Phnom Penh
Phnom Penh has turned out to be a real mixed bag.
After a hectic visit to Vietnam where you feel really pressurised as a tourist, the Cambodians are humble, relaxed and friendly people. The poverty that they are facing is huge and yet they are proud of their culture and have the magnificent ancient city of Angkor as their part of their heritage.
We were completely ignorant about recent Cambodian history (I think the Vietnamese have a monopoly on history during the 70s) and we were all immensely saddened by the sights and images we encountered at the Killing Fields and Teoul Prison (S21), which we visited on the same day.
After seeing the mountains of skulls (complete with axe and hammer wounds) and bits of bone and clothing from the mass graves still poking through the ground at the Killing Fields, and then the torture chambers and rooms full of photos of people 'processed' at S21, I was a little worried that it would all be a bit much for the children. I found Petra staring intensely at a picture of a tortured corpse and asked her if it made her sad, she replied quite maturely that '...it doesn't make me sad Mum, it makes me angry."
Its unbelievable that such tradegy can take place and that approximately 2 million people were exterminated. You enounter very few middle aged or elderly people in Cambodia and its quite an eery reminder of what happenend.
And then you can move to the other end of the scale completely with a visit to the Royal Palace. Such grandeur and amazing architecture. We were just about 'Wat'ted (wat = temple) out in Thailand but the wats here are different no less grand but maybe a little more classy. Thai's have gone overboard with mirrored glass and tiles :-)
We had noticed a number of similarities between Thailand and Cambodia and were interested to learn that a lot of Thai tradition originated in Cambodia, although apparantly there aren't many Thai's who will admit it...
Now I also have to confess to doing the silliest thing yet on our whole trip (don't worry happy ending!) I let Petra go off with some Cambodians one evening. The guesthouse we were staying at had some young nieces that she had been playing with. Their parents wanted to take her back to their home for an hour, and against all my better judgement ('cos of her pleading face) I agreed. Well they were gone for ages... Brannan and I were on the edge of our seats.. I was rehearsing my statement to the Police in my mind...trying not to remember all the stories about the child sex industry in Phnom Penh. I kept going to the front desk and asking when they'd be back and the staff would just smile and say soon, then laugh and talk to each other in Cambodian. Just when I was going out of my mind, she arrived all smiles, arms full of goodies, having had a wonderful time. Apparantly they went visiting and I can just imagine how she was fawned over... Her joyous adventure did not outweigh my anguish and despite the happy ending we won't be doing that again!!
Ciao for now
x
After a hectic visit to Vietnam where you feel really pressurised as a tourist, the Cambodians are humble, relaxed and friendly people. The poverty that they are facing is huge and yet they are proud of their culture and have the magnificent ancient city of Angkor as their part of their heritage.
We were completely ignorant about recent Cambodian history (I think the Vietnamese have a monopoly on history during the 70s) and we were all immensely saddened by the sights and images we encountered at the Killing Fields and Teoul Prison (S21), which we visited on the same day.
After seeing the mountains of skulls (complete with axe and hammer wounds) and bits of bone and clothing from the mass graves still poking through the ground at the Killing Fields, and then the torture chambers and rooms full of photos of people 'processed' at S21, I was a little worried that it would all be a bit much for the children. I found Petra staring intensely at a picture of a tortured corpse and asked her if it made her sad, she replied quite maturely that '...it doesn't make me sad Mum, it makes me angry."
Its unbelievable that such tradegy can take place and that approximately 2 million people were exterminated. You enounter very few middle aged or elderly people in Cambodia and its quite an eery reminder of what happenend.
And then you can move to the other end of the scale completely with a visit to the Royal Palace. Such grandeur and amazing architecture. We were just about 'Wat'ted (wat = temple) out in Thailand but the wats here are different no less grand but maybe a little more classy. Thai's have gone overboard with mirrored glass and tiles :-)
We had noticed a number of similarities between Thailand and Cambodia and were interested to learn that a lot of Thai tradition originated in Cambodia, although apparantly there aren't many Thai's who will admit it...
Now I also have to confess to doing the silliest thing yet on our whole trip (don't worry happy ending!) I let Petra go off with some Cambodians one evening. The guesthouse we were staying at had some young nieces that she had been playing with. Their parents wanted to take her back to their home for an hour, and against all my better judgement ('cos of her pleading face) I agreed. Well they were gone for ages... Brannan and I were on the edge of our seats.. I was rehearsing my statement to the Police in my mind...trying not to remember all the stories about the child sex industry in Phnom Penh. I kept going to the front desk and asking when they'd be back and the staff would just smile and say soon, then laugh and talk to each other in Cambodian. Just when I was going out of my mind, she arrived all smiles, arms full of goodies, having had a wonderful time. Apparantly they went visiting and I can just imagine how she was fawned over... Her joyous adventure did not outweigh my anguish and despite the happy ending we won't be doing that again!!
Ciao for now
x
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