Scampering through Cambodia

On this leg of the trip we have to make our own way from Ho Chi Minh City – across the border to Cambodia – and in to Phnom Penh. We spend the night there and then move on to Siem Reap to see Angkor Wat.  We are not allowed to fly which really only leaves long, hot, awful bus rides as options.  It is a true test of patience.  Every bus is supposedly air conditioned but the heat outside is so oppressive that the bus literally cannot keep up.  And the traffic is awful. The predicted 6 hour bus ride across the border ended up being closer to 9 hours mainly because this is a holiday week and we hit a 2 hour traffic jam as we waited to cross a major river by ferry.

We arrived in Phnom Penh in less than cheerful moods. In fact, many of the group were ready to give up on Cambodia and dislike the whole place. But then the charm of the Cambodians started. Cambodia is really special – and a favorite place of mine - because of the people. They are a warm, happy, loving nation. They always have a smile for you.  And are so gentle and soft.  Cambodian live as “communities” and are – literally – never alone.  Every person is walking with a friend, stooping down by the road with a friend, hanging out by a cooking fire with friends or family.  It is hard to imagine a nicer group of people: although the poverty can be overwhelming. We even passed an entire family settling in for the night on the pavement … Kids playing away with a cardboard box as if it was the best toy ever. 

Even though we were hot and grumpy, we decided to get right out there and see some of the city.  We started at a Buddhist temple: Ouna Lom Pagoda.  

A very nice monk - who actually spoke decent English - helped explain the complex to us and stayed with us while we walked along. Jordan went through the multi-step rituals for making an incense offering.

By then it was sunset … and the right time for another scavenger: to get a drink at the Foreign Correspondent’s Club right on the Mekong River. We then got our feet massaged at the Seeing Hands massage center: a group which trains blind people as massage therapists. This was a first for the teenagers to have a grown-up pamper them. Naturally they loved the experience.

Day 2 in Cambodia:  Today started with a long and dusty Tuk-Tuk ride. Our drivers were nice enough to stop at a pharmacy and buy us all masks to save our lungs from the dust. 

Even though the Tuk-Tuks here are different in shape, the ride made Rainey and I miss our Tuk-Tuk adventures as well as “Kady” and “Run Around Sue” - our much-loved vehicles from the Tuk Tuk races we did in India and the Malay Peninsula.  (For more details about those trips, look back at our prior blogs).

After more than an hour of shaking, rattling and rolling over truly awful roads, we arrived at the Killing Fields memorial. In the 1970s, the dictator Pol Pot took over Cambodia and put it under the reign of the Khmer Rouge.  Within 3 years, he had ordered the mass killing of 21% of the country.  Every person who was a doctor, lawyer, teacher or educated at any real level, anyone who spoke another language, anyone who dared to speak out against Pol Pot, every politician from the previous government, even any person who wore glasses (???) … etc. etc. … rounded up and killed. The Choeung Ek memorial is built right at the fields where Pol Pot’s army conducted mass killings.  Being there makes you honestly ashamed to be human. The atrocities are so awful. What type of a monster decides one day to take over the government and kill 3 million of his countrymen? At just this one spot (the Killing Fields) the Khmer Rouge killed 400-500 people each day. The army would round up truckloads of supposed dissidents every day and bring them to the Killing Fields for execution. And since bullets were in short supply, most were killed with machetes and garden tools: literally beaten and hacked to death.  There are no words to describe the horrors 

The main part of the memorial is a glass stupa or tall tower filled with human skulls excavated from the mass graves discovered in these fields after the Khmer Rouge regime fell.  It brings tears to your eyes. Especially when you appreciate how gentle and loving these people are. 

Although thoroughly sobered be the Killing Fields, our next stop was to work at an orphanage for a few hours.  It totally changed our mood.  It was such fun.  At every moment you had 2-4 kids hanging on you…. hugging you, holding your hand, wanting to ask you the same questions over and over again as it’s the only English they know (How are you? Where are you from? What’s your name?).  Even though it was Saturday, the older kids (13 and up) were at school so we played and visited with the younger kids.  We had gone to the market yesterday and bought bags and bags of supplies: some sensible like school bags, towels and shampoo and some just fun like biscuits and candy (which I handed out liberally and like a spoiling grandparent). In this photo Jordan and Ollie and Madeline are playing games with the kids with jumpy balls. 

As I write this entry we are on a bus to Siem Reap.  It’s another long trip and we had to travel in the heat of the day again as the rules require us to be checked into the hotel up there by 8PM. Today is Marnie’s birthday so we’re hoping to have a great dinner tonight and celebrate. Tomorrow morning at dawn we will be at Angkor Wat.  

What an amazing opportunity to get to share this experience with my love, my son, my mother, my two best friends and their teens? How did I get so lucky that my life turned out this great?