Some of you may have been wondering if Than buried me
in Hong Kong, but I assure you I'm still alive and
doing very well.  Yes, it has been a while since I've
written about my travels and I must make amends now. 
Currently, I'm wrapping up 2 weeks of rest and
relaxation on the island of Koh Tao off the south east
coast of Thailand.  I've been diving, snorkeling,
playing guitar, sleeping late, eating good food, and
otherwise taking it easy.  Since I last wrote I've
visited Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, and have returned to
Thailand.  Of course many things have happened and
I've many sights and experiences I would like to tell
you.  I'll start with Cambodia.

Geographically, Cambodia has less to offer in
comparison to it's neighbors Vietnam, Laos, and
Thailand.   Mostly Cambodia is flat,  with rice
paddies, palm trees, dirt roads, and the Mekong River.
 Yes, there is a coast and some visit, but I decided
the coast of Thailand would be as interesting and
cheaper.  The Mekong river crosses Cambodia from
Northwest to Southeast. Traversing from Siam Reap
where the ancient ruins of the Angkor population are
located, to the countries dusty, bustling, low rise
capital of Phenom Penh in the east.  Most people visit
to see the ruins at Angkor Wat and also to bear
witness to the remains of the Khmer Rouge attrocities
of the 1970's.  Since I came from Vietnam, I travelled
from east to west visiting Phenom Penh first and
taking a boat to Seam Reap and then on to Thailand.

On June 31st I took a bus from Saigon to Phenom Penh. 
The road was terrible and after 9 hours I was
exhausted.  The rice paddies ended where Phenom Penh
began which is mostly a few main dusty paved roads
lined with low rise shops with little of interest to
stop and see.  All the side roads are dirt with many
motorcycle scooters running about.  There were a few
temples there to visit and probably the most scenic
part is the riverside where there are a few nice
french colonial style buildings remaining, the
national museum and palace.  I decided to stay at the
guesthouse the minibus stopped at and stayed three
nights.  Before I describe my stay I should mention
alittle history. 

After the Vietnam/American War the Marxist Khmer Rouge
regime came to power.  Their leader, Pol Pot, decided
to incorporate a true maxist society.  To do so, he
decided he must remove any elements of modern society.
 This was carried out by evacuating cities, closing
schools, and systematically killing any interllectuals
or anyone resembling an intellectual (ie. Anyone who
wears glasses!).  Many were marched off to be
interigated, tortured, and eventually executed. 
Children were even driven to conspire to have their
own families turned in.  What remains of these
attrocities are the old grade school turned into their
version of a concentration camp (S21) and the Killing
Fields where pits containing the remains of thousands
killed are found.  From 1970-1979 they say around
1.5million people were killed.  

On my first day I made a visit to the old school
turned into concentation camp which was given the name
S21 by the Khmer Rouge.  I was interested to see this
especially to compare my impressions of Auschwitz. 
S21 is located in the center of the city, quite
inconspicious at first.  When you enter the palm tree
lined courtyard, you see several concrete multistory
buildings that resemble what might have been a grade
school before; Except now, some of the balconies along
the front of the buildings are covered with barbed
wire, apparently, to keep detainies from jumping off
and killing themselves!  These buildings mostly
contain various arrangements of rooms used to keep
prisoners.  The first building has separate rooms each
with a single metal bed and odd iron bars planted in
the floor.  On the walls of each room they have a
picture of the room and the dead body of a prisoner
who had been tortured and killed here.  I assume these
pictures were taken by the Vietnamese who liberated
the place.  Not much is changed about the rooms and
viewing the picture while standing in the room made me
feel sad and uncomfortable to know what had happened
right where I stood.  Other floors were once large
school rooms which had been hastilly turned into cell
blocks.  Some rooms had brick cells sloppily thrown
together, each with a chain to hold the prisoner and a
can used for water or maybe excriment.  Another floor
had wooden cells similarly thrown together in
ramshackle fashion.  The last building contained walls
lined with pictures of thousands of prisoners which
were men, women, old, and young.  There were even a
few Westerners unfortunate enough to have been in the
coutry at the time and were detained here.

Later I visited the Killing Fields which lie several
kilometers from the city.  This is where thousands of
people were executed and thrown into pits.  The site
is fairly small, contains dozens of grassed over pits
excavated in the past and a large monument in the
center with thousands of skulls arranged on shelves
from floor to ceiling of the monument.  The skulls are
displayed through the glass walls of the monument. 
Several of the pits are left untouched and are simply
a grass plot where you can only imagine what lies
beneath.  There is a tree on the sight with a wooden
club resting against it.  A sign above reads how the
Khmer Rouge killed babies with the club!  This made me
understand a picture I had seen at S21 which I was
quite disturbed to see.  Both of these sights I was
moved to see.  I think S21 was most moving in it's
depictions, preservation, and the stark scenes it
evoked while walking through it.  

Later I visited the riverside where we walked by the
palace, silver temple, and national museum.  The
architecture of these buildings are all typical
Cambodian style which is similar to that of Thailand
or Laos and very beautiful.  Across the way are
several french colonial style buildings, some of which
lie on the riverside.  This part of the city is quite
unique and worth the visit.  There are even a few very
nice places to eat, drink, and play pool.  The Foreign
Correspondence Cafe is interesting for its photographs
taken by photo journalists around the world depicting
various conflicts and wars.  These all line the walls
of the restored building and it's nice to have a drink
or eat here with the open air balcony opening out to
the river.  I was amazed to find a very excellent
Enchilada here!  Yes, good Mexican food in Cambodia. 
Who would have thought.  The food and drinks here were
quite expensive though, and in general these things
are more expensive in Cambodia than in the surrounding
countries.

After 2 days I left Phenom Penh by boat down the
Mekong River to Seam Reap.  The boat was a speed boat
ferry and took 7 hours.  Most of us sat on the roof
and got very sunburned watching the riverbanks. 
Mostly there was not much to see, but occasionally we
passed some interesting villages and fishermen. 

The boat arrived just outside of Seam Reap at a delta
where there was a very unique and interesting boat
house village.  We got off the ferry to step into
smaller longboats and took a 20 minute ride along a
small waterway lined with floating houses mostly mored
to the bank, but others being towed to a new location.
 We even saw one partially sunk, being quickly
repaired by it's owners before more damage occured. 
Finally we took a 20 minute motocycle ride into town.

The town of Siam Reap is small with a lazy
river/stream running through it.  There is a market, a
few internet places, many guesthouses, some
restuarants and the most muddy roads I've ever
encountered.  I met a fellow American, Brendan, along
the way and we found a guesthouse and quickly made off
to visit the ruins of Angkor Wat before sunset.  Okay,
alittle more history before I continue.

The ancient Khmer Empire ruled most of Southeast Asia
for nearly 600 years during the first century AD and
made Angkor their capital.  Just several kilometers
from Siam Reap, the ancient ruins of Angkor are some
of the most magnificant ruins in Asia on par with any
Roman or Egyptian ruins.  The scale, detail, and sheer
amount of temples left behind from this society are
hard to imagine and I found made the visit to Cambodia
worthwhile just to see them.  Some people find
themselves wandering the ruins from dawn till dusk
from 3-5 days or more.  

Since we came in the afternoon we could buy a ticket
for the next day and were allowed to visit the ruins
for the current late afternoon (After 4:30pm) as well.
 It costs about $20 a day to visit these ruins
although the longer you stay the cheaper it gets. 
Most people stay for 3-5 days and wander the ruins
every day.  I wanted to conserve money and have seen
way to many ruins in my life to linger, so I opted to
1 day which also include evening of the day before. 
So Brendan and I visited Angkor Wat first.  Okay, I
didn't really understand how grand a scale these ruins
are built on.  The moat around Angkor Wat is HUGE and
inside are several large temples.  The biggest one
sits in front and is absolutely monstrous.  Each is
usually 3 levels high built like concentric squares
with each inner level higher than the next.  The
entire complex is covered in ornate carvings of god
heads, hindu gods, and relief murals.  I was amazed
that the Angkor complex has relief murals depicting
detailed scenes wrapping around the entire outer
corridor.  Angkor is still in quite good shape and
many people just like to wander and even sit at a
window overlooking the complex and watch the day pass.
 There are also many monks wearing bright safety
orange robes which look beautiful against the stone of
the ruins. 

After sunset we went into town and had a few drinks. 
Brendan was visiting Cambodia to do research for his
thesis at school.  He was saying how corrupt the
logging is in Cambodia.  Mostly researchers cannot
find anything out, because too many people have been
killed trying to visit or investigate the logging
practices.  Brendan just wanted to view the countries
laws on logging and was refused access.  We met his
medical student friend who was interesting.  He had
just started to take up writing so he carried around a
printout of all the stories and anectdotes he has
written down in the past few weeks.  It was pages of
just about anything he had heard in a conversation
over that time.  Later I would find pieces of our
conversation added to his collection with a few
mistakes/embellishments.

The next day we visited the Bayon which is another
Khmer complex nearby.  This is walled in area is
several kilometers in circumference and is again
surrounded by a huge moat.  Inside are maybe ten or so
temples.  Each temple is alittle different and some
are better preserved than others.  All of them are
ornate and if not now, were once magnificant.  Some
are almost like stepped pyramids while others are
multilevel structures with spires and rooms here and
there. Brendan and I wandered around during the early
afternoon here and then visited a temple set out in
the jungle which is left mostly untouched and is
slowly being taken over by the jungle.  Most of the
temple is still intact, but here and there are large
trees growing right atop the structure with huge roots
growing down along the side and sinking into the dirt.
 It's as if the structure is alive.   Later we went
for lunch in the town.  After I went alone and visited
Angkor Wat again hoping for a good sunset.  Instead, I
got a heavy downpoor which I waited out inside the
temple.  It is actually a great place to sit and watch
the rain from.  

Brendan, his friend, and I spent the evening in town
again and the next day I took a bus on to Bangkok.  I
had feared the road would be terrible since other
travellers had severely complained about it and the
guidebook concurred with them.  Luckily, it had
recently been resurfaced and we had a fairly pleasant
ride to the border where we caught a different minibus
in Thailand on to Bangkok.  But I'll save that for the
next message.

Cheers,

Chris