I am now in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. Charlie and I spent a few days in Bangkok and a couple days on the beach on Koh Samed, half way between bangkok and Cambodia border. Charlie has headed back to the US to start a contract in Carson City and I decided to stay and do a little bit more traveling in SE Asia.
It took a full day of traveling to get me here from the not so pleasant Thai border town, Trat. Getting a visa at the border was easy and a few other travelers and i were whisked off to the boat dock for a 4 hour boat ride to a seaport called Silhanoukville. I wasn't so fond of Silhanoukville and decided to hop on a 3-4 hour bus to Phnom Penh. The bus ride was nice. We passed by lush greenery, farms and lots of wooden shacks built on silts. The bus wa air-conditioned and they played Karaoke videos the entire time. The music and video reminded me of old school whiny chinese soap operas. I feel like I am back in the early 80's.
I haven't seen much of Phnom Penh yet but the streets are filled with motorcycles and bikes. apparently there is a lot of car hijacking so not a lot of people, not even taxi drivers dare drive a car around town.
This morning I went to the 'Killing Field'. It was perhaps the sadest place i have been. From 1975 - 1978, The Khmer Rouge regime killed about 2 million people, about a third of the population. The Killing Field (named after the movie, actual name Chuong Ek) was a execution ground where more than 10,000 people - intellectuals, foreigners, women, children, etc. - were killed and buried in mass graves. They have unearthed 86 out of about 120 graves so you see big holes on the ground on the site. You also see bones semi-protruding out of the ground and random pieces of clothing lying about. In the late 80's they built a monument which consisted of 17 levels of skulls and bones, to commerate the loss. I won't go into detail on how these innocent men, women and children were tortured and killed.