The traffic in Phnom Penh is mad. I rented a bicycle to get around, and I don't think I understand the rules. The traffic is made up of mostly motorbikes, then cars, then bicycles. In general, people seem to drive on the right - unless they are driving on the left. It is quite unnerving to have a motorbike coming at you when you are wedged between a parked car and a moving car. Stop signs are generally ignored. Most intersections have no stop controls. At signalized intersections, the green light is always obeyed, the red - not so much. I had a number of near misses, but I didn't see any accidents while I was there!
I rode the single speed bicycle, with a basket in the front, to the killing fields, about 14 km outside of town. It took 3 hours, because I missed a turn and added an hour to the trip. The killing fields at Choeung Ek, is one of 348 mass grave sites from the Khmer Rouge regime. There is a memorial building, filled with skulls of the victims, and depressions in the ground, where the mass graves were. Strangely, I didn't really feel much while I was there. I was amazed at the relatively small size of the graves, considering the number of bodies that was placed in them.
On another day, I visited Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, formerly Khmer Rouge S-21 Prison, formerly a high school. They showed a documentary about S-21, while following the lives of a separated husband and wife, thru the letters they wrote to each other. They were both eventually killed. Parts of the museum were left as is, with prison cells, barbed wire, instrument of torture....still there. In other parts, there were picture exhibits of the victims, the brutality and the story of the rise and fall of Khmer Rouge. I spent 4 hours there. Many times my eyes filled with tears as I looked at the pictures and read the writings. How could they think they were making Cambodia a better place by driving the people into poverty and causing the death of 1/3 of the population?
I vaguely remember seeing pictures of starving Cambodian children when I was a child, but I never really knew what went on. Now I see things a little differently. I have more compassion when I see the beggars. And I know they have far more important things to worry about than traffic rules! Cambodia has had the unenviable task of rebuilding a nation without its educated & skilled classes.
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Monday, June 23, 2008
First impressions of Cambodia
I am in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. I had a really rough ride to get here. For a couple days, I was on Don Det, one of 4000 or so islands formed by the Mekong River in Laos near the Cambodian border. I left there at 8:00 in the morning and didn't arrive in Phnom Penh until about 10:00pm.
The roads in Cambodia are by far the worst roads I've encountered - and they say the roads are much improved! Large stretches of the main road, from the Laos border to Phnom Penh, is not paved. I also heard that the road from the Thai border to Siem Riep is deliberately kept in bad shape to force people to fly from Bangkok to see Angkor Wat, thereby giving a certain airline business. And this airline pays the government to not pave the road.
In a couple days, I'll go to Siem Riep to see Angkor Wat. I'm not really into temple ruins. When I visited Borobudur, a similar colossal temple structure in Indonesia, I couldn't see what was so fascinating about it. But I'll go anyway. In fact, I plan to visit Angkor Wat for several days in a row until I understand what it is that fascinates people.
Drugs, mainly marijuana, are even more widely available here than in Laos. And it is out in the open. My bus had not even parked and there were people in the window waving bags of weed. While checking into the guesthouse, the attendant was trying to sell me some. Oh...the bus driver had several joints. Luckily, he didn't light up while driving.
It is probably not fair for me to judge the place as yet. I got in late last night. I am staying in the area where backpackers stay, and as I type this, I have not yet left my room to see the city.
The US dollar is the main currency here. The ATM's dispense US dollars! Of course the dollars I brought with me are not considered to be good, because they are old and faded. They want only crisp new dollars. With the new designs, I'm not even sure they're real!
The roads in Cambodia are by far the worst roads I've encountered - and they say the roads are much improved! Large stretches of the main road, from the Laos border to Phnom Penh, is not paved. I also heard that the road from the Thai border to Siem Riep is deliberately kept in bad shape to force people to fly from Bangkok to see Angkor Wat, thereby giving a certain airline business. And this airline pays the government to not pave the road.
In a couple days, I'll go to Siem Riep to see Angkor Wat. I'm not really into temple ruins. When I visited Borobudur, a similar colossal temple structure in Indonesia, I couldn't see what was so fascinating about it. But I'll go anyway. In fact, I plan to visit Angkor Wat for several days in a row until I understand what it is that fascinates people.
Drugs, mainly marijuana, are even more widely available here than in Laos. And it is out in the open. My bus had not even parked and there were people in the window waving bags of weed. While checking into the guesthouse, the attendant was trying to sell me some. Oh...the bus driver had several joints. Luckily, he didn't light up while driving.
It is probably not fair for me to judge the place as yet. I got in late last night. I am staying in the area where backpackers stay, and as I type this, I have not yet left my room to see the city.
The US dollar is the main currency here. The ATM's dispense US dollars! Of course the dollars I brought with me are not considered to be good, because they are old and faded. They want only crisp new dollars. With the new designs, I'm not even sure they're real!
Photos from Laos 8
Lots of buffolo here. They pretty docile, dispite the horns. But what do you do when several stand in the path and refuse to move? I just sat on the bike and waited for someone else come along and move them.
Trying to find the second waterfall, I came to this bridge, and was not brave enough to ride across it. I had to backtrack. About three hours later, I approached it from the other side, still trying to find the waterfall!
Sunset on the banks of the Mekong.
A kitten, sleeping on my journal, as I wait for the boat. Today I leave Laos after 29 days.Photos from Laos 7
"Si Phan Don (Four Thousand Islands), where the Mekong fans out forming an intricate network of channels, rocks, sandbars and islets 14km wide, is one of nature's marvels" according to the Lonely Planet. It is nice. I spent a day biking on two of the islands, visiting the two waterfalls, which are really two massive rapids.
One of the waterfalls. This is really just a small part of it. One photo can not capture the size of it.
Another view of the waterfall.
A warning to people who want to swim there.
This area might be safe to swim, but I wasn't going to risk it.
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