Monday, December 14, 2009

Phnom Penh: A different world from Vietnam

We made it to Phnom Penh in Cambodia this afternoon after a smooth border crossing with a tour company. As soon as we crossed the border it looked a lot different. The Khmer people look dramatically different from the Vietnamese people and the architecture of the buildings are very different as well. The only thing that remained the same were the cows and water buffaloes on the side of the road.

You can definitely tell that Cambodia is not a communist country because the rich here, are really rich and unfortunately the poor, are really poor. It's really sad to see people who are skin and bones, or children who don't have shoes. One of the saddest things I saw was a young boy carrying around a baby in his arms looking through garbage for food. The city of Phnom Penh is very beautiful, so you begin to wonder where the government spends the money when you see Lexus' everywhere and then children who are begging for money. There are a lot of people looking for handouts from tourists, which I can see is understandable. While Joey and I were enjoying some beers on our guesthouse patio, a boy wearing tattered clothing and no shoes approached us begging for money. He didn't speak a word of English so I asked the server to ask him if he was hungry and if I could buy him some food. He declined, but still stood there begging for money for another 20 minutes.

Cambodia has no social or economic support for amputees or disabled people. These people are usually shunned from the rest of society as well. It really breaks our hearts to feel this privileged and these people have nothing. This trip has really made both of us re-evaluate what we want in life, and how fortunate we are to be from where we come from. If any of you who are reading this, and felt stressed today, try to think about what kind of stress and hardship someone in a country like Cambodia has to go through everyday. It's obviously easy to ignore when you don't have to see it, but it's becoming increasingly harder for Joey and I to deal with. I have really started to realize that most of my worries are very trivial and will soon pass. Living on the street or in dire conditions doesn't pass so easily.

Tomorrow we have hired a tuk-tuk to take us to the Killings Fields which are located 15km from our guest house. The Killing Fields was where over 17,000 men, women and children lost their lives in the late 70's and early 80's during the Pol Pot regime. Their bones and skulls remain in massive graves. 2 millions people overall were killed during this genocide. Cambodia only had a population of 7 million at the time. We will also being visiting an elementary school that had been converted into a prison where people (including children) were tortured before being killed in the Killing Fields. It should be a very sobering day for the both of us.

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