P.S.

Mary K and I both may pull an Angelina and bring home some Cambodian babies. If everyone would come to Cambodia once, no one will ever again make fun of her United Colors of Benetton family, the kids are adorable! They will want one too!

Au Revoir Cambodge!

Today is our final day in Cambodia, we will hopefully catch a bus back to Bangkok tomorrow and then hopefully an overnight train/bus down to the southern islands of Thialand in time for the full moon. Let me just recap how we have spent our final day here. We woke up and went to a school/restaurant to attend a morning class. Mary K and I learned to cook three traditional Khmer dishes. We were first taken to the market to pick out the fresh ingredients for our dishes. That was an event for us in and of itself. Watching men knock living frogs out by hitting them on the heads with mallets and then skinning them whole. Women scaling, deboning and cleaning fish as if it were second nature, and constantly having to dodge live fish jumping out of their boxes and onto the ground at our feet trying to escape for freedom, just to have an old woman reach down and grab it bare-handedly to throw it back in with its mates all awaiting their same fate. After that little treat we headed back and started cooking. I was pretty grossed out at first seeing all that raw meat, chicken, fish, eggs and knowing that I would be eating some of it later, but surprisingly enough, it all turned out really tasty; we're good cooks. We were given a cookbook to bring back with us, so get ready everyone for some serious Khmer cuisine! It was such fun to cook well for myself, meals I create for myself typically consist of soup and a grilled ham and cheese sandwich or eggs or something of equal simplicity. I made Amok curry with fish, Lok Lak diced beef with a sweet/tangy black pepper sauce and fresh vegetables, and a chicken hot/sweet soup with lots of pepper! After that we went back to our guesthouse and hoped on two motorcycles(the most common mode of transportation here) and were taken on tours throughout the countryside and rural villages. My parents, you may not find this next part amusing. Jokingly, I said to my driver, "So, when are you going to let me drive this thing?" Twenty seconds later, he pulled off onto a side street and told me to hop up front. By the way, this bike is manual, not automatic, and I have driven a manual car once in my life, and that was last year. So he gives me a twenty second lesson and tells me to go. I don't do it confidently, or perhaps the problem was that I was too confident. I go slowly a couple of times, not well, and stop quickly, not liking it. He told me to try again, and so I said, fine, last time. One last time was all I needed to crash the bike and we both fell over with the bike between our legs. I scraped up my right knee a bit, but a part from that, most of the damage was done to the bike. $90 worth to be precise. I now look back on it and find the amusement in it and realize it could have been a lot worse...My advice to you: next time you are in a third world country riding leisurely throughout rural villages, leave the driving to trained semi-professionals, lord knows I should.
After that we crossed over a suspended bridge (which I find to be a bit thrilling and cool) and made our way to a bamboo train. This train would be outlawed in the U.S. due to all that liability jargon, but it sure was a good time. Basically it is a small flat truck bed size raft made of bamboo with wheels and an engine. Then you just fly down an abandoned train track for a few kilometers. It's shaky, loud and the fear and threat of derailing is prevalent. We ran into another bamboo train cart coming our way, but because they had less weight on it (we had four people and two motorcycles) they had to get up, disassemble the train and wait for us to pass. How crazy is that? Only in Cambodia, I suppose! Then one of our drivers took us to his home to meet his mother and show us pictures and American books he has (a little random but friendly and warm all the same). After we came back to town and I paid the man for the damage I caused to his bike (tear) Mary K and I went and had Cambodia's best fresh fruit shake. It sure was. All the fruit is always picked fresh and nothing added to it, but mango, pineapple and banana! Anyway, just wanted to let everyone know about the "closing ceremony" in Cambodia! Wish us luck as we use the ever-so-reliable and efficient logistics system of Cambodia and Thailand...Should be interesting.

Peace out to Cambodia

We are still in Cambodia, but not for much longer. In a couple of days, and after only two weeks in Cambodia, we make our way back to Thailand, Southern Thailand, actually. These couple of weeks have simultaneously gone by quickly and slowly. Quickly because I have really loved it here and wish I could stay longer to see more places, meet more people, do more things, and try more foods. Slowly in that I have tried very hard to savor each day, to try to fully experience it so that it doesn't feel like a past lifetime that I was here. I have met lovely people, charming (and persuasive) children, learned about a new history for me, seen some pretty crazy things, tried great food, seen about a million geckos everywhere I go and have loved it all.
We went to the beach area of the country for the past few days and experienced a different aspect of Cambodia. We went to remote islands, ate barracuda, snorkeled (which I scraped my feet numerous times on the large corals), sipped fresh fruit shakes on the beach and made friends with a bunch of 12 year olds. One young boy, Da, was trying to sell me some paintings. Of course, this was another thing I really didn't need so I kept declining, politely of course, and he kept persisting. He quickly noticed my ipod, however, and focused his attention on it. In broken English, he asked me if I had any Bob Marley, so he took one earphone and I took the other and we listened. He took control of the ipod and started changing the tunes, to some pretty random ones actually and made himself comfortable. He laid on me for about thirty minutes until he decided he needed to be a bit more comfortable and laid across the chair and slept beside me for about an hour. Mary K and I just laughed and all the little girls and boys walking by to sell things would laugh and poke at him. I realized that this kid, and all the other kids are tired for a reason. Instead of playing in the water or hanging out with friends, a lot of the children have to go around all day long, in the hot Cambodian sun selling random things to take money home to their families. Most of them do it all day long and look like it, too. They try to sell anything they can. From hand-made jewelry, to fresh prawns, to manicures/pedicures, to threded hair removal. Anything to make a few bucks. It is so unfortunate that this is how too many kids spend their day, but for some of them it's the only way to have dinner or to go to school for a couple of hours, or whatever. We had two friends that would come by every hour or two and have a rest with us. We purchased stuff from both of them on other days and when I asked them how business was, they looked discouraged and said not good. No sales. The reason being the beach is saturated with child peddlers. Most people do purchase from them, but there are only so many sarongs and so many bags of fresh pineapple one can purchase. I don't really know if the kids understand that. They just see Western tourists, with what they assume to have a lot of money. How could they not want to buy such low-priced items, they wonder. And if you tell one of them you already purchased what they are selling, they sweetly and sadly say, but you didn't purchase one from me. How can you resist that? It's hard to without feeling like Cruella D'ville. One of the little girls and I played hand games for awhile and when I got up to leave, for the final time, she told me she was going to miss me because I play with her and I assume because we were so friendly with her. It made me sad to think that most of her encounters with people are so passing. She probably doesn't get to make too many friends with people seeing as everyone stays a couple of days and moves on to a different part of the country. She was an adorable kid.
We visited an orphanage one afternoon. The place was home for about 60 kids and an additional 140 for basic schooling each day. It was in a sad state to say the least. Far too small and ill-equipped for so many kids. A very yound woman was the director of the place and you could tell she loved her kids and they loved her. They were hugging all over us and vying for our attention. They were a bit dirty, wearing tattered clothing, but had addictivew smiles and laughs. They wanted to take photos, give you drawings, show you tricks, anything to make them stand out to you in your mind. We worried that maybe some thought we were coming to "look around", perhaps thinking of adopting. Their library was sad. A few books here and there, not nearly enough for so many children that live there. The playground was a very small grass field with a basketball goal and a small hut. Underfunded would be a polite exaggeration. So many kids need a lot more than what the orphanage can offer. There was one little boy, about three years old, that was left there since he was three months, brothers and sisters living there together, kids from about 3 years old to about 18. The director told us that a lot of the children cannot continue school after grade 4 because at that point they need sponsors since they have to be sent outside of the orphanage for school. She said that it costs about $24 a month to sponsor an older kid there, that includes tuition for school, books, uniform, everything. Not very much, huh? That's what I thought, but unfortunately, not too many kids get that chance.
A couple of people have asked me why we would want to see such depressing or dark places in this country, that it's sad, even border-line exploiting. But I think that it would be very selfish of us to come here, tour it, enjoy it and not take the time or effort to bear witness to their past and difficult present. Mary K heard a quote that says, "To love a country is to love its people". Moreso though, I think to love its people, you must understand where they come from, what their past was like, and possibly have a grasp of what their future may hold. These visits to the "sadder" places have helped me understand the people better, which in turn leads me to love, more.

Phnom Pehn

Two posts in less than a week? I guess once you start you just can't stop...probably not, though, who knows when I will the urge and thoughts to post next. We have arrived in the largest and capital city of Cambodia, Phnom Pehn. It is bustling, loud, polluted, a bit dirty, but the people as nice as always. Behind the insistent tuk-tuk and motor bike drivers, the inviting restaurant staff and the bright, smiling faces of the children lingers a rather dark and heart-wrenching past. Recent past, actually. As many of you know, the Cambodians have suffered disgusting injustices from the hands of their own countrymen. Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge were a communist form of government that took power in 1975 by winning power through guerilla warfare in order to restore Cambodia and its people to a purer state. A purely agrarian society in which anything otherwise was deemed tainted, evil and to be destroyed. This included having anything from modern luxuries such as cars, watches, books to those who found themselves to be superior for being educated/professionals such as doctors, lawyers, teachers, government officials, soldiers serving in the past regime, basically anything other than poor/primitive peasant and farm laborers. It started in the capital. Everyone was forced to leave the city, mainly by walking. And according to what I have read, it has said EVERYONE other than the Khmer Rouge soldiers. They displaced an entire city. All wondered into the countryside to villages where they were forced into hard labor. Let me clarify quickly, the Khmer Rouge disguised themselves as being the saviors of the people. They forced everyone to leave the capital by lying to them and telling them that the United States was planning to bomb Phnom Pehn so everyone must leave to survive. The people quickly realized that wasn't the case and saw in store for themselves a very grim future. First the Khmer Rouge began to mass execute any and all people they could find of non-farming occupations. They tortured and killed thousands of teachers, students, professionals, politicians, soldiers, people who wore glasses (they were considered intellectuals) and all of their entire families. Some were able to disguise themselves as peasants when they realized what was happening. Obviously I cannot go into details about the tragedy because then I would be writing a book, and not a very good or probably accurate one at that. I will tell you that there are estimates of up to three million of the then eight million population was tortured, executed or starved to death during the four year reign of the Khmer Rouge from 1975-1979. Here in Phnom Pehn, the largest "prison", basically a concentration camp, was housed. Not far out of the city is the "killing field". The prison was a high school where they took anyone who was "unpure" to question and torture, from babies to the elderly. They would be then transported about 14km to the killing field where they were executed and pushed into mass graves, some filled with up to 400 bodies. It is a disgusting and painful past that Cambodia has, and I urge you all to read up on it, just a bit, in order to understand what this nation is recovering from. We went to the prison and the killing fields today. It was the most difficult thing I have seen. It was impossible for me to the see the hundreds of mugshot-type pictures they have put up of the tortured and not be deeply pained. I saw a picture of a baby, probably not even the age of one yet and tears started streaming down. To know that they took this child away from her mother and tortured and killed both is too much for one to comprehend. Perhaps we don't actually, since thankfully, we were not there to bear witness. I saw one picture of a man who looked absolutely terrified, even from the photo taken at the beginning of it all, you could tell that this man knew of his fate, of the tortures that lay ahead of him. I'm sorry that this is not a cheerful post, but this is a part of my trip. These are the type of life-altering discoveries that this trip was supposed to hold for me. This is me seeing what is beyond my doorstep and beyond the pages of cnn.com. I am seeing the repairs that this nations is struggling to make. The thousands of people who don't really have enough to feed their children due to disabilities from the fight and landmines, displaced lives, a weak economy, poor to no wages because of no education and a very weak system that is still not re-built since the Khmer Rouge. I see the beggers and the street children differently, I don't blame the people for doing/having nothing with/for themselves; for some, it really is the circumstance. I thought to myself, after learning about the Khmer Rouge, that there is no way this could happen today. But I was wrong. I quickly remembered that a similar situation is happening in Darfur. I have been thinking how could the world not help the Cambodians? How could other countries have known what was happening and not do anything. It took Vietnam four years to finally invade Cambodia, dismantle the Khmer Rouge and save the people. But how come, today, we aren't doing more for the Sudanese? What can we do for them? How can we try to ease and better yet stop their suffering? Perhaps I feel zealous this way since only this morning I experienced the prisons and killing fields. I don't know, but I am sure that what I saw this morning are images that I will never forget. And hopefully urge me on enough to try and help the situations I can.

A long, long time ago...since the last post.

Hello again everyone (or anyone who still checks it out), sorry for the delay of posts. A lot has happened since the last time we have spoken. We have had an American Thanksgiving in which we prepared food for 40 people, successfully at that, we camped around the North Island for 10 days, had a hot Christmas in Wellington, went to a five day music festival to ring in the New Year, and traveled the South Island for a month, camping most of the time. And that's all just New Zealand still. It was more difficult than we expected to leave New Zealand. After five months, we ended up investing a lot more than just time in the country. We met wonderful people, saw awe-inspiring scenery, had some stomach-hurting laughs, and most of all, had an unforgettable experience. For all of us, it was our first true taste of independence and life after college. For the first time our lives were not planned out for us--our obligatory school years were over and this year was completely our decision, so much so that some of us had to defy the well wishes and hopes of our families and do what we felt was right for us. So, without beating a dead horse anymore, New Zealand (and half our trip) has come to an end. We are sad, but so eager and feeling very fortunate that we have so much more left for us.
I am now posting from Cambodia. Yes, random, exotic, unfamiliar and very enticing. We are drinking it all up. We are in a land that has experienced a very difficult past. After years of coos, forceful communism, persecution, mass genocides, starvation and many other forms of abuse and killings, the Cambodians are trying to rebuild their country and their lives. This is home to Angkor Wat, the largest set of religious temples in the world. Before and after they have become a World Heritage Site, these temples have been the pride and joy of the Khmer(Cambodian) peole. As I entered the sites of these ancient temples, I felt like I was on my own "Tombraider" expedition, and who doesn't like to feel that they are the first one to discover a treasure of this side and historical importance. It's exhilerating. We also visited a floating village. For anyone who thinks I am using this term loosely, let me be clear. It is literally a village, consisting of homes, markets, churches, shrines, schools, basketball courts and "corner"-like stores that are bobbing up and down freely on a river. An entire community commutes soley through the use of fising boats, rafts and I kid you not, small baths. It is like nothing you will see in the Western world. As stunning of a sight it is, it is also, unfortunately, comprised of some of the poorest families. A home for as many as you can imagine is a small raft with sticks creating three walls and straw/sticks/leaves creating the roof. We toured through it on a boat and saw catfish and crocodile "farms", which are basically shockingly small portions of the water roped off to raise thousands of these creatures. We are so much, however, enjoying the sweet spirit of the people who not do not just need the tourism money to survive, but who are also proud of their country and want to show it off to those who come. We still have about a week and a half here in Cambodia until we return to Thailand. Soon (I promise b/c internet is really cheap here) I will post again telling you all more about Cambodia and more about Thailand (I have plently to say about Bangkok already). Until next time...