....
We arrived in Pehnom Penh on Dec 22nd in a state of excitment, although through this state I couldnt help feeling incredibly nervous, mainly because I had no idea what was coming. We headed straight to the hotel we had booked on the internet (Asia Hotel, 10$ a night). Right outside the airport we were bombarded by people screaming at us, "You want tuk-tuk lady", "Moto, motot?", we were wisped away in a taxi cab. It was dark so I guess I was in no place to judge but at the same time I couldnt help it, it seemed crowded, dirty, and scary. We wanted to see the river, to get there we had to walk through dark streets with people sleeping, begging, and starving (mainly for our attention). We learned quickly that locals thrive off of tourists, offereing motor bike rides and tuk tuk rides to anyone for 1$ American, they are very convienient. I was scared because of the lack of traffic laws, lights, and helmets. I quickly learned not to be scared, they really didnt drive over 30km/hr and you eventually become one with the traffic.
There were many poeple sleeping on the streets, wrapped up in blankets, some holding children. Other people sit on the streets with outstretched arms, some ask for money as you walk by others just have heads lowered with outstretched arms. then there are the children. Those who have been trained since birth to work their cuteness. Some as little as 4 years old approach you (with jewelry, or books) "you want buy book?" "where you from? CANADA EH? I know your capitol, if i tell you will you buy book?" Perfectly rehearsed. It is hard to turn away, in fact the first 5 are darn right impossible to turn away, evetually you force yourself to smile and shoo them away apologetically. You have no choice, i realized that it wasn't going away, I would see this for the next ten days, I had to deal with it. It was harder still when approached by victims of the land mines that still inahbit the country side of cambodia. People missing limbs, poeple who are badly burned, poeple that have no other choice but to beg for food, money, survival.
The next day we ventured to the killing fields, and to the S-21 museum. It was here that I learned about the Khmer Rouge regime. They had taken over Cambodia is 75 and stayed until Vietnam invaded in 79. The recency of it makes it even harder to believe. the killing Fields consist of large mass graves containing more than 100 bodies each. All you see is large holes in the ground, some have bones sticking out, others have articles of clothing close by. there is a sign pointing out what they call the "killing tree". They would lay their victims against this tree to stone them to death because they didnt want to waste bullets on them. There is a large monument on the grounds that house 8,000 human skulls in memory of the 8,000 ppl that were killed in the fields. The S-21 museum is an old school that they had turned into a sort of concentration camp during the regime. It is hard to qwrap your head around the brutality that occured here first because it is just inhumane and also because all of the modern cambodian schools look identicle to this building. This is the place where they interrogated individuals who were accused of rebelling and not obeying the Khmer Rouge. They had children trained in their armies. You could se epictures of 5 year olds holding large guns pointed at older people threatning their lives. They killed any intellectuals, basically anyone who was educated or had any connection to the former government. They wanted to raise the perfect working race, genocide at its finest. Thes museum also hosts the pictures of all the individulas that were kept at this apecific location. It was interesting to look at their mugshots and see their personalities comming through. In many you could see the dear in their eyes, but it was also possible to see indifference, ignorance and anger.
On the 24th we caught the bus to Siem Reap where we would explore the ancient ruins of Ank or wat, and many other temples form the asnkor dynasty. There is somethign ironic and almost wrong about spending Christmas day exploring the mother of all Buddhest temples. We hired a driver for the two days we were there, he doubled as a tour guide. It was really interesting to see all the structures, the archeteicture is amazing and there are no words to express thefeeling that comes over you when your standing in front o somehitng thousands of years old, somethign with so much history, so many stories, most of which you will never learn. My favorite temple was Bayon, it is known as the strangest temple, it was built by one of the most powerful kings of Ankor and it includes many carvings of a face, and while standing at any point withint the temple you see the face form 8 different angles.... It was at Ankor Wat that I was approached by the Khmer monks. the typical monks dressed all in ornage just chillin and payin respects to Buddha. they are eager to speak to foreigners to practice their english. They asked many questions, "What is your favorite part of this temple?" being one of them. What do you say to a monk? ummm "It's real big...." His question sparked my interest in finding out an appropraite answer so i asked him the same question. he responded as follows: "weell i have a new favoriet every day I come here, today for example it is your face, I feel so happy inside when you smile at me, so warm"!" this is the point where I decided that any boy wanting to sate Jennifer folkes but go through training first...training done by Buddhest monks.
Now you would think X mas away form home would be very hard. It was, I missed home alot (esecially after the 52$ 15 minute conversation with mommy and daddy). But keep in mind I did this trip with Danielle hiscock, one of my best friends in the whole world! it helped havbing her there, we did a little X mas morning party together, made the best of what we had, had a laugh. She kept a smile on my face all day...
Boxing day we woke up to catch a 7am boat to battambang. the boat was full so we got on a smaller boat that only help 13 or so poeple, there were 6 foreigners on the boast and we had plenty of room. It was a lovely day, the sun was hot and we were all smiling. we began to pass the floating cillages along the river. This was so interesting, these people had to take a beat everywhere, their house was floating in the middle of the river, as was their shcools, their stores and anythign else you would require. Now this stopped being so inetersting when we stopped at many places to pick poeple up and bring them on the adventure. The boat got crowded quickly. 7 1/2 hours later we got off the boat... I will not comment any further on this day....
The next day, since we didnt have enough of the travelling at this point we hopped on a 5 hr bus back to Pehnom penh, then transfered to a 4 hr bus ride down south to Sihanoukville. Or as i like to call it, the love of my life. On the journey we met a lovely Australian couple form Brisbane. One of which is a med student at the university I will be attending when I head that way (it's all about connections when you travel). We stayed in a nice hotel close to the beach and took motos around. The beach was beautiful, sitting on the gulf of Thailand soaking up the sun. We spent the whole day lounging. Don't be fooled, we hadn't escaped the poverty of Cambodia. All along the beach were children selling sarongs and bracelets. Older ladies offering massages, manicures, pedicures, waxing, and food....anything... I got a manicure and pedicure for 4$ American. Since I was travellign with the nicest person in the world, a person who has the inability to be mean to anyone in the world we got lots of attention. We even made two really great freinds. That evening we stayed on the beach for supper where the sun bathers quickly turn into club hoppers. the afternoon bars turn into nice restaurants, the whole beach is lit up, some even having bonfires/ fire throwing shows. The atmosphere was unbelievable. the next day was spent the same way, swimming and relaxing. We took a moto to these water falls that were supposed to be breathtaking... Now I'm not saying they were bad but maybe I had big expectation (you know commin from a town thats names GRAND falls...) but they were little and not impressive..... So with that it was back to the beach, that wa simpresssive. One of our friends came back, she spent the whole day hanging out with us. We learned alot from her. I learned that they must pay 10% American to go to schooll every month. They usually earn this money by selling things on the beach to tourists. These children come form rather poor families, however she did say that both her parents worked and that they always had food, just no money for shcool and clothes. But she did ok on the beach selling things, and she was leaning alot, she was a ridiculously smart kid. I also learned that school teachers make 15$ a month. That evening we had supper with our Australian friends andjust relaxed. Our last night in Sihnoukville we stayed in a really nice 5 star hotel (grand Sands Hotel, 20$ a night). Lounged by the pool, had french toast for B-fast, and took real nice showers. After saying a tearful goodbye we hopped on a bus back to pehnom penh for our last night so we could get up early the next morning to shop around at the markets and catch our 8pm flight.
The markets are all about bardering and walking away until they beg you to come back and agree to any price you say! It was entertaining. Our tuk-tuk driver took us to a boxing match. This was our last Cambodian adventure and it was very entertaining. It is a big weekend event there, many gambling.... And finally we made it to the airport... Landed down in Bangkok. If you watch the news i am sure you are aware of what happened with the bombs. 6 Went off downtown before we took off, we were cleared for take off, we were the last ones who were. Our plane took off at exactly midnight, right before 3 more went off. HAPPY NEW YEARS, congratulations, you survived bangkok.... Of course we didn't know about these until we landed safely In Incheon. And surprise, the airport McDonalds serves breakfast...perfect end to an amazing adventure.....
Again I have to say that my pictures as well as my words cannot express all that is Cambodia but I hope this helps to paint a picture of the country that is in much need of attention and love....
