February 2, 2009
Today was…….long. I woke up at 4am with a terrible Bah Bah Bah Headache. It’s my first one of the trip and it’s a doozy. Luckily misery loves company and I think everyone was feeling the same way. No more Bah Bah Bah for this group! In the middle of the night we had docked in Chau Doc, a boarder town in Vietnam. After a terrible breakfast and some yelling at our guide by an unpleasant guy on our tour, we set off on smaller boats for Cambodia.
Before crossing the border, we stopped in another shopping “village” with many weaved silk products. This was a great stop for souvenirs as you can buy beautiful silk scarves very cheaply. As you walked through the village, all these little kids would surround you and ask you to buy little cakes or candies from them. I’m sure they don’t speak any English but they know. “Hey Mister, you buy from me. I need money for school. $1 for 3.” It’s hard to resist them so I bought some cakes from one little girl. I don’t trust eating the cakes so I basically bought a chance to photograph her and her friends.
After our shopping we done we started the long journey to the border. This was hot and miserable. 2 boats, 3 border stops and one very hot and crowded bus ride later, we arrived in Phnom Penh. Yeah we’re in Cambodia! It is so surreal to think I am across the world in Cambodia. This country has only been reopened to the West for 15 years so it’s very surreal to be here. Phnom Penh is very different from HCM or Saigon. The city was abandoned during the reign of the Khmer Rouge, so after Pol Pot was defeated the city was basically rebuilt….or better described as repopulated. The main street in town, Monivong Blvd , and the riverfront have large French styled buildings that look fairly modern and almost European. Once you go off these streets, it is basically slums. There is garbage everywhere and the homes look dirty and old. It’s really sad and distinctly shows the huge gap between the rich and the poor here. As I mentioned before this is the most “foreign” place I have ever been so I found it comical that upon arriving to Phnom Penh I found out our hotel is called “The New York Hotel”. The hotel is, of course, nothing like any New York hotel I’ve bee too, but the rooms are big and it feels safe.
After dropping off our luggage, we quickly grabbed a motortaxi…basically a tuk tuk pulled by a motorcycle….to Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. Tuol Sleng is the prison where the Khmer Rouge tortured over 2,000,000 Cambodians during Pol Pot’s reign. The prison was basically used as a stop over for torture before victims were taken to the killing fields and murdered. With a populated of only 7 million people, Cambodia was decimated by the Khmer Rouge. Pol Pot’s goal of a Maoist society, complete devoid of any western influence meant death to any and all educated people. Most doctors, professors, teacher and lawyers were killed by the Khmer Rouge in order to create the agrarian society Pol Pot desired. Because it only happened 30 years ago, anyone over 40 remember it vividly and there are relatively few Cambodians living between the ages of 45 and 65. The country is filled with orphans whose parents were killed or died due to the Khmer Rouge.
After that uplifter, we took a tuk tuk to the riverfront for dinner…amazing how learning about national genocide increases your appetite. On the way we passed the royal palace. The King of Cambodia still lives there and the grounds and buildings are immaculate. We ate at the recommended spot from Lonely Planet and enjoyed our first Cambodia meal. The food was delicious but not cheap. Cambodia is much more expensive than Vietnam and everything is priced in US Dollars. In fact, the ATMs dispense American dollars…not Cambodia Riel! After dinner we headed straight back to the hotel and passed out after a very long day.
No comments:
Post a Comment