In April 2003 I traded my hometown of Haarlem, Netherlands, for the San Francisco Bay Area and a career in tech journalism and high-tech public relations. But work isn't the only reason I like the area, as you'll see on this blog, which will primarily have photos and some personal thoughts.
Friday, July 10, 2009
Farmers And Fishermen of Cambodia
Going to Cambodia is like going through a timewarp. Life has not changed for hundreds of years for many Cambodian families. Over 80 percent farm their own piece of land or fish. They own a water buffalo or other animal to help them (if they farm) or a simple canoe and some netting, or even simply a net and a bucket, if they fish. It is a very sobering experience to visit Cambodia and see the true simple life.
Need to get a copy of Windows or Office, it costs only $3 in Cambodia. Same for a disc filled with the latest McAfee applications. One thought though, the Business Software Alliance has done some tests around the world and has found that pirated software is often infested with malware.
Early in the morning Cambodians do their morning exercise to the thumping beat of music coming out of several large speakers. There are several providers of music so people can choose the beat they desire to exercise to.
Cambodia is filled with pagodas and pagodas house monks. These are generally cheerful and friendly men who don't mind having their photo taken or chat a bit. One even seemed to be picking up a tourist from somewhere else in Asia while strolling near Angkor Wat :)
Some sights of the Kampot market on the way from Phnom Penh to the south of Cambodia. Here we enjoyed some sugar cane juice and became real spice traders by picking up some black pepper to take home.
Some of the sights around What Phnom in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. This pagoda is built on a man made hill, the only hill in the city. The area is crawling with beggars, but also with monkeys and an elephant tourists can take a ride on for a few dollars. What Phnom also seems to be an area local people come to relax.
Only on our first afternoon in Cambodia did we notice it is rainy season. The down pour was so large that many streets turned into rivers with cars and mopeds plowing through it.
Images of the Killing Fields just outside of Phnom Penh, Cambodia. This is a surreal place to visit and tough to deal with emotionally. These pictures are pretty graphic and go with the blog post earlier from Cambodia.
Following up to the last post, here are some pictures of Tuol Sleng, the high school turned secret prison in Phnom Penh during the Khmer Rouge regime in the late 1970s.
A cell in the VIP (very important prisoner) segment where torture happened daily.
The Khmer Rouge documented carefully who entered the prison. Practically everyone was eventually killed.
Cells for female prisoners on the second floor. Male prisoners were on the ground floor in cells without doors, but they were shackled to the floor.
A view from one of the school buildings/prison buildings to another.
After touring Vietnam last summer, Cambodia was on the list this year. In Vietnam I saw remnants of the Vietnam war and some of the terrible pain inflicted on people there.
On the first day in the Cambodia I visited the Tuol Sleng Museum, a former high school turned prison during the Khmer Rouge regime in the late 1970s. Then we traveled to the Killing Fields outside of Phnom Penh where about 20,000 people were murdered in a gruesome way, many of whome were transfered from Tuol Sleng.
Visiting these places is thoroughly depressing, as you can imagine. The school/prison has furniture, blood splatters and torture gear on display in addition to many walls filled with photos of the people who were imprisoned there, tortured and ultimately murdered on the killing fields. The prisoners were accused of being intellectuals or against Pol Pot's regime.
The Killing Fields are another experience altogether. A monument contains the skulls of thousands of the victims in a tower of many levels, starting with the youngest and then up to adults. As you walk around the fields you see white bones peeking through the soil as well as teeth and victims' clothing. It is a very powerful and surreal experience.
