I honestly don’t know where to begin this post!
Should I start with some of the sights we saw along the roadside today during our 4+ hour drive from Phnom Penh to Kampot in Cambodia? I could tell you about all the skinny white cattle....the kind that have a hump on their back....I’ve never seen so many SKINNY cows! Or I could mention the guys who were throwing bricks up to the second and then the third story of a building that was under construction. They were throwing and catching them with two sticks and a bag attached to the sticks. Kind of like a weird lacrosse thingy that was super long. Or maybe I should mention the miles and miles of rice paddies or perhaps the hundreds of tarps covered in drying rice on the edge of the road or in people’s yards. Or maybe it would be best to tell you about the mountain of pineapple that was sitting on the side of the road under a tarp waiting to be purchased. Or...I guess I could talk about the guys on their bikes bringing their huge bunches of balloons and stuffies for a ride somewhere (to sell I’m sure). But you might be more interested to hear about the thousands of strings of sausages that were hanging at the edge of the road drying in the sun or on a similar note of course there are the ever present “butcher shops” where hunks of fresh meat are hanging and waiting for someone to come buy them for dinner. Or...perhaps you’d prefer to hear about the multi coloured symmetrical mountains of fresh fruit and vegetables that lined both sides of the road every time we passed through a market area. And of course there is always the guys perched atop the semi truck....just sitting there....holding on to nothing....kings of that castle for sure! Or the family that was all piled onto a single bike...mom, dad, and three kids (one was a baby). There were mansions and there were shacks. There were car dealerships and there was garbage. There was road construction and there was smooth pavement. We saw dogs and cats by the dozens. There were broken down vehicles and others that were expensive and new. There were restaurants with little plastic chairs for their patrons to sit and rest a spell and there were people.....so many people.....some with somewhere to go and others just hanging around in their yards or on the side of the road. We saw life....life as it is lived in rural Cambodia.
But no...I’m not going to start with any of that...I’m going to start by telling you that Lynda uttered “Good Grief Alice” 37 times before I stopped counting as we were less than an hour into our journey! Her comment was in response to the fact that the ‘new’ bus we were in was actually a very old van and that van was missing its shocks in the back, 5th gear on the transmission, a rear view mirror, any kind of liquid to wash the dirt off the windshield, and we’re not 100% sure about its tires by the end of our trip! We do know that its brakes worked VERY well and it’s horn worked VERY VERY well! We also know that my seat was broken and her seat required that she sit with her knees up against the back of my broken seat and her feet squished into the small area meant for tiny Asian feet. I was lucky to have the sliding door next to me so was able to squish one foot forward into that space for part of the journey. Lynda had to unfold herself at our 1/2 way stop and in truth...I wondered if we’d make the second 1/2! But we did....and here we are in Kampot settled into our room at the Mea Culpa for 5 glorious nights. But that journey was tough! By the end of it we were both feeling the stress of having been stuffed into a too small space with a dozen other people. There was air conditioning but honestly...I’m not sure it was doing anything. We’d read that the roads in Cambodia (especially rural Cambodia) are rough but this road today was beyond rough! It was dotted with potholes the size of small valleys and of course our driver was trying to make up for the fact that he’d been late leaving Phnom Penh and so we were constantly passing on the right which meant that we were half in the ditch for much of the trip! As well, the final 40 km (took a full hour) before we got to Kampot was under construction and so we bumped and bounced on our “shockless” vehicle like neither of us had ever been bounced or shook before! Our boobs were coming out of our bras and we were afraid to speak for fear of biting our tongues! Yes, it was a tough trip. In hindsight, we should have taken the time and figured out how to get on the Giant Ibis bus. It still would have been a rough ride as it would have to travel the same road but...it might have been in better shape and therefore a little more comfortable. But that is hindsight and had we done that we’d never have this memory/story to share. It was one of those times that the sign we saw in the sandwich shop in Saigon really hit home.....the sign said,
“Traveling - it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller.” Yep....we were both pretty speechless during much of this trip today and at the end of it all we could say was “thank heavens that is over!” And...now we have a story we will never forget!
Phnom Penh was an interesting stop...we were just there for two nights. We only wanted to be there long enough to visit the killing fields to pay our respect. It felt like one of those things that you don’t really want to do but that you feel like you need to do and so we did.
Yesterday was the day. We hired a tuk tuk driver Rasee and were grateful to have him with us. The site is a good 40 minute drive and Rasee was an excellent driver and his tuk tuk was large and breezy so we were comfortable for the two way trip.
The site of the killing fields was not so comfortable though. It is an emotional journey that you go on when you visit that site. The tragedy of the place is palpable and hearing the stories brings it all to life. It takes a little more than 90 minutes to visit the site. You’re given a headset and audio guide. It is all incredibly well done and I was grateful to see that for the most part all of the visitors to the site were respectful and mindful of giving others space to process the experience in their own way. At about the 1/2 way mark of my time there I found a quiet spot to sit under a tree beside a pond of water. I knew this pond was also a mass grave but somehow it was so beautiful to see how nature had turned the horror of it into this beautiful space. There were so many birds singing and sitting there in the shade of that tree I was reminded of the fact that we’d also just honoured our veterans on Remembrance Day. So much tragedy and so much death and none of it makes any sense at all. As I sat there listening to the story of one survivor come to me via my headset, I was impressed with his final message. He said that he is like a broken glass and it is up to him to find the pieces of his glass and to put himself back together. He also said that he’s moved past the anger and the need for revenge and that his focus is on education....educating the next generations about the atrocities of genocide and how each of us must do what we can to ensure it never happens again. I was also confused and angry to learn that even after the rest of the political world knew what had happened during the reign of terror by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia between 1975-79 the UN still recognized the Khmer Rouge and their leader as the head of state of Cambodia. The leader of that group who’d been responsible for randomly ordering the death of 50% of the people here went on to live a full and happy life for another 20 years. It makes no sense....it is all so wrong.....and somehow the Cambodian people have risen above it to rebuild and regroup and revitalize. I have a great respect for these strong and very gentle people that I have met during my few days here.
The location of our hotel in Phnom Penh was “interesting”. We didn’t realize until it was too late but we were right on the edge of what turned out to be a red light district. It was a strip of girly bars that attracted a seedy crowd and that partied till the wee hours. Fortunately we were just far enough away from the edge of it that even though we could see and hear it we weren’t really so close that neither the noise nor the clientele were a problem for us. Whew!
We really enjoyed our tuk tuk tours (night and day) around the city and got to see all that we wanted to. We even spent our final evening at the night market as it’s known for it’s excellent street food and it didn’t disappoint. We each had two full meals and including drinks our total bill was $5.25. Not bad!
So here we are in Kampot....with a plan to stay for at least 5 days (as that is how many nights were available at Mea Culpa). We just had pizza from a wood fire oven and an icy cold beer to wash it down. I had a White Russian for dessert. I can see how this place could grow on you! One blogger describes Kampot not as a place that knocks your socks off...but rather a place that gently pulls them off one at a time (not in a creepy way) and then before you know what’s happened there you are with your socks off and getting a foot massage. I think that blogger has this place figured out and I look forward to getting my socks pulled off and my feet rubbed. :-)
Till next time,
LorLyn
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