Cambodia

"During the 1975-1979 Khmer Rouge genocide I lost 8 of my family members. My aunts, my uncles and both my grandparents... My mother watched one of her brothers get hung to a tree and stabbed in his stomach with a large sharp stick, then left for dead. When she showed anger towards the solders who did it, they hit her in the stomach and she was sick for the next three days. She doesn't talk much about the time when she was 22 and the Khmer Rouge took over the country and enslaved the entire population. " Although not yet born, 30 year old 'Mr. Dollar' (our tuk tuk driver) suffers large scars from this tragic event that will be known throughout history as one of the worst genocides known to man.

Cambodia this time around has unveiled its beauty for us in yet again another tragic form. Flooding has hit this country hard and everyone you talk to says they have never seen flooding like this. Driving in from Thailand we saw nothing but flooded fields and gushing rapids over the road ways. The beauty was to be seen in every element. From the flooded fields of deep, lush green tropics with the skys reflection atop the water. To the locals gathered everywhere swimming and fishing in all the deep pools. It really was a feat for the eyes and mind to absorb it all.

With only one week in Cambodia, we had to make the most of everyday. The first stop was back to the city of Siem Reap. The city built within minutes of driving to the world renowned Angkor Wat. We fell in love with this temple last time we were here and always felt like we never gave it full justice. Showing up at 9am on our first day, we walked around the ginormous engineered piece of art work for three hours, getting lost in its size and sheer splendor. Built in the 9th century, archeologist are still making discoveries in the surrounding area to dawn new evidence that the Khmer people, had in fact, built the largest city in the world during Medieval times. The temples that are open to the public are each in their own way magnificent and jaw dropping. We spent two full days touring around, walking and crawling on many temples. We had to be careful though and not become "templed out", so we made sure to take our time and truly appreciate it all.

Temple Ta Prohm

Out front of Angkor

Angkor Thom

Sunrise at Angkor Wat, we woke at a 4 am on day 2. So worth it.

Majapahit- Built for the Kings father.

Sunrise at Angkor Wat

Ta Prohm

One of four swimming pools at the top of Angkor.

Angkor Wat

Angkor Thom

Back of Angkor

One of the many murals carved out of the walls.

From Siem Reap we took a 5 hour bus ride to Cambodia's second largest city Battambang. Arriving to our hotel surrounded by water, we couldn't help but think of Calgary and everyone who was affected by the flooding there. Many of the streets here were full of water. The city however was not shut down and people were not evacuated. We took the water in stride and enjoyed the rarity of a hotel surrounded by a moat. With only a day and a half we got right to it. We arranged a full day excursion for the next day and that night we walked around, toured some markets and found some great street food. Our tour guide/tuk tuk driver Mr. Dollar picked us up the next day at 9 am. Driving us out of town and down an incredibly bumpy road, we were informed that it was our 'free Cambodian massage'. Our first stop on the trip was a small little village with some train tracks running through. We were to take a ride on the "Bamboo Train". Locals have taken use of the train tracks since the end of the war and built their own mode of transport. It has become somewhat of a tourist draw as of late and a source of great income directly to the villages involved. Unfortunately though, the government has decided to shut it down and build a new one somewhere else, to claim full stake of the tourist dollars. We were quite lucky, considering it was to be shut down over a week ago. A simple bamboo platform powered by a 14 horsepower engine, sitting on top of two axles, the home made cart was lots of fun. When you encounter on-coming traffic, the smaller load always loses and has to get up and unload everything off the tracks. It was very easy to disassemble and make way for the others to pass. The train took us to a small village and we were given a tour of the rice factory and the brick factory by about a dozen or so young girls. They all demanded us to buy a bracelet and some were quite miffed when we bought from one and not the other.

Our tour guides. You can tell who are the ones who were a little upset.

 

After a quick ride back to our tuk tuk our next stop was a hill top temple.This temple during the Khmer take over was used as a prison for anyone they wished (Now it's important for you to know that when they took power, they wanted to build a euphoric nation based off absolute self-sufficiency. They enslaved the entire nation and forced everyone to leave all cities and go to work in the country. They targeted anyone with links to foreign nations, anyone who may have been involved in capitalism. Anyone who was a teacher, a banker or had lived in the city. Heck, even if you wore glasses or had an education you were targeted and killed). The overwhelmingly sad part on this tour was the 'Killing Caves' located about twenty feet from the temple. Here the Khmer Rouge would take prisoners and throw them off the edge and down the cliff about thirty feet onto the rocks below. There was a cave for women and children and a cave for men. We absorbed the moment and while walking around at the bottom, tried not to get choked up picturing what took place here.

Mr Dollar

 We left Battambang the following day on a bus bound for Phnom Phen. We arrived mid day and spent the afternoon and evening walking around the water front of the Mekong River. The next day went for a walk to find the King's Palace. Then we were off on a bus to Vietnam.

 Life in Cambodia is hard. We really got our first 'in your face' exposure to some of the absolute poverty in Phnom Penh. There are many NGO's and Non-Profits working, trying to make life better. But with so many people and not a lot of opportunities, there are many who are left behind. It is incredibly hard to watch a child no older then our nephews and nieces out begging on the street. To have tuk tuk drivers run at a bus pulling in just so they can get some business. In Indonesia and Malaysia we noticed a lot of begging, but we also noticed 90 percent of the locals gave money to the beggars. We saw none of this here. We felt very welcomed by the Cambodians. Most willing to practice some English, or just exchange a smile. With getting a small dose of poverty here, we can't imagine how much more difficult India is going to be. That is a long way from now though, as of now we have great joy to look forward to with the arrival of Kelly's mom.

We hope all of you reading this are doing well. We are now 6 months into our adventure.

Cambodia Currency