Cambodia

November 2000

I spent only a week in Cambodia, which quite possibly means that my impression of the country is hasty and innacurate, but to me it felt like a broken country. After twenty years of bombing, warfare, and genocide there is something of a heavy spirit to the place. The land is still mined in many places, the buildings are run down and slowly, very slowly they are trying to rebuild their country from the dust.

At Pnom Phen central market. Boy there were some interesting smells here!
Check out the exotic produce hanging on my right.

These ladies are selling cockroaches!
Surely there is a limit when it comes to adventurous eating.

These little piggies went to market

And this little piggy went, "Wee, wee, wee" all the way home!
(He really did - I could hear him)

A day's riding in the Cambodian countryside

That afternoon shadow is not actually whiskers - it's Cambodian road dust.
I think I breathed the equivalent of about 9,000 packets of cigarettes that day.

Destructive emotions-knievel and his Cambodian stunt team.
(Buddhism does not recognise the concept of evil)

Cambodian people are, generally speaking, not very tall. But they are very beautiful.
I stopped at this family run restaurant for lunch.
Aren't they all just too cute?

Camodia's youngest con artist - guess how much she wants for this paper whistle?

A Broken Country

The Killing Fields Monument, which commemorates the genocide of 3 million Cambodian people by the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s. It stands at the excavation site where many of them were executed and thrown into open graves. You can still see the graves clearly in the photograph. Nearby, a sign describes the horror that overcame the Khmer people in those days. I copied it down here for you. Read it if you have time.

Even in this 20th century, on Kampuchean soil, the clique of Pol Pot criminals had committed a heinous genocidal act. They massacred the population with atrocity in a large scale. It was more cruel than the genocidal act committed by the Hitler fascists, which the world has never met. With the commemorative stupor in front of us, we imagine that we are hearing the grievous voice of the victims who were beaten by Pol Pot men with canes, bamboo, stumps or heads of hoes, who were stabbed with knives or swords. We seem to be looking at the horrifying scenes and the panic stricken faces of the people who were dying of starvation, forced labour or torture without mercy upon the skinny body. They died without giving the last words to their kith and kin. How hurtful those victims were when they got beaten with canes, heads of hoes and stabbed with knives or swords before their last breath went out. How bitter they were when seeing their beloved children, wives, husbands, brothers or sisters were seized and tightly bound before being taken to mass grave while they were waiting for their turn to come and share the same tragic lot.

The method of massacre which the clique of Pol Pot criminals carried upon the innocent people of Kampuchea cannot be described fully and clearly in words because the invention of this killing method was strangely cruel. So it is difficult for us to determine who they are for they have the human form but their hearts are demon's hearts. They have got the Khmer face but their activities are purely reactionary. They wanted to transform Kampuchean people into a group of persons without reason or a group who knew and understood nothing, who always bent their heads to carry out Angkor's orders blindly. They had educated and transformed young people and the adolescent whose hearts are pure, gentle and modest into odious executioners who dared to kill the innocent and even their own parents, relatives or friends.

They had burned the market place, abolished monetary system, eliminated books of rules and principles of national culture, destroyed schools, hospitals, pagodas and beautiful monuments such as Angkor Watt Temple which is the source of pure national pride and bears the genius knowledge and intelligence of our nation. They were trying hard to get rid of Khmer character and transform the soil and waters of Kampuchea into a sea of blood and tears which was deprived of cultural infrastructure, civilisation and national character, became a desert of great destruction that overturned the Kampuchean society and drove it back to the stone age.

Skulls from some of the three million who were killed by the Khmer Rouge and thrown into the open graves above.

Toul Sleng prison
a primary school that was turned into a torture and terrogation centre by the Pol Pot regime

A steel torture bed still equipped with iron cuffs and electrodes

Instructions to the inmates. Read these.

On the way to Angkor - Siem Reap

Finding somewhere to stay in Siem Reap can be a challenge. Check the local policeman in the bottom right corner chasing a pick pocket.

Can't afford to buy a block of land? No problem - just build your house on a raft. Terrific water views!
A floating village near Siem Reap.

Angkor

Angkor Watt is an ancient series of Hindu and Biddhist temples constructed around 1,000 years ago.
The constructions are vast and awesome, but all are decorated with idolatrous symbols, statues and stories, which are somewhat disturbing for a Christian.
The greatest temple was built by a man who proclaimed himself God and then spent 30 years and 20,000 lives building a monument to his own glory.
By contrast Jesus Christ, who really is God in flesh, laid down his life for us and is building a church of forgiven people who show the glory of His grace.

Sunrise from a temple mound

A sitting Buddha and his ginormous temple

A standing Aussie and his ginormous sandals


My favourite temple was called the "Jungle Temple" because the jungle was literally laying siege to the buildings and slowly reducing them to rubble again.


It's hard to capture the scale of this tree from the photograph.
Remember ... I'm 6 foot 5!

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