Cambodia

In the second week of September I flew from Vientiane to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. I had considered not going to Cambodia after all of the trouble in July. However, I had talked to several travellers when I was in Bangkok and everyone said it was safe to travel as long as you stuck to the cities. So I took the chance.

My goal was to visit Siem Reap and Angkor, the site of the ancient Khmer civilization. At the time the only way into Cambodia, unless you came through Vietnam, was by air into Phnom Penh. I spent only three days in the city. It was pretty easy to get around by motorbike which you could hail on any street corner. There was lots of bikes so prices were competitive. Hotel rooms were reasonable at $10.00 a night. There were some interesting museums, and a few good restaurants, such as The Foreign Correspondent's Club.

Two stops I would highly recommend are Choeung Ek (the killing fields), and prison S-21, now Tuol Sleng museum, where most of those killed during Pol Pot's 1975-78 revolution were detained. While Choeung Ek was not as traumatic as I expected, there were several ghoulish reminders of its past: open mass grave sights, and a huge glass pagoda with the skulls of many of the dead categorized by age and sex. Tuol Sleng was much more disturbing. Classrooms converted to prison cells during the revolution, and pictures of the over 100,000 victims that went through the camp emphasize the tragic loss.

The Cambodian experience is filled with contradiction. It is a beautiful country, like most in Asia, and its people are open, friendly, and sharing of both time and information. They have, however, suffered tremendously due to the events of the last half century. Since gaining its independance from France in the early 1950's, the country and its people have struggled to survive under successive repressive governments, and the tragedies inflicted upon it during the late sixties and early seventies. Bombing from the U.S. against suspected Communist targets along its border with Vietnam.

The conflict aided the rise of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia whose damage to the country's intellectual and cultural wealth was devastating. From 1975 to 1978 Pol Pot's promulgation of an agrarian socialism gave him the authority to turn Phnom Pehn into a virtual ghost town, kill hundreds of thousands of people, and force the remaining population into the country.

Today remenants of this destruction can still be seen. Though repopulated, Phnom Penh is still devoid of a strong culture. People are struggling to find much of what was lost, and replace generations of artists, teachers, doctors and others who were systematically killed. Land mine are a major problem. Exploring of the beaten trail is not advised in Cambodia, as land mines can be found everywhere; rice fields, forests, even close to national monuments. Evidence of their damage is also everywhere with hospitals for the maimed, adults and children on the streets with prosthetics, and signs calling for an international ban on the production and stockpiling of land mines.

Given all this, it is the strong spirit of the Cambodia people and the beauty of their country that dominates my memory of the time spent here.

The ride up the Tonlé Sap River to Siem Reap was another trip by speed boat. This time however, a hovercraft saved me from the effects of wind and rain at high speeds. The last several kilometres of the trip were very reminiscent of a scene from "Waterworld". It was the rainy season and people were living in stilted houses on the water with no visible land in sight. Lots of curious faces peered into our floating submarine.

I arrived in the early afternoon on Sunday. After checking in to a local hotel, I took a walk around the town. It was a hot day and everyone was enjoying it. Kids were swimming, in the small stream that ran through the town. Some played volleyball, while others were just out walking. Groups of people were sitting at small juice and snack stands up and down the central streets. The motorbike touts were lined up across from the hotel just sitting back on their bikes watching the day casually drift away. I stopped for a while to watch a bunch of boys leaping from a tree into the river. Free-falling from the branches 30 to 40 feet up, they flew into the water below, each trying to out do the other's effort. Absolutely no fear at all.

I spent part of the afternoon gathering information and arranging for a ticket to enter Angkor. Passes to the area are not cheap (one day $15.US, three days $40.US). Admission is regulated by government and enforced with check points at each of the main gates. I had heard stories of travellers arriving at 5.00 AM before the guards were on duty, but the sun wasn't rising until about 7.30 in the morning and I didn't feel like wandering around in the dark for hours just to avoid the admission.

That night I ate at a funky little restaurant called Phnom Angkor. A tasty stirfry with a beer cost about $3.00.

The next day I got up about 6.00 AM, caught a quick breakfast, and headed to Angkor, which was about 10 kilometres to the north. I had meant to go to Angkor Thom, but hadn't specified that to the bike driver, and ended up at Angkor Wat instead. My first impression --- awesome! My second --- amazing! It was like opening the pages of a high school civilizations textbook and walking right into it. A long stone promanade led from the entrance, through the grounds, to the outer walls of the temple. About half the way down, on either side were the remenants of two libraries. A sense of history, of my mortality and this temple's immortality crept into me. It was a feeling that would remain with me for the remainder of my stay.

One of the great things about going to Angkor when I did was that there were very few tourists around because of the travel warnings. Everything seemed tranquil. There were lots of kids though, everywhere, hawking souvenirs, offering personal tours, and playing games --- what a fantastic playground. I spent a good hour exploring the outer levels of the temple with is impressive relief murals of Indian mythology and Khmer warfare. I finally went into the inner towers. I climbed up to the third level where I sat down to read for a few hours.

The Angkor kingdom lasted from the 9th to the 15th century. It was considered the high point of Khmer culture, art, and architecture. The region was rediscovered in the 19th century by the Europeans. Over 100 temples have been uncovered from what is believed to have been well over 1000 at the time the Thais defeated the Khmer empire in 1431.

I spent the next four days exploring the ruins of many of these temples. Each of them were unique. Some of them had been restored. Restoration work is now being done by at least four different organizations including U.N.E.S.C.O. and the Cambodian government. Many of the temples though, have been left the way they were found, the jungle ripping them apart and eating them up. Angkor was definitely a highlight to my whole trip. Its a stop I would highly recommend if you are in the region.

Before I left Cambodia, I took a quick trip south to Kampot to check out the beaches. It was the only time I felt really close to the edge in the country. I had hooked up with three Aussies back in Phnom Penh, Rick, Suzi, and Anna. Together we hired a car to take us south. The driver seemed pretty honest and gave us a decent price, $45.00 U.S. for the four of us. Early on we got along fabulously, the driver, whom we called Tom, was quite a comedian.

However, about half way down the coast we were stopped by a group of soldiers. They made us get out and stand by the car. Initially we weren't too worried, then our driver told us he didn't have the proper license to drive us. He started talking to the soldiers, and they started hassling him, then us. This lasted for about forty-five minutes. They inspected our passports and asked us all over and over why we were going to Kampot. Finally after about an hour the driver, quite bluntly suggested to us that if we gave him an extra $50.00 he could solve the problem. We didn't have much of a choice. In the end, we did have a good three days down on the beaches, I even did some scuba diving one afternoon. We did get rid of Tom though, and found another ride back. Its a stop I would recommend. But catch the train. It will be a lot cheaper.

I flew back to Bangkok on September 24th, and spent a few days in the city setting up my trip to Burma. I spent most of my time down on Koh San Road, read some books, watched a few videos, and compared notes with some other travellers. Over the summer I spent about 14 days in Bangkok. After you figure out how to get around in the city, it can actually be a cool place to hang out.