First Impressions of Cambodia

So I made it to my last country on this year's SE Asia tour - Cambodia. I've been here for 2 nights now. It was yet another interesting experience crossing the border. Thai-Laos was by boat. Laos-Vietnam was by air. And now Vietnam-Cambodia was by bus. My friend, Karen, who I was traveling with and I insisted on getting our own visas at the border and not paying our bus guy $5 to do it. So we had to get off the bus and get the visas, which was alright. But then we went through a quarantine office and to fill out yet another form and finally, we got a health notice for the low low price of $1. And then we had to pay another $1 to ride a bike to catch up w/ our bus at the rest stop. So we did come out $3 ahead. That paid for dinner. ;)

Cambodia is definitely the poorest of the 4 countries that I've visited in SE Asia. It didn't take long for me to see swarms of children, barefoot and dirty begging for money. It broke my heart and they would even keep tapping on the window of the bus. It took a lot for me to close the curtain. The roads aren't as good as the other 3 countries - but still decent for the most part.

We arrived in Phnom Penh (the capital) at night with no place to stay. I felt very claustrophobic when I was essentially mobbed by 20 motodup drivers all wanting to take me to a guesthouse. I finally walked away from it all w/ Karen and another girl we met on the bus. About two hours later, I eventually led us to this guesthouse that looked a little dodgy even when I first saw it. But it was getting later and later and hotels were sold out.... So I think this "guesthouse"does a brisk side business in the evenings. When I returned later that night from dinner and drinks, I saw a chique looking Cambodian woman running down the stairs with a handful of cash. WEll, that and the bar downstairs is full of beautiful local women and 2-3 old white men... hmmm.....

For dinner, we found a restaurant whose profits go to supporting 24 orphans - who have lost their parents to AIDS, landmines, etc. We had dinner there again last night, and there was a performance. Needless to say - the children were absolutely delightful and adorable. I'm going to visit this afternoon and probably engage in a lot of tickling and thumb wars as I have been warned.

Cambodia is a country with an absolutley brutal history. The Khmer Rouge which controlled Cambodia from 1975-1979 was responsible for the death of 2 million people. Today's population is only 14 million I think - so that's a lot of people. They killed all the rich people, intellectuals, diplomats, political ppl, etc. I visited the Tuol Seng genoicide museum where 17,000 people were kept and tortured. The worst thing about it is that it was a former high school. A school - normally a place of learning and growing - became a prison for 17,000 people. I could barely stand to look at all the pictures posted of all the people who had passed through. Even a chin up bar was turned into an instrument of torture as people would be strung from it with their arms and legs behind their back. Earlier this morning, I visited the Killing Fields - big mass graves were people were routinely shot, or rather to save bullets, bludgeoned to death in front of a pit and tossed in. It's a sobering reminder of how evil mankind can be. How is it possible for man to do this to another man. Thinking about it makes my stomach turn. I've seen my share of war museums and concentration camps now through my travels - the saddest thing of all - is that genoicide continues today - in places like Darfur. Will burnt down villages and mass graves in Africa become tourist attractions 10 years from now?

Okay, enough of the heavy stuff. Cambodia is pretty cool. Not nearly as developed as the other countries I've visited. I'm still looking for M&M's. - my staple food. From the brothel, I moved to the guesthouse that is part of the MCC office. MCC in case you don't know - stands for Mennonite Central Committee and was one of the organizations affiliated with my One Day For AIDS campaign. Next week, I will be visiting an AIDS project in a fairly remote area. But they've kindly allowed me to stay here w/ them for a few nights. It's been cool to hang out here and meet development workers.

I've also been having fun riding around on motorbikes here. Not me driving per se- but riding on the back of them. There aren't really any taxis - so "motodup"is the most efficient way to travel. The phone booths are also quite interesting here. Big glass boxes with prices listed on them. But there's no phone there - just someone sitting there with a cell phone. Anywho - that's it from me right now. Cheers.