Cambodia

As I was putting all the images together I realized there’s alot of territory i’ll cover in the proceeding posts. Decided to break them down according to city (Phnom Penh/Siem Reap) then within that the little activities I did.

Overall Cambodia was certainly a country of extremes in every sense of the word. What pinpointed this nuance was what a Khmer said to me, “there is nothing here you can’t have, anything is possible.” For some reason that put a sour taste in my mouth, realizing the high amount of sex slavery, (child) prostitution, human trafficking and poverty. I realize that there is poverty around the world – but in Cambodia it’s different. My sense is that trust and hope for the country has been shattered from the outside (U.S. & Vietnam) and the inside (Khmer Rouge/Pol Pot) – so the motivation for “improving” the country may be a moot point. There are so many NGOs and Foreign Aid helping Cambodia one might think they will be getting back to their feet sometime soon…but the sad reality is that the Government is very corrupt themselves. Our sense is (as I was discussing this w/Megan) that Cambodia needs at least couple of generations to recover. After all, during the Khmer Rouge, the majority of Cambodia’s intellectuals and their children were tortured and killed. As I was walking around I realized the older people that I saw (60+yrs) survived those horrid times..imagine that. Anyhow once there, we were on the high road to learning about Cambodia’s history – sucking it all up like dry sponges. We were able to get documentaries done right after the Khmer Rouge was toppled from power in 1979 and the footage was eerie to say the least. Anyhow I think the S-21 trials (that is NOW just taking place) is a metaphor or shall I say a sad analogy of how the country is run. Following it has been disheartening to say the least. I’ll stop at that.

In essence, Cambodia was the most eye opening travel experience in my travels here in SE Asia.