Gullible in SE Asia Chapter 4 Cambodia This place is just incredible. Man have had a day. So that you will be able to follow our logic it will help to have a brief Cambodian history lesson. In the 9th century Cambodian culture well established and the temples of Ankor Wat are thriving. In 1866 the French colonised Cambodia. In 1942 the Japanese invaded Cambodia and defeated the French who retreated back to France. In 1946 the French recolonised Cambodia. Then the French fought the Vietnamese until 1953. In 1953 the royal family declared compulsory military service and in 1954 declared independence. The country then rules by the royals. Starting In 1969 the US carried out saturation bombing of Cambodia and in particulate the Ho Chi Minh trail. It is estimated that over 2million bombs were dropped on Cambodia. In 1970 a military coup was successful . The royals then lent support to the jungle rebels called Khmer Rouge. The royals backed these rebels. When the Vietnam war ended in 1975. The Khmer Rouge took Phnom Penh in 1975 and Pol Pot became the ruthless ruler of Cambodia. Renamed Kampuchea for the next 4 years. Like all fundamental fanatisists. His basic ideals were simple. By making Kampuchea into an agriculturalist nation. Honest toil would unite the country. Obviously any one who was perceived not to tow the party line was removed and in the next 4 years an estimated 2.2 million people or 21% of the population was executed. Thus the killing fields. The regime was so brutal and twisted. That it held the belief, that if you wore glasses then you obviously spent too much time reading and not enough time increasing rice production from the the traditional 1 tonne per hectare to the required 3 tonne per hectare and so you would be taken at dusk and shot or to save bullets clubbed to death with a pick handle. The entire economic fabric of the country collapsed. Hospitals closed as there was no medicine other than traditional medicine and no one paid them. The banking system was anylated and bankers were executed and on it went until Vietnam invaded again in about 1987 (I think). In 1993 the UN sent a peace keeping force which NZ Defence was part of. So this nation is again a very young nation. Young because the economic growth had to start from zero only 20 or so years ago. Young because many of the old people perished under Pol Pots cruel rule. To understand the history a little is to understand why we did what we did today. We arranged to hire an air conditioned taxi for the day. It cost $50USD. We trundle off out of town through the Angkor Wat park. To the Cambodian land mine museum. But of course before we go anywhere its breakfast time first. Breakfast is a gastronomic pleasure and a waist line threat. Honest there are two rooms just full of all the goodeys you could ever ask for at real fast time. That hasnt mentioned the bloke out on the terrace making the omelettes. This hotel just gets better an better. Now the Cambodian land mine museum is about 40 minutes away through lots of little villages rice paddies and orchards and a cashew nut farm. The museum was started by Aki Ra. His parents were killed by the Khmer Rouge. He was then a child soldier for the Khmer Rouge at the age of 5. Then when the Vietnamese occupation took place at the age of 14 he became a soldier for them. When the occupation finished through his armed forces education he began clearing bombs and land mines. At first he worked for the UN peace keeping force. Later he started his own museum as a way to raise funds to continue his work. Over the years he has defused and detonated hundreds of thousands of unexploded ordinance . In the Siem province alone there are 27000 victims of mine explosions . Thats not all the good things he does. Its home and school to 29 orphan children resulting from land mine explosions. The museum is not flash but the story and the history is just incredible. We had to leave no later than 11 am from the museum to keep our lunch date of 12 noon at the school of new hope in Siem Reap. Jan had bought some books, pencils and pens for them. They also ran a cooking school and that was where we went for the most scrummy lunch. Even Mr Ho our taxi driver thought it was pretty cool. Whilst we were having lunch Ron Carter came and introduced himself to us. Ron was from Adelaide. He came here four years ago for a month as a volunteer, loved the work so much he thought hed stay for a bit longer. Ron was certainly no holier than thou do gooder. He was a nice bloke. Ron spent the next hour showing us around the school and we got to meet some of the kids. The school is a public school and in Cambodia education is supposed to be free. The pay for teachers is between $40 and $50 a month and some times the government is three months behind paying wages . Still it could be worse I suppose if they had Nova Pay. So the teacher charge kids to come to school and charge them more if they park their bike etc etc. in the village next to Rons school the average wage is about $4 a week. So without the school these kids (over 400 of them) just would not get an education. You can see by the photos just how practical and good value this school is. So much so that when a US business man saw what was happening he built one school in the country and is building another whole block at a cost of $500,000 USD. That will house another 400 students. Another totally moving experience and one that we would not have missed for the world. Although we had tears in our eyes on more than one occasion during the day. It was such a rewarding one and will touch our hearts for ever. Dont just take my word for it though go to newhopecambodia and have a wee look for yourselves. Next stop a workshop where people either deaf or lost limbs or both from land mine explosions do carving and painting. When they saw our hearing aids, there were ear to ear smiles and jan and them gabbled away in sign language. We bought some over priced stuff from their store, but it would have been impossible not to. Next stop the Canadia bank. I have an air nz debit card called one smart that I had put all our travel money into. Guess what it doesnt work in Cambodia. The Air NZ web site says service 24/7 which is another Air NZ joke I wrote to them 7 hours ago. Got an automated your call is important to us email back which is another total bullshit Air NZ story as we need some cash before we head off on the Mekong river for 8 days. My advice if you have one get rid of it. A card that doesnt work when you are in a strange country is about as much good as a one legged man man in a bum kicking competition. By the way we dont give up easily . We spent over an hour in the bank and went back there twice. The second time with our account number. Still didnt work. Next stop the art and craft school. This school offers country folk a chance to learn crafts etc that they can take back to their villages and create work there for them and others. Cambodian people are so neat . They gave us a whole guided tour for free as long as we went into the shop. The trainees go through a 10month period to learn their crafts. After this time is completed, then each piece they complete for the shop, they are paid for. All of the trainees are again deaf/mute & would otherwise be without work. We saw some amazing work completed by these lovely folk. Back to the hotel, Jan went for a swim and I sorted out a credit balance into a credit card. Thank goodness for Internet banking. thank you Air NZ thanks to you we have extra bank fees to pay as well. Half price cocktails in the bar at sunset, the into a Tuktuk to go to the night market. We liked it so much we have hired him all day tomorrow to take us to the Ankor Wat temples for just $20 for the day. Cant wAit to show you the photos of tomorrow these Tuktuks are pretty unique. Talking of Photos its time to find some good ones from today and post. Make sure Cambodia goes on your bucket list.its a cool place and the people are just so lovely. 5 minutes ago there was a knock at the door and completely Unannounced a bloke arrived with a nice bucket full of ice to cool our water. Dont you just love it?
Posted on: Thu, 14 Aug 2014 15:53:41 +0000
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