TheThe Best and Worst List cont.. Cambodia

   20/4 Boat trip to Battambang

Bought a ticket for a 3-6 hr boat trip from Siam Reap to Battambang that landed 12 hours later. The boat was crap and the paint peeled off on our sweaty skin. The boat also spit out straight oil and broke down 4 times in 102 degree heat in the middle of the river. After a few hours of overcrowding the 25 person boat with 43 people, I crawled on top of the boat with the luggage and to my relief was greeted by wind, along with a burning sun. I read happily and watched the brown river water part in front of us as we glided past green shores, water buffalo, and waving children swimming in the river. Watching the fishermen throw nets and check crab traps was great, as was watching people row friends out to the boat so they could jump aboard. We ended up with 60+ people on the boat with about 20 up in the luggage.

                                                                                     

-Sweltering in the sun- trying to nap wrapped around a tire filled with trash as our boat floated broken in the river for an hour. A 6 hr trip taking 12 hrs.

                                         (Sitting in the hot sun during an hour long boat repair)

* watching a spectacular sunset fro the roof of the boat and watching the stars come out as Joy and I laughed about the ridiculousness of the day. Very peaceful and the weather was finally comfortable.

 21/4 Battambang.

Joy and I rented a motorbike and toured around the surrounding towns. We saw the killing caves and saw almost a 100 skulls with visible signs of bludgeoning and machete strike marks that are evidence of the mass genocide under the Khmer Rouge regime. We were told that after the people were killed, their bodies were tossed down into the cave through the skylight. 

We also climbed countless steps and laughed at the incredibly brown, dry, and flat landscape from a chedi at the top of a mountain.

*riding a bamboo train (a table top of bamboo with a motor and wheels) at sunset. The brilliant orange sunset took up the entire sky as we rocketed by on our train through jungle tracks. 

 When another train came by we had to jump off and disassemble it until the car had passed- then quickly reassemble. Luckily we only encountered bamboo trains and not a real train! Cambodian kids made us grasshoppers and rings out of palm leaves and high fived us as we rode past.

• Realizing that Cambodia is a hot and dusty wasteland that sucks compared to Thailand except in sunsets and beer.

22/4 Travel/ Phnom Penh

*Drank a snickers milkshake and had chicken masala with Joy at a very comfortable and relaxing rooftop bar, spent hours reclining and chatting in gigantic fluffy couches.

* our 5 hour bus taking 7 hours because all of the passengers and luggage were randomly switched onto another full bus going to Phnom Penh. Spent 2 hours sitting on a tiny pink plastic stool in the aisle cramped with people, sweating like crazy. Had to avoid putting my bag next to live chickens under the bus.

                                           (The only winery in Cambodia..had to try)

23/4 Phnom Penh- S21

We went to Tuol Sleng museum (S-21) where over 17,000 people were tortured or killed between 1975-79. The area was converted from a high school into torture chambers during the Khmer Rouge reign and instruments of torture, water boarding, cages for scorpions, shackles, and farm instruments were left rusting on iron beds with large pictures of a victim being tortured with each device. They also had pictures of every victim on large boards that stretched on through 3 rooms.  Very nauseating and shocking.  We left early because Joy was feeling sick.

            * sharing a bottle of wine with Joy and relaxing with good food as we shook off the nausea of the day. Listening to the the story our enthusiastic tuk tuk driver told us about his experiences as a young boy during the civil war, genocide, and revolution.  It was fascinating to hear a personal story and  the Cambodian perspective on the last 50 years of history. It also gave me the chills to think that most every Cambodian over the age of 35 had been present during the genocide, been forced to do hard labor, starved, lost loved ones, but survived. It added an entirely new facet to my experiences in Cambodia.

 - feeling ignorant and naïve as I realized that I knew absolutely nothing about the genocide (except that it had happened) and that all of my previous statements of Cambodia being a ‘wasteland’ with a severe lack of progress or the modern conviences of neighboring countries were ridiculously obvious and easily explained as the country has been at war from 1970-1991 and 3 million of the 8 million people died traumatically with in the last 3 decades. I was oblivious and now I feel incredibly insensitive and ignorant. Currently reading a book about the genocide to remedy this.

24/4 Phnom Penh- Choeung Ek Killing Fields

Split a tuk-tuk with a couple from the Netherlands and went to see the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek, 15Km outside Phnom Penh.  Set in the middle of beautiful wilderness crawling with lizards, bird songs, and a lake full of jumping fish lie 129 mass graves holing 17,000 innocent people. Giant holes in the ground, now overgrown with grass, were roped off with signs stating the number of skeletons found buried (as many as 450). The 9,000+ skulls displayed in a stupa are a memorial and testament to the atrocities that occurred there.  The story of how people were trucked in blindfolded, told to kneel, and were killed by barbaric hits to the head by farm tools, throats cut with sharp sugar palm stems, and still living people covered in DTT was horrifying. Though I was familiar with the history from yesterday –at least parts- the whole story was more terrible and more real when standing on the edge of a mass grave.  Even babies were killed, heads slammed against a tree to save a bullet and to prevent the possibility of revenge.  It was heart renching place, and though it was not enjoyable, it is something I am glad I saw. The enormity of what happened and the amount of physical, mental, and emotional pain embodied in Choeung Ek, the people of Cambodia, and  every facet of Cambodian life could never be conveyed in a text book or a movie.

* Laying in front of the Royal Palace in a field on green grass and hundreds of pigeons waiting for the sunset and talking to Joy about friendship, trust, and how people change our lives.

- Hearing that Kurtis had his house in Bloomington broken into and that Liesel, a friend from KS was quitting to go home to South Africa.

25/4 Phnom Penh—Koh Kong Nature Corridor

First reliable mode of transport yet! 6 hrs on a normal bus, terrible Cambodian music vids playing the whole time, chill wooden hostel and a main street that’s less happening than a country road back home.

• ordering delicious coconut shakes from a street vendor in Khmer!

- Having a nightmare about stepping on a landmine during our hike tomorrow (one of the only countries where it is considered a legitimate worry)

26/4 Jungle Trekking Cardamon Mountains/ Koh Kong

Woke up early and left the small dusty town with Mr. Whisky and Lao (liquor in Thai) on the back of 20+ year old motorbike. We drove for 2.5 hours and quickly was thrilled as the landscape changed to dense tropical rainforest and blue mountains. Lao pointed out Durian, rambutan, and mangosteen trees and many others. We drove down a windey and rock strewn red dirt road. Had a blast and was so happy to be surrounded by green again. We stopped at a waterfall with a small jump and a high jump over the top of it (30ft) but started by swimming behind the falls to watch a gorgeous curtain of water thunder down making the next waterfall faint in the distance. Mr. Whiskey asked if we could swim and jumped into the water under the falls. Lao followed and Joy and I jumped together.  The falls were stronger than I had expected and I was disoriented when I came up much later than I had predicted.  The waves near the falls were strong and choppy and pushed me in every direction, including down. I saw Mr. Whisky and Lao over the waves and after looking briefly for Joy assumed she was ahead of me and swam with some effort over to the guides. The waves were still difficult to tread water in and as I was looking for Joy, I swallowed a few mouthfuls of water. When I saw her she was still under the falls and having difficulty swimming out. The 3 of us saw her at the same time and started swimming toward her as she kept swimming toward us. As she got closer we could see that she was struggling, her mouth was open taking in water, eyes half closed. Lao tried to swim with her a bit but found it too difficult and Mr. Whisky took over. We tried to tell her to swim under the waves or float on her back but she said she was too tired. It wasn’t far to the nearest rocks but by the time we all reached them Mr. Whiskey was gasping and we were all tired.  It was terrifying and sudden and had us all laughing nervously for the rest of the day.  After that we ate and layed in the sun drinking banana whisky and napping on warm rocks.  I woke up to raindrops falling on my face, the reverberations of thunder across the rocks and water, and streaks of lightening in the sky. we all hid under a rock until we eventually gave up and hiked out. We didn’t get to wet on the hike and set up our hammocks and campsite without too much trouble.

                                                                                                                                               

*waking up to cool raindrops as I lay in the hot sun by a waterfall. Hiding with friends under a rock drinking whisky as we waited for the storm to pass.  Eating gigantic kabobs (2ft each) and teaching Mr. Whiskey and Lao words in Thai and English as they taught us Khmer words.  Constant laughter as the night fell and talking and making fun of each other and ourselves late into the night in a mish mash of language. Telling Joy stories about Africa long after we went to bed, swinging side by side in our U.S. Army hammocks.

-          Feeling helpless and slow responding and I watched a friend struggle in a possible life threatening situation. Also, getting countless leeches stuck to clothing.

27/4 Koh Kong- Phnom Penh

Woke up at sunrise in our hammocks, made coffee and toasted baguettes over the fire and packed up for the long, beautiful drive home. Mr. Whiskey’s bike broke and he fixed it handily with a couple of well placed twigs and a piece of rubber.  Could definitely learn a lot from him.  We stopped off at another waterfall with a small, 10 ft jump which we did repeatedly, jumping into the water beneath a dozen or so tiny waterfalls feeding into the main one.  We made it back just before the rain and went for showers at a local’s house, running through the ‘backyard’ with a Chinese dome hat snatched from a peg to keep my last change of cloths dry, past buckets collecting raindrops and a large basin quickly filling with gutter water sent by a funnel into the basin.  Caught a 6 hr bus back to Phnom Penh.

                                                                    (Mr. Whiskey)

• Jumping into the waterfall, time and time again getting sucked away downstream, laughing as I tried to grab rocks or stand up in the slippery shallows. Delicious Indian food and Kingdom dark beer.

 - Failing to meet up with Annie, a friend that I met in Ghana and haven’t seen since, who also happened to be visiting Phnom Penh.