We're baa............accck from the Kingdom of Cambodia.
Some lessons learnt from this trip:
1) When it comes to packing medication, prepare for the worst (and I mean
worst). And don't think just because we didn't experience it in Paris/Rome/Amsterdam/Bario, doesn't mean our stomachs are made of lead. Enter Phnom Penh and Siam Reap, banana-coconut milk shakes, fish
amok and one million flies in the vicinity and yes oh yes, we're not as invulnerable as we thought we were. Thank goodness we passed on the spiced river snails and deep fried creepy-crawlies (beetles, tiny whole frogs, crickets, hairy looking-spiders the size of 50-cent coins).
2) When it comes to money, don't even
think of scraping by. Always size up the wad of cash by at least 50%. Sure, it just might get stolen, but at least you escape that super lousy feeling of having to count pennies, not because you can't afford it but simply because of under-estimation of world inflation rates. And prices quoted in the Lonely Planet written in 2005 ARE NOT going to hold up in 2008. *
Smacks forehead*
3) We got it good here in Malaysia. Clean water, constant electricity supply. In Cambodia diesel generators abound because of the inconsisteny of the electricity supply, and our tuk-tuk driver used water from a rain puddle from the shower the night before to wash down his motorcycle. Talk about making the best of what one has.
4) Do we really know how good we got it? Nevermind the corruption in out government, at least we didn't have our government+intellectuals+educated class almost totally wiped out by a
paranoid Paris-educated radicalist who wanted a nation of farmers and declared Year Zero when he took power. At least we know where most of our aunties/uncles/ grandfathers/mothers/fathers are. Most Cambodians have to pay their respects at the
Choeng Ek Killing fields to the Stupa with 5000 skulls, because they don't know where they're buried, because they were
murdered in such a way that belied all respect for the human soul.
I truly wonder how is a nation to heal, emotionally, spiritually after such an atrocity by its very own. But you gotta give them credit for their pluck and their spirit.
We have found Cambodians to be honest, gentle and so hospitable it made staying in the guesthouses so special. We'd like to thank the
Manor Guesthouse, for their wonderful map and directions, for arranging our transport for us, for shielding us with umbrellas when we arrived there in pouring rain. We thank the
Rosy Guesthouse in Siam Reap for their undemanded concern when AK was sick, for their personalized room service, for getting us on the Tuk-Tuk to the clinic. To our wonderful Tuk Tuk driver Vithu who guided us throughout Siam Reap over bumpy roads and sandstorms and rain, who made sure we were bundled up in the little cart and who embodies, with his determination to learn and speak English to guide us, and his caring for us, all that is so magnificient about this country.
So thank you, Kingdom of Cambodia, and my very best to you.
