Cambodia - Emotional times

I decided to listen to the advice of other travellers and go to Cambodia to see the ancient temples of Angkor. I'm glad I did; the temples are amazing, eerie, and unlike anything I've ever seen before. I spent two full days, sunset to sunrise, wandering around this UNESCO world heritage site and I don't think I even saw half of it. Siem Reap is a very modern, touristy city complete with wi-fi hotspots. Oddly enough, they use US dollars as currency in Cambodia and ATMS distribute dollars. The official currency is the Cambodian riel (4000 r = 1 USD) but the dollar is apparently a lot more stable (well, thats the idea anyway). Children were begging for money everywhere around the temples. This was really hard to see, but some of it was definitely theatrical as one kid pulled out a flashy Motorola Razr cell phone after he gave up trying to get a dollar from me!




From Siem Reap I took a boat through the Tonle Sap lake and down the Sangket River to Battambang, Cambodia's second largest city. The boat ride was advertised to take anywhere from three to eight hours. It took nine hours on a rickety boat with water being pumped out continuously. The driver sat at the front of the 30 ft boat and to accelerate he pushed down on a string attached to the engine throttle in the back of the boat. The river was very low because its the dry season and several times we bottomed out and some of the guys had to jump out and push the boat along. The scenery along the river was stunningly beautiful. Huts lined the entire length of the river and I saw people bathing, cooking, and washing in the water. There were children everywhere and they would all jump up and down and wave and dance and scream "hello" when they saw the boat full of foreigners float by. There seem to be kids everywhere in Cambodia. I heard an incredible statistic that 40% of the population is less than 16 years old.

In Battambang I had the opportunity to ride a norry, or "bamboo train." Train tracks run near the town and so the locals have rigged up their own engine-powered bamboo carts that ride along the tracks. If a real train comes down the line they pull the cart off quickly. It was a beautiful, if bumby, ride through the countryside.



The infrastructure is pretty poor in Cambodia. Some of the roads are really bad and I never saw a gasoline station, only gas being sold in bottles by the side of the road. However, the people I talked to say that the roads have been improving for the past five years and things keep getting better.

One afternoon in Battambang I met Nareth, a local Cambodian who founded a free English school for kids in his nearby village. Currently the school has 340 students who voluntarily study English in the evening. I hopped on the back of Nareth's motorbike and visited the school. I was a guest speaker in the advanced conversation class, where I was asked such classics as "who is your sweetheart?" and "how many kids do you have?" The kids definitely see learning English as the way to get a good job. The teachers volunteer their time as well. Currently they are trying to raise $300 to buy a generator for the school.

Nareth also told me some of his personal stories about his family and the Khmer Rouge. His grandfather, a doctor, was killed during the initial purges of the 70s. As recent as 1991 the Khmer Rouge was still sweeping through the village, killing able bodied men. Nareth remembers hiding neck deep in the river to avoid capture. These stories of life under the Khmer Rouge, the many killing fields, and the on-going land mine problems have really affected me. I find myself becomming angry about things I never used to pay any attention.

From Battambang I took several buses to come back to Thailand. I had heard a lot of horror stories about the border crossing but it went really smoothly. Its both a relief and a let-down to be back in the comparative wealth and stability of Thailand.