Cambodia

I found the most amazing hostel! It was at the lake front right in the middle of Phnom Pehn. This guest house called Floating Island had a first level deck over the lake, relaxing couches to hang in while enjoying the beautiful sunset and an iced coffee! The first night I met Ljubica from Croatia and Tom from England. They have each been traveling Asia for about 6 months now and have met up several times. It was really nice to hear all their stories and experiences from Asia because for me it was all new, my very first time in South East Asia and I didn't know what to expect.

The next day CK, one of the "moto" drivers who works at the hostel, brought me to the National museum where I saw a lot of ancient statues of Buddha, Vishnu and Shiva. They're all made from sandstone and some of them where very big and impressive. After that, and after buying a copied Lonely planet from a little boy who walks the streets all day in the burning sun with a heavy basket a round his neck trying to sell books for that extra dollar for his family, I spent the rest of the day just wondering the streets, taking in the life, browsing on street markets and confronted with the fact that I find bargaining down quite hard. It made me feel guilty to try and bargain when it's all ready only 1 euro, but after 12 days I became the best ;-)!

The second day Ljubica, Tom and I visited the killing field and S21. Two sights that are filled with the horrible memories of the Khmer rouge.

Khmer rouge
The Khmer regime is remembered mainly for the deaths of an estimated 1.5 million people (estimates range from 850,000 to 3 million) under its regime, through execution, starvation and forced labor. Although directly responsible for the death of a large amount of that number, the policies of the Khmer Rouge led many others to die from starvation and displacement. In terms of the number of people killed as a proportion of the population of the country it ruled, it was one of the most lethal regimes of the 20th century. One of their motto's, in reference to the New People, was: "To keep you is no benefit. To destroy you is no loss." After four years of the brutal rule, the Khmer Rouge regime was removed from power in 1979 as a result of an invasion by Vietnam. It survived into the 1990s as a resistance movement operating in western Cambodia from bases in Thailand. In 1996, following a peace agreement, the Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot formally dissolved the organization. With the death in custody of Ta Mok (The Butcher) in July 2006, Khang Khek Ieu, also known as "Duch," remains the only member of the regime currently imprisoned awaiting trial in the Extraordinary Chambers currently being established to try certain former officials of the Pol Pot regime.

The next day CK and AK, two brothers that work in the hostel, invited us to the annual rice party in their home village. It was about an 1,5 on the back of a moto. We drove over reasonable sealed roads among a lot of traffic, mainly big truck packed with people on the back going home after a days work in the garment factories. The scenery is chocking. Its so dry! There's nothing but sand, dust, burnt of grass and the skinniest cows I have ever seen. Cambodia is to dry half of the year and in the wet season half the country is flooded by the Mekong river. They have rice, vegetables and some fruits. No excess of fruits just growing everywhere, even the coconut trees where bare. No milk from the cows and well I don't see how you could even get 1 steak off of them.

Not only do they have this environmental disadvantage but they also lack knowledge. One of the key factors of the Khmer Rouge was that they executed everyone with an education, training or any kind of knowledge. Cambodia is basically left with hardly any knowlegde to pass on to the younger generations and that is only if you are lucky enough to still have parents or even grandparents! 40% of the population is younger that 15 and is out on the streets everyday trying to make a living, living day by day, surviving. There is no room for a long term focus, I mean how much is an education worth if you don't have enough to eat for that day!

Finally we arrived at the village and had dinner with the whole family. We sat cross legged on a big table and were served a feast. Rice, noddles, chicken (probably the freshest I have ever had because it was still running around when we arrived ;-)), some beef, cucumber and cabbage. all thought the rest of the family couldn't speak any English and we had to communicate with nods and smiles we really had the best time. After dinner the whole village gathered for the dancing. Imagine the dry-est paddock you have ever seen, a pole in the middle with a light and some huge speakers blasting traditional Cambodian music. We learned the traditional dance and after an hour we had trouble breathing because of all the dust we were kicking up. For us it was really special to be part of this but I guess that half the village had never seen a Western person before so we became the biggest attraction of the evening. I now know what it must feel like to be famous, people just stare!

After a day of recuperating I took the bus to Siem Riep. This town has a completely different then Phnom Pehn. All though a lot of people in Phnom Pehn are also dependent on tourism for their income it feel more real then Siem Riep. Siem Riep is located right next to the famous temples of Ankor. This is why you find the most upscale and trendiest restaurants, hotels and bars here. It's lost the real Cambodian feeling all though I must admit it was nice to indulge on an English breakfast an have a clean toilet with toilet paper for once! I did that the first day but after that I went back to the street restaurants that serve real Khmer food for just $1,-.

I spent two days visiting the temples. The first day I saw about 6 relatively small ones. These temples are so ancient and you just walk around in complete amazement about how they built these huge mountains (as that is what they represent) and how well all the details and engravings have serviced. They all have their own character and feel. The second day I got up at 5 to see the sunrise over Ankor Wat, the most famous of all the temples. It was stunning!

After 12 day Cambodia, all the impressions of beauty, friendly people, the sad history of this country and the constant reminders of that time and the amazing heat, I felt a bit of a relief when on Sunday I flew to Singapore.

Monday Nathalie and I had a great day, went for lunch, shopping off course but mainly talked a lot and that was really nice. I felt sad about only having such a short time and she made me promise I would stay longer next time ;-)!

Monday 12th of march 23.15 my plane was airborne....so yes I'm back home!