Angkor WHAT???

OK. Im going to try and make these next couple entries fairly short. As I'm nearing my departure date I'm realizing I might get home before I can get caught up with my current location.

I'll leave most of your 'window to Cambodia' up to the pictures, which is fitting because most of what we saw is pretty indescribable. Whether it was the massively impressive ruins of Angkor Wat or the remaining evidence of the 1970's genocide, most of Cambodia triggered our jaws to drop and gave us much to think about.

A City in Recovery

We started in Phnom Penh which is home to the Killing Fields and the Genocide Museum. In the mid-1970's a man named Pol Pot lead the communist party known as the Khmer Rouge to set out his goal of "restarting civilization" for Cambodia. In order to achieve this, the regime destroyed banks, government buildings, books and anything else resembling culture and tradition in Cambodia. Wanting to start from scratch and leave old Cambodia behind, the movement especially singled out intellectuals, torturing and killing them. It soon began an incredibly brutal genocide. The Cambodian citizens were forced into intense labor in the worst of conditions and expected to follow a series of the most unjust regulations set out by Pol Pot and his regime.

The first part of our tour through this unthinkable part of history was the grounds where over 200,000 executions took place. A tall glass building holding some of the actual skulls from the people killed serves as a monument dedicated to those who suffered. After lighting a stick of incense in their honor, we walked in silence through the Killing Fields full of massive graves that once held the bodies of innocent men, women and children who were brutally tortured and murdered.

Afterwards our driver took us to the museum which was once a high school before Pot's regime turned it into a prison full of torture chambers. We wandered through the eerily quiet hallways looking at some the objects used for torture, various photographs of those imprisoned and some of the rules imposed upon them.The whole experience was deeply saddening to say the least. We left with watery eyes, silently processing the incomprehensible acts that took place only a few decades ago. Later we talked about how scary it is that someone with such evil motives could have this much influence over others. Even more shocking is how we, along with most of the other travelers we've encountered, knew nothing about the genocide before coming to SE Asia. It seems like something of this magnitude should be put in our history books or at least discussed in social studies class. We left Phnom Penh with much to think about.

On a lighter note. . .

After a couple days in the country's capital city we moved north to Siem Reap. The city is famous for Angkor Wat, a massive temple complex spanning out to various parts of the city. Structured under a Hindu influence at first then eventually led by Buddhist influence, each section to the site provides its own variety of architecture, history and viewing pleasures. (Do I sound like a tour guide yet?) To make it easy, the place was freaking awesome.

We woke up at 4am to catch the sunrise, took a break for lunch midday and made it back for sunset. Each part was different from the next and we had such a good time acting like kids in a make believe game hiking up and down stone stairs leading up to the various temples. We heard stories about Kings being entertained by elephants fighting tigers in the viewing field and acrobats swinging from stone pillars 5 stories high. We walked all over the grounds, trudged up and down the temple steps and made the hike to the top of the hill for sunset. Although it was a long day, the fascination of each part left us wanting more.

The town of Siem Reap was surprislingly charming and ended up being a perfect spot to turn 25!!!! Not only was the location great, I had three fabulous friends who treated me like a princess on my big day. I felt incredibly lucky to be surrounded by such great people on a birthday far from home and can't thank them enough for that. However, the night was unfortunately bittersweet. Along with the birthday festivities we were also 'celebrating' Bridget's last night with us. Having signed on for another semester of teaching, she was forced to depart our SE Asia tour early. The night ended in many tears and Georgie, J and I immediately felt the loss when we woke up the next morning and she was gone. We miss you Bridget!!!!!!!!!!!