Kampuchea (Camodia)
Í got to the beach yesterday after a night at a homestay. The homestay was fun, we danced khmer style and made friends with the little kiddies. We ate a feast and slept in the luxury of a wooden hut with a mosquito net.
We've had a day free to do what we please. I was desperate for it, travelling really gets exhausting.
Sometimes I crave Western food so I ordered chips and an omelette for breakfast. The western food is always disappointing. The chips were soaked in oil and i felt full and ill after finishing theml!
I ordered a diet coke and sat paranoid under the shade while my travel companions sunbathed on the deck chairs. The diet coke is Coke light and tastes a little funny. I don't like it much. I love my drinks cold, so I drank it with the local's shaved 'naughty' ice. Oh well, i've been a little clogged....
the children and hawkers come by every few minutes trying to sell sarongs, donuts, lobster and bracelets....
A whole group of them were trying to get us to buy these bracelets. Then when i said no, one of the littlies started making me one for free (foot in door technique). It worked, i ended up paying $2 US for him to make a bracelet with a name on it....
At the homestay, grandpa and grandma live with their 3 children & their families. It's basically like a little party all the time... (actually, they lost 6 children to the Khmer rouge) All the cousins play together and it's especially an adventure when the white people come to shake things up. It makes me think of the many fun holidays I've had. I think back to the glistening lights on the snow in Old Forge, the smell of petrol at the motorbike camps, the bonfires, camping on the Murray river. Pure joy. I really want to make more time for these simple, inexpensive pleasures....
Kampuchea (Cambodia) has been the greatest culture shock. Countless lame and landmine victims walk the streets begging. Children with snotty noses and uncombed hair carry their baby brothers & sisters around pleading for food/ for our cans/ for money. It's sad seeing a man walk on his hands with two thongs, while his useless, seized boney legs trail behind him... Motorbikes and bicycles are by far the most common form of transport. The whole family sits on the bike - dad at the front, mum breastfeading a baby in the middle and little Johnny at the back. The bikes carry massive loads for the markets - 3 pigs in a bamboo cage, a pile of sugar cane and the cousins!!!
The killing fields in Phnom Penh were horrific. You walk over the bones and clothing of victims that still litter the excavation sites. A sign sits in front of a tree, 'children's skulls were cracked open by this tree to save precious amunition'. The genocide museum in Pnom Penh was even more nightmarish. Photographs capture the the dead and dieing... All look into the camera with great fear and pain. The acts committed were pure evil. The Khmer rouge took sadistic photos as they tortured victims at s-21. 100's of picture of victim's skull's being drilled, fingernails torn off, fingers cut off....
I'm reading some books at the moment, 'first they killed my father' and 'stay alive my son'. They just offer a glimpse to the extent of the barbaric acts. It was just 30 years ago and the country is still suffering immeasurable pain. The population was $6 mill back then. It is estimated that between 800, 000 and 3 million perished in the 4 year Khmer Rouge rule due to starvation, malaria, disease and murder.
Enough of this morbidity. There is music and smiles now, and people are on track to clawing their way out of great poverty.
I head to Phnom Penh tomorrow morning for one night and then it's a long day of travel to Ho Chi Minh city.
We've had a day free to do what we please. I was desperate for it, travelling really gets exhausting.
Sometimes I crave Western food so I ordered chips and an omelette for breakfast. The western food is always disappointing. The chips were soaked in oil and i felt full and ill after finishing theml!
I ordered a diet coke and sat paranoid under the shade while my travel companions sunbathed on the deck chairs. The diet coke is Coke light and tastes a little funny. I don't like it much. I love my drinks cold, so I drank it with the local's shaved 'naughty' ice. Oh well, i've been a little clogged....
the children and hawkers come by every few minutes trying to sell sarongs, donuts, lobster and bracelets....
A whole group of them were trying to get us to buy these bracelets. Then when i said no, one of the littlies started making me one for free (foot in door technique). It worked, i ended up paying $2 US for him to make a bracelet with a name on it....
At the homestay, grandpa and grandma live with their 3 children & their families. It's basically like a little party all the time... (actually, they lost 6 children to the Khmer rouge) All the cousins play together and it's especially an adventure when the white people come to shake things up. It makes me think of the many fun holidays I've had. I think back to the glistening lights on the snow in Old Forge, the smell of petrol at the motorbike camps, the bonfires, camping on the Murray river. Pure joy. I really want to make more time for these simple, inexpensive pleasures....
Kampuchea (Cambodia) has been the greatest culture shock. Countless lame and landmine victims walk the streets begging. Children with snotty noses and uncombed hair carry their baby brothers & sisters around pleading for food/ for our cans/ for money. It's sad seeing a man walk on his hands with two thongs, while his useless, seized boney legs trail behind him... Motorbikes and bicycles are by far the most common form of transport. The whole family sits on the bike - dad at the front, mum breastfeading a baby in the middle and little Johnny at the back. The bikes carry massive loads for the markets - 3 pigs in a bamboo cage, a pile of sugar cane and the cousins!!!
The killing fields in Phnom Penh were horrific. You walk over the bones and clothing of victims that still litter the excavation sites. A sign sits in front of a tree, 'children's skulls were cracked open by this tree to save precious amunition'. The genocide museum in Pnom Penh was even more nightmarish. Photographs capture the the dead and dieing... All look into the camera with great fear and pain. The acts committed were pure evil. The Khmer rouge took sadistic photos as they tortured victims at s-21. 100's of picture of victim's skull's being drilled, fingernails torn off, fingers cut off....
I'm reading some books at the moment, 'first they killed my father' and 'stay alive my son'. They just offer a glimpse to the extent of the barbaric acts. It was just 30 years ago and the country is still suffering immeasurable pain. The population was $6 mill back then. It is estimated that between 800, 000 and 3 million perished in the 4 year Khmer Rouge rule due to starvation, malaria, disease and murder.
Enough of this morbidity. There is music and smiles now, and people are on track to clawing their way out of great poverty.
I head to Phnom Penh tomorrow morning for one night and then it's a long day of travel to Ho Chi Minh city.