Cambodia

From Phenom Penh, Cambodia:

I have been here for four days now, staying at a backpacker in outskirts of Phenom Penh. Paying $3/night it provides me with a single bed with thin mattress in a 7 bed dorm, shared fan and cold showers. It is super basic, however, it's clean, no rats, nice balcony, pool table, friendly staff and a great bunch of other travelers.

A walk down the street will attract attention of the many tuk tuk and moto (motorbike) drivers. Their products range from tuk tuk rides to guns or shooting a grenade at a cow. I think by now I have mastered every way of saying "no" in the book. A typical conversation would be something like this,

Seller: "sir sir!! you want tuk tuk?"
me: "oh no thank you"
Seller: "where you go? I take you there.."
me: "no it's alright, I'm walking"
Seller: "sir you want marijuana?"
me: "haha no thanks"
Seller: "what you want? you want opium? I have anything"
me: "nah man I'm all good"
Seller: "girls? lady girls cheap cheap"
Seller: "how about guns? want guns?"

I feel like people are doing anything they can to find a days living. I guess for majority it is really a day to day living. If a book seller on the street don't find enough cash for the day, he/she would go to sleep hungry. I've seen a street side market shop owner sleeping on a bench in the rat infested market. I've seen a kid may be ten years old sleeping in the grass alone with no shelter. Poverty is everywhere here. Nevertheless, there is the rich that parked up their fancy cars right next to the sleeping child on the grass and walked away without a glance.

This is what Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge tried to eradicate three decades ago. They called it Communist Revolution or Khmer Nationalism. The process was sickeningly ruthless - it was mad!! I saw the killing fields and torture camps of tens of thousands of the educated, intellectuals, government officials, monks, teachers, trades people, foreigners and their families. By the end of Khmer Rouge era, close to 2million of Cambodian population was killed.

I see the intentions of Pol Pot that lead to all this chaos, to eradicate the contrast between the rich and the poor. Every one of us were humbled by the poverty, and that was spawned out of love. However, we should all understand that the despise for the rich that arise has in fact nothing to do with the poor. A true solution should only arise out of the same love and kindness we all felt up on seeing the poor and not out of hate, anger or despise for the rich. One may believe in a solution that was fueled by anger and hate only to find that in the end it had created more problems. Hence, the current situation in Cambodia.



~Stupa made in memory of all the people that had died in the "killing fields" which contains remains of 9000 bodies and 11000 more still berried underground~



~Inhabited by the poor~



~my $2 hammock in the balcony~