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Cambodia
So as we took a 13 hour bus ride to phnom phen I was thinking about all the things people were warning us about. There are a lot of people who beg in the city, and crime rates are high. We were really on guard as we entered the country. The bus stopped to get ready to board the ferry and a boy came on and begged and walked up and down the aisles. He had incredibly disfigured arms and could just manage to hold the rhiels that were being given to him. Once we got to the city we found ourselves in a really beautiful hostel, with some really interesting people. Day 1 we went to the National Museum that houses the largest amount of artifacts from Angkor Wat in the world. We then went to the royal palace, had some amazing bubble tea and spent the night in the hostel. It is at this point I would like to insert the stupidest travel story I've heard yet. Unfortunately I can't do this story justice so everyone will have to wait for it in person. Needless to say, someone got scammed.
The next morning we decided to go to The Killing Fields and The Genocide Museum. It was an incredibly heavy afternoon. The Killing Fields was used during the Kmher Rouge regime as a genocidal tool to create a better society. Under Pol Pot's regime 3 million out of the 8 million Cambodians were killed. This happened in the late 70s. The Killing Fields tour was accompanied by a really incredible audio guide that shared the perfect amount of information. Because this was so recent, things like clothes and bones are still coming to the surface on the pathways you walk in. We found a tooth, and there were countless number of clothes. In the middle of the area there is a huge monument paying respect to the people who were senselessly killed and it is these large case that holds their skulls. The people were killed by the cheapest way possible, since ammunition and tools cost money, people were often bludgeoned to death with bamboo sticks and gardening tools, so many of the skulls have cracks. They would take children by the ankles and swing them into a tree. To muffle the sounds of the people, they would play incredibly loud traditional propaganda music.
After this we went to the Genocide Museum. This was a school that the Khmer Rouge changed into a prison and torture house. Walking through the spaces was eery, and all the prisoners photos were posted. Young children were not excluded from questioning. There was still blood on the floors in the cells, and up the walls. I had a very emotional experience here, and the energy around the space was just so very bad. Before entering the space, we read a brochure from the museum explaining it is important to preserve this museum to make sure another genocide doesn't happen again. This was all happening in the late 70s. That's what is so strange to me. When Pol Pot was finally defeated by the resistance, his political party fled to the jungle. Although they were no longer the leaders of Cambodia, they still sat in the UN and continued to receive financial aid from the UK, US and France. That is unbelievable to me. Cambodia is still in a massive regrowth period, and the people we met seemed so strong and so resilient. Pol Pot made it his agenda to kill everyone who were "second people" these were people who were educated, knew different languages, wore glasses, worked for the government, doctors, teachers, everyone. So in the 80s, the country had to completely start anew. And they did, and there are some incredible small organizations that have helped out. I'll talk a bit more about it in my next post!
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