Cambodia cont'd

Walking in our 'hood in Phnom Penh

A grim reminder of Khmer Rouge

Telephone poles, SE Asia style

While in Cambodia there were three places we spent most of our time. The first was Phnom Penh, the capitol of Cambodia. You can’t go to PP or Cambodia for that matter, without learning about the Khmer Rouge. If you don’t already know about the KR the people of Cambodia will educate you. They do not want to forget and do not want the world to forget all the devastation caused by the Khmer Rouge. There are memorials, books, posters, movies and everything imaginable reminding you of it. If you are unfamiliar, the Khmer Rouge ruled Cambodia lead by Pol Pot from 1976-1979. During this time he and his policies killed an estimated 8 million people.  And these were Cambodian people, particularly the educated, elderly, and children. He placed land mines around the entire border of Cambodia so his own people could not escape. There are still some 3 – 5 million mines that have yet to be removed. You can watch the movie The Killing Fields to get a better understanding of what happened.

Outside our little neighbor hood

SE Asia is worthing visiting just to see what they manage to get on a motorcycle!!

Only way in and out, by a little boat. 

KOH RONG

We had heard about some completely unspoiled beaches in the south on an island called Koh Rong. The island alone was enough of a reason to visit Cambodia. There’s no development, no roads, no golf courses, and only accessible by a 2 hour boat ride. We stayed in a little bungalow called Pura Vida owned by an Italian couple. There was very limited electricity, no hot water, and basic amenities, but the deserted beaches made up for it.

Calm after the storm. Our ride home was two hours of rough seas. I don't think Melissa's face has ever been that pale. She stood the whole trip home and road the boat like it was a surf board. Yeah...no one else on the boat thought it was weird or anything.

Crystal blue waters

As fun as traveling has been, we were becoming a bit road weary. The last home cooked meal we had was in Australia. SE Asia food is great, but you start craving something other than rice and noodles.  Staying at Pura Vida was a welcome relief. They served  homemade Italian food with ingredients imported from Italy. I was in heaven; sometimes we would ask for the same dish twice in a day.

Pura Vida - our little getaway - great Italian food and coffee!

                     SIEM REAP

Angkor Wat was our final destination in Cambodia. A UNESCO world heritage site and made famous by the movie Tomb Raider, it’s still all that and a bag of chips. It was built sometime in the 12th century and the jungle started to take it over around the 16^th century.  The temple is in part held together and being destroyed by massive trees that have grown over it. It’s truly spectacular.

Amazing ruins at Angkor Wat

 

face hidden in the tree roots

  

You don't know what you don't know

This was written several weeks ago and we are just now getting around to posting the articles. So, we’ve done a good job telling you all about the wonderful and amazing things we are seeing in SE asia.  But I’m feeling compelled to tell about the not so wonderful.  Be prepared for a dose of reality if you have not already traveled this way. First off, I have loved traveling through SE asia, which hopefully you can already tell by our posts.  But I would mistaken if I didn’t tell all.  This is the part that is hard to write about. 

Cambodia, while being an amazing country, sucked the wind out of me on a number of occasions.  And for Cambodia’s sake, what I’m about to write isn’t privy just to this particular country; it’s just where I felt I felt it the most.  I have traveled to 3^rd world countries before and have seen poverty in different forms.  I just haven’t seen poverty and corruption quite like this.  And if it sounds like I’m complaining, I’m not.  This is reality and I live in a part of the world that I too often take for granted. What hit me in the chest was when we would see a naked mother sitting on a street corner with several children, feeding themselves out of the garbage.   Or even worse when I would come across a naked little baby on the sidewalk, seemingly all-alone.  These images pulled at every heartstring I have.  I still am haunted these images that I walked away from… And I still ask myself what can I do?

We were fortunate to meet up with a friend of a friend who works for an NGO (non government organization) over here in Cambodia and I got my first lesson on women and child sex trafficking and how prevalent it is.  How orphanages are also being corrupted by child molesters and how women get sold into the wrong hands and end up in sex trafficking because their families thought they were doing good by giving them a better life in the city than in the village.  Which brings me back to images of women with several children, now understanding the why and how.  Don’t get me wrong, there are wonderful people doing wonderful things in this part of the world to help these tragic and demoralizing situations.  But for me, it was one of those things that I have heard about, but never really wanted to believe actually existed.  And then I’m here and can see it with my own eyes.  It’s crazy. 

There are other things we take for granted in the US like hygiene and simple education.   For example, we learn as children to wash our hands with soap when we use the bathroom.  They don’t here.  And I’m not kidding.  You can go to a place like the airport and find no soap in the restroom and perhaps not any toilet paper.  This is common.  My friend Anjanette, who now lives in Bangkok, witnessed a Thai woman get hit by a car over here and was appalled when people rushed to move her limp body off the street while waiting for the ambulance. The next day she was telling this traumatic story to the kids in her classroom and they said, “but teacher, nobody told us we shouldn’t move someone after they get hit.”  You don’t know what you don’t know.  And if you grew up with a squatter for a toilet and never used soap to wash your hands, then you wouldn’t get mad at the fact that there was no soap in a place like the airport (like I do.)  And then there is the labor, what we call the workforce.  I have often said I don’t ever want to work in a cubicle again.  As I’m sure many of you have.  But working in an air-conditioned office, in a cubicle, for only 8+ hours would be heaven here.  Try doing manual labor outside in 90+ degree weather, 12+ hours a day, 7 days a week.  For the majority of the people, that’s life here. 

I was talking with Anjanette one night at dinner and I had a moment.  She says to me, “You know how in the US we always say “if I won the lottery, I would…”  And we fill in the blank. “  I looked at her and realized what she was going to say before she even said it.  People reading this…you already won it.  

Buenos Aires

So we've settled in Buenos Aires for awhile. The questions we keep getting are how did that happen and for how long? Well, it really wasn't planned, it just sort of happened. While in Cuba we decided we weren't really ready to come home quite yet. We still had the urge to get down to South America and so it was decided that we would get an apartment for at least a month and instead of moving around, living out of hotels, we would become temporary residents of Buenos Aires. I had already been to BA a few years ago and really wanted to bring Nathaniel here. We got extremely lucky and found an amazing flat within 3 days of being in the city for $500 a month! If you haven't seen the pics on facebook, we've posted a few for you. While we are here, we plan to practice and perfect our Spanish, eat lots of Italian food and asados (their grilled meat), and try to act like portenos (BA locals.) We will also look for work, just in case we decide we want to stay here longer, which I think we already do! And blessed as it may be, a few days ago I got rehired by Beacon, my dear friend Pallavi's company, so I will be working part time from home. 
 I'm the happiest little camper over here because if you know me at all, you know I love having a house and making it "home". But this may be new for most of you... I've become domesticated. I cook dinner every night. I guess eating out for 4 months is what it takes for a girl to like to cook! You would hardly recognize me in the kitchen...and nathaniel says the food even tastes good.

All we need now is some visitors, so come visit us!