Hi everybody!
So Ive been very bad at keeping up to date with the blog, I know, its terrible. Here's a rundown, ill try and keep it to the point but I have a feelingI'm going to ramble on again. the Internet wont let me upload any photos so... this ones pretty unpictorial... if that's a word.
After an amazing month in Laos I headed on down to Cambodia for another month where I was to spend 2 weeks working at an orphanage, something that id organized before my trip from the UK. Taking the bus from Laos into Cambodia was really interesting. Laos is a land of trees and hills, and as soon as we'd got over the border it turned into flat lands and fields.
My first stop in Cambodia was to spend a couple of days in Phnom Penh, the capital city and commercial hub of the country. I spent a couple of days not doing touristy things but instead hanging out with Julia, one of Nick andKaties friends who is there teaching music mainly to expat kids. It was great to hang out with her for a few days and not feel the need tosight see . On my first day I ended up going to see Julia play in a Rugby 7's tournament held in the old Olympic stadium, something which I never thought would happen.
Before I arrived in Cambodia I made the effort to read the book "First they killed my father", an autobiographical account from a child's view of the Pol Pot regime that took over Cambodia in the seventies. I also ended up reading the book "The Killing Fields" based around an America reporter and his Cambodian fixer. I was really interested in everything that I found out about the regime, and I was kind of annoyed that I didn't know anything about it before hand. So the next part of this post is separate and going to be called 'Sod the Romans'
Sod the Romans... seriously sod them, well not them exactly but more the fact that through the years of 7 to 9 at school, all I really ended up learning about was the Romans and a bit of World War II. Maybe that was my fault that I never was really engaged by it, but since Ive come to CambodiaI'm getting frustrated about the fact that we're not educated in the UK about modern history. The Khmer Rouge regime was an eye opener for me when I came to Cambodia. I'd heard the name Pol Pot before butdidn't really know anything about him. If you're reading this and as ignorant as I was about the whole thing, here's a quick history lesson, please feel free to skip this bit.
On April 17th 1975 Phnom Penh was awash with cheers and greeting as the communist Khmer Rouge soldiers captured the city. A day later the cheers were gone, and a mass evacuation from the city had started with everyone being told that the Americans were going to drop bombs on Phnom Penh, and that they could return in 3 days time. Of course this was a lie, and in fact the city folk were being driven into the fields to work for the communist government. Suddenly money meant nothing and rich were now the poor, the poor still the poor. During the regime workers were starved of food as the rice that they grew was sold to China for arms, they could not say anything and were expected to do whatever the Comrades said. Many were killed for many reasons, monks, intellectuals, former workers under the Lon Nol government, even people who simply wore glasses were tortuously beaten to death as it was taken as a sign of intelligence...1975. What struck me was not really the fact that 2million people were killed (bearing in mind that the population at the time was only 7.1 million), but the fact that it was so recent and I didn't know anything about it. I felt a bit ashamed really and still wonder how many other places this is going on in right now and I'm not aware about it. The regime ended when Vietnamese troops fought back and took over in 1979, with refugees fleeing to Vietnam and Thailand, and then further afield.
Phnom Penh is home to The Killing Fields and S21. S21 is an old school that was converted into a torture camp in the heart of Phnom Penh, a sobering must for any visit to the city. When the camp was found, 9 bodies lay tortured on beds in different torture rooms. Photos were taken and now hang on the walls right next to where the beds and the tortureequipment still lay in the same position as when they were found. Its really eerie place and only gives a glimpse of what it must have been like. Rooms are packed with portraits of the many smiles that were lost, and individual cells the size of a toilet room are bricked row by row. Another must goes hand in hand with S21, the killing fields a few kilometres outside of the city is where the mass graves are located wherepeople from S21 were murdered and buried. Supplies were few in the communist government and bullets were not to be wasted on mere executions, pick axe being the weapon of choice. I could write for ages but shall refrain, but the reason it has to be mentioned is because the effect of the atrocities are still so evident all over the country. Not in the landscape or infrastructure, but in the people. I was waiting for a bus down to the south of the country and got talking to a street seller for about 45 minutes who spoke really good English, after a while as always, she asked me how many people there were in my family, I explained and then asked her the same question. "There is just me and my mother".Uncommon for Cambodian families. "I had a brother and sister but they died in Khmer rouge".... 1975. I heard similar stories a few times, people still affected by the regime.
I shall not go any further, if you are interested, I really recommend the two books 'First they killed my Father' and 'The Killing fields' that I read. Loung Ung's world , forced into Labour is so naive from her child's point of view, and the love for her father who dies (don't think I'm spoiling the plot with the title of the book and all that), is so powerful, her descriptions conjure a vivid picture of life in Phnom Penh.
So Ive been very bad at keeping up to date with the blog, I know, its terrible. Here's a rundown, ill try and keep it to the point but I have a feelingI'm going to ramble on again. the Internet wont let me upload any photos so... this ones pretty unpictorial... if that's a word.
After an amazing month in Laos I headed on down to Cambodia for another month where I was to spend 2 weeks working at an orphanage, something that id organized before my trip from the UK. Taking the bus from Laos into Cambodia was really interesting. Laos is a land of trees and hills, and as soon as we'd got over the border it turned into flat lands and fields.
My first stop in Cambodia was to spend a couple of days in Phnom Penh, the capital city and commercial hub of the country. I spent a couple of days not doing touristy things but instead hanging out with Julia, one of Nick andKaties friends who is there teaching music mainly to expat kids. It was great to hang out with her for a few days and not feel the need tosight see . On my first day I ended up going to see Julia play in a Rugby 7's tournament held in the old Olympic stadium, something which I never thought would happen.
Before I arrived in Cambodia I made the effort to read the book "First they killed my father", an autobiographical account from a child's view of the Pol Pot regime that took over Cambodia in the seventies. I also ended up reading the book "The Killing Fields" based around an America reporter and his Cambodian fixer. I was really interested in everything that I found out about the regime, and I was kind of annoyed that I didn't know anything about it before hand. So the next part of this post is separate and going to be called 'Sod the Romans'
Sod the Romans... seriously sod them, well not them exactly but more the fact that through the years of 7 to 9 at school, all I really ended up learning about was the Romans and a bit of World War II. Maybe that was my fault that I never was really engaged by it, but since Ive come to CambodiaI'm getting frustrated about the fact that we're not educated in the UK about modern history. The Khmer Rouge regime was an eye opener for me when I came to Cambodia. I'd heard the name Pol Pot before butdidn't really know anything about him. If you're reading this and as ignorant as I was about the whole thing, here's a quick history lesson, please feel free to skip this bit.
On April 17th 1975 Phnom Penh was awash with cheers and greeting as the communist Khmer Rouge soldiers captured the city. A day later the cheers were gone, and a mass evacuation from the city had started with everyone being told that the Americans were going to drop bombs on Phnom Penh, and that they could return in 3 days time. Of course this was a lie, and in fact the city folk were being driven into the fields to work for the communist government. Suddenly money meant nothing and rich were now the poor, the poor still the poor. During the regime workers were starved of food as the rice that they grew was sold to China for arms, they could not say anything and were expected to do whatever the Comrades said. Many were killed for many reasons, monks, intellectuals, former workers under the Lon Nol government, even people who simply wore glasses were tortuously beaten to death as it was taken as a sign of intelligence...1975. What struck me was not really the fact that 2million people were killed (bearing in mind that the population at the time was only 7.1 million), but the fact that it was so recent and I didn't know anything about it. I felt a bit ashamed really and still wonder how many other places this is going on in right now and I'm not aware about it. The regime ended when Vietnamese troops fought back and took over in 1979, with refugees fleeing to Vietnam and Thailand, and then further afield.
Phnom Penh is home to The Killing Fields and S21. S21 is an old school that was converted into a torture camp in the heart of Phnom Penh, a sobering must for any visit to the city. When the camp was found, 9 bodies lay tortured on beds in different torture rooms. Photos were taken and now hang on the walls right next to where the beds and the tortureequipment still lay in the same position as when they were found. Its really eerie place and only gives a glimpse of what it must have been like. Rooms are packed with portraits of the many smiles that were lost, and individual cells the size of a toilet room are bricked row by row. Another must goes hand in hand with S21, the killing fields a few kilometres outside of the city is where the mass graves are located wherepeople from S21 were murdered and buried. Supplies were few in the communist government and bullets were not to be wasted on mere executions, pick axe being the weapon of choice. I could write for ages but shall refrain, but the reason it has to be mentioned is because the effect of the atrocities are still so evident all over the country. Not in the landscape or infrastructure, but in the people. I was waiting for a bus down to the south of the country and got talking to a street seller for about 45 minutes who spoke really good English, after a while as always, she asked me how many people there were in my family, I explained and then asked her the same question. "There is just me and my mother".Uncommon for Cambodian families. "I had a brother and sister but they died in Khmer rouge".... 1975. I heard similar stories a few times, people still affected by the regime.
I shall not go any further, if you are interested, I really recommend the two books 'First they killed my Father' and 'The Killing fields' that I read. Loung Ung's world , forced into Labour is so naive from her child's point of view, and the love for her father who dies (don't think I'm spoiling the plot with the title of the book and all that), is so powerful, her descriptions conjure a vivid picture of life in Phnom Penh.
Spending time in Phnom Penh with Julia was really interesting, and I was amazed by the amount of Ex pats that live there. One tradition that I was introduced to by Julia was going out toKaraoke with some of her friends and some random people. Not ashamed at all to sing at the top of their voice in company of friends, these Cambodians were cool. Its actually got a lot of western influences, with the majority of the western ex pats being French (Cambodia used to be a French Colony, they call itCambodje ). I only really realised how not commercial Laos was until I got to Cambodia and could see the comparison. Western Brands and Chains are all very evident inPhnom Pneh , but Cambodia on the whole is still a very poor country with the average wage being around $1/day (62p in our money). This was really evident when I went on my next stop to an Orphanage inTakeo called NFO.
The NFO
The NFO or New Futures Organisation is set up and run in Takeo province. A few years ago it was nothing with a few dollars, a couple of pigs and about 30 odd young mouths to feed. It was taken over by an English bloke named Neville who has turned it into a thriving place to grow up.
I really liked the NFO orphanage, had a great time there, but I did feel some of the time that I didn't really need to be there. Theres a problem with volunteering at somewhere like an orphanage in the sense that the place needs to be sustainable and be able to run by itself without the need of outside help, andthat's certainly what was the case here. It was great playing games with the kids, and helping them read but I felt that at the end of the day if Iwasn't there, it probably wouldn't make much difference, so... I went to teach English.
The orphanage is affiliated with various village schools but I went to one which was not and that was found by accident by another volunteer a few weeks before. This was by far the best thing I did while I was inTakeo and so rewarding, these kids were just the best. So willing to learn, and some of them really good. Its a free school teaching English run by two local guys who were equally as awesome. I taught in my first week with Amanda, and these guys were so grateful they took us on their bikes to theVietnam border up a 1hour hike to a temple on the top of a hill, looking back over into Takeo Province, great way to spend a Saturday.
The commute to the village school was amazing and I ended up taking a video, I've tried to shorten it and put it on youtube but its not been working, ill try again another time.
Time hanging out with the kids was great, there was one time when it started to thunderstorm and we all took cover, the kids did the opposite and went out to play in the rain, so of course we joined in and played water log football with them. Another good thing about the orphanage was the other volunteers, there were quite alot of them but everyone was awesome, and it was great to spend some time with the same people for a while.
Kampot
After the Orphanage I decided to go down to Kampot in the south of the country. Here I spent a couple of days including a trip to an old colonial house on the top of a mountain which was used by theKhmer rouge. Instead to killing people by axe, here they just threw them off the cliff. It was a pretty eerie place and not very safe, but this isCambodia, there are no health and safety rules.
Siem Reap
I was going to spend some time on the south coast but decided instead to try and make it to Thailand for the full moon party where some other volunteers from the orphanage were going to be.
Siem Reap is the home of Angkor Wat, an amazing array of temples in the North of the country. The temples are awesome and I spent 3 days exploring all of the temples. I went by bike Had a few problems with my camera so some of the pictures arnt focused properly but here are a few of the best ones.
In Siem Reap I got some traditional Cambodian hospitality. walking back from dinner one night a bloke called me over to a table outside a shop where he was drinking with about 5 other people and insisted I drank with them. Turned out to be one of the best nights while we all got drunk through a distinct language barrier. He said it was his birthday,turned out it wasn't... seemed he didn't need an excuse to have a few though.
Into Thailand
I left Cambodia in haste and definitely hope to go back there again some day, the people are the nicest that Ive met so far, so hospitable, generous and happy despite everything that their country has gone through.
As I write this I'm actually leaving Thailand as I go into Myanmar having spent 3 weeks on the beaches learning to dive, so I am one blog post behind. I will write about Thailand when I return from Myanmar.
That's enough for now. Thanks for reading.
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