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CAMBODIA TRIP
We just returned from Cambodia and can only thank God we weren't born there.
First for the good things. We toured Angkor Wat and a series of other remains (both cities and temples) in the region. Angkor Wat was primarily a Hindu temple and shows it in the towers and the extensive carvings that detail the Hindu legends. The area is huge with several outer walls and a moat surrounding the main temple complex. The entire area is in remarkably good repair which, we were told by the guide, is because it was never abandoned to the forest as were other buildings in the region. The temple went from Hindu to Buddhist so monks lived in the compound and villagers lived nearby.
Not that far away is the Bayan temple which is much smaller and in much worse repair. This temple had been Buddhist so it does not have high towers but is built on a horizontal plane. No one knows why it was abandoned but the forest simply took over. Even though much clearing has occurred, there are still massive trees that look like banyans growing over and through the walls. In many ways I found this ruin far more affecting than Angkor Wat. It is full of demolished walls, huge stones that have collapsed and carvings with much of the surface worn away. It leaves so much to the imagination.
We went to watch the sunset on Angkor Wat, drinking rice wine and snacking on Cambodian treats. The whole area was surrounded by both tourists and locals who come to watch the play of light and color on the ancient walls. Kids who try to sell you postcards and/or beg are everywhere. What is remarkable is their grasp of languages--they can carry on a short conversation in English, German, French, Japanese & Korean. Actually, some of them spoke incredibly good English and chatted us up for quite a while.
The next really interesting sight was our visit to a huge fresh-waterlake called Tonle Sap. It covers approximately 10,000 sq. km. in the dry season and 3 times that in the rainy. We drove to the embarkation point over some roads that were so rough that we had to check our teeth for fillings when the bus stopped. The road is so bad because every year it is completely washed away by the rising waters of the lake so needs to be rebuilt each year as the water recedes. We embarked on small boats (much like the dragon-tail boats in Bangkok) at a canal that is constantly being dredged during the dry season and rode for perhaps 20 minutes before we got to the lake. While the lake is huge, it is very shallow at this time of the year (about a meter deep on average) so all of the floating village is concentrated out in the middle. This is a truly authentic floating village with a huge number of houseboats and assorted support barges. We saw vegetable and flower gardens planted on floating platforms. There were pigs and chickens in cages on platforms. Ship building and repair points, gas storage sites, restaurants and lots of fish and crocodile farms. Most amazing of all is the school facility. There is one big houseboat that contains 3 rooms that was built primarily with funds from the tour company we used. There were 3 one-room school boats, a floating libarary and, best of all, a floating basketball/volleyball/soccer court. We watched kids play volleyball on this houseboat that is completely fenced in so that balls can't escape. Once the rains start in May, the whole village moves with the expanding waters to follow the fish, as fishing is their main means of support. This lake is incredible. It empties into the Mekong River but during the rainy season so much water comes down stream that the Mekong actually reverses direction and flows north into the lake, increasing the amount of its spread. I think the Cambodian people may be very lucky that they are so poor that they can't even think of building dams to control this flowage as the silt that is deposited is enormous; if the silt didn't cover the fields every year, I'm sure the land would be much less productive.
Now for the negatives. This country is incredibly poor. We saw huts that were as bad as any we saw in Africa, garbage scattered everywhere, and kids turned into beggars all over. Our guide was remarkably frank with us and complained about the unbelievable amount of corruption in the country. She said everyone is involved in graft, from the highest to the lowest. She said that you need to bribe teachers to pay attention to your kids or give them good grades; in fact, she said that the teachers in the country areas are not very good because the good ones go to Pnom Phen where they can get more payoffs for falsifying test scores to get into college. She said international aid is skimmed off so that few of the roads or other public works are actually built. And she said that, although Cambodia has a reputation for being a democracy and having free and open elections, it is mostly a farce. She said that you must register with a party to vote and that party officials come to your home and take pictures of everyone in the family and then check at the polling place to make sure you show up. She said they either buy the votes or threaten you, either outright or by saying that they can't protect you against bad things if you don't vote for them. She gave various numbers for unemployment but it must be huge. Most of the people run little shops, are fishermen or farmers.
And the history of the country is horrible; like Poland, they are in the wrong place and are constantly being run over by bigger neighbors. Not to mention the horrors of the Khmer Rouge & Pol Pot.
We were so happy to have seen Angkor but also so happy to get on the plane and leave. We flew for 2 1/2 hours to Hong Kong and went from the third world to the first world. Still in shock!
Once again, I hope you have enjoyed the report. Thank God every day that you were born in the West--I sure do.
