Reflections on Cambodia

CLICK HERE FOR SLIDESHOW ON SIEM REAP

CLICK HERE FOR SLIDESHOW ON PHNOM PENH

Cambodia is a country of extremes and beauty. It is very much a country rising from the ashes of its war-torn past. We went to Cambodia as a last-minute decision having to get out and then back into Thailand to extend our visas, however, the experience was rewarding. Cambodia is definitely not for the faint hearted though, it is still quite 3rd-world and dirty and we did not feel as comfortable as we did in other Asian countries.

We started out our journey in Phnom Penh, the capital, finding a hotel along the Tonle Sap River (for the river engineers, they have a large scale dredging operation to allow shipping traffic by removing silt from the Tonle Sap near the confluence with the Mekong River. The river flows toward the Mekong most of the time but in the rainy season it reverses direction and acts as storage for the mighty Mekong River.)

Phnom Penh is a big, crazy, dirty city that can only be properly experienced in a Tuk Tuk (a motorbike with a trailer). The traffic is horrendous going every which way and crossing the street as a pedestrian makes you think of your insurance policy every time. Key places of interest to visit are the King’s Palace, the site of the Killing Fields and the National Museum.

Cambodia has a rich and interesting history up to the time of civil war in the 70s. Angkor Wat, north near Siem Reap has a multitude of outstanding religious temples constructed during the 9-13th Centuries. At one time Angkor controlled a huge area including most of Vietnam, Laos and a good chunk of Thailand but times change and they retreated out of these areas. The massive temples like Angkor Wat remain and are now huge tourist attractions. Angkor Wat (wat just means Temple or Pagoda) is the largest religious building in the world and ranks right up there with the pyramids in Egypt.

Unfortunately, first the French came in and colonized Cambodia, then Japan had their invasion in WW II and then in the 60s and 70s Cambodia became a pawn in the Cold War between the USA and Soviet Union during and after the Vietnam War. Since the Asian currency crisis back in the 1990’s the US dollar is king and most things are quoted in US currency. The Cambodian Riel is many used in replacement for coins 4000 Riel is roughly equal to 1 US $.

Around Phnom Penh

Nothing can quite prepare you for visiting the site of the Killing Fields a short drive outside of Phnom Penh. Growing up in North America, you learn a lot about WW II and the atrocities that Hitler and the Nazis were responsible for, however, this seems to pale when compared to the millions of people slaughtered by the Khmer Rouge during the 1970s. Estimates are all over the map but between 1 and 3 million people are believed to be buried in mass graves such as the Killing Fields. Touring around the simple site at the Killing Fields with low tech signs such as “This is where they unloaded the prisoners” or
“This is the tree they killed children on” is sobering and makes you wonder how mankind gets so out of control in the name of misguided ideology. In the centre of this site is a large display containing hundreds of human skulls. Ben couldn’t understand why they (USA) didn’t drop in with helicopters and save everybody as the sight is not hard to get to. The answer is a lot more complicated than that but in the end the senseless of it all and the devastation to the Cambodian people is hard to comprehend.

A highlight of Phnom Penh was dinner at the FCC or Foreign Correspondents’ Club over looking the Tonle Sap River. This is where reporters hung out during the Vietnam and Cambodian wars. You could feel the history in the place. The pictures on the wall from that time period gave you a sense of what it was like in the war period.

Siem Reap

We drove to Siem Reap from Phnom Penh which takes about 6 hours by car. Along the way you can see how most Cambodians live many in thatched huts and houses but some in reasonably nice homes. The really poor folks live away from the roads so you need to venture off the main highway to get the true picture. Along the way you see a lot of children living in poverty walking around naked etc. A large portion of kids do not go to school but instead work on the family rice farm. Our driver Sophat worked in the city but is wife and kids lived in his village with his parents tending to the rice crops.

Siem Reap is an up and coming tourist town, capitalizing on Anchor Wat and the temple tourism dollar. There is a lot of foreign money being pumped in here and their airport was put in a year ago. Japanese and Korean tourists abound and the cultural performances and tourist attractions are mainly aimed at them. There is also a large French tourist contingent and the downtown old town area of Siem Reap is French style alleys with shops and restaurants in the alleys.

We had a good look around Angkor Wat with a tour guide who filled our heads with more information with a depth than no one would ever want to know about the Hindu and Buddhist gods. The main Temple took almost 30 years to complete and the King at the time was quite a builder and had a lot of ambition and energy (not to mention dozens of wives).

Another highlight of the stay in Siem Reap was a visit to a local floating church, a ministry of the local Catholic Church. There is a floating village about 30 minutes outside of town that is inhabited primarily by Vietnamese people. So they have a floating church as an outreach to the community. The congregation sits on the floor of this houseboat and the priest sits at an alter near the front while barges and long tail boats whiz past creating wakes of various sizes. The kids were beautiful and Heather stayed after with them to observe Sunday school.

After 5 nights in Siem Reap we flew out of their newly constructed airport back to Bangkok. We were happy to get out of Cambodia but feel for their people and the stories of their corrupt Government. It seems that they can’t seem to shake the cycle of corruption and that eventually this may end in some sort of revolt. Time will tell if they can move to a fair system. The beauty of short memories and the smiling faces of young children that have been born since the war gives a strong sense of hope and that we were grateful to see.

DAVE

Advertisement