Cambodia part one

I had no idea what to expect of this country but first impressions came on the airport of Phnom Penh: small, ATM with only US Dollar no riel, no one to pick me up. From the airport into the city....it's so wide and open, though there's a lot of traffic, cars/motos hardly hoot...only when necessary, clean, broad and well prepared streets. People are smiling, like to make jokes, especially about foreigners. It can happen that you pass by a group of Cambodians and whole of a sudden they start laughing. You might think they are laughing about you...well they do! Dancing- or aerobic lessons in almost every park... and so on and so. When I'm writing this I find out that I had expectations, but none of the above. 

After three days Phnom Penh, I went to Siem Reap for the famous well known temples of Angkor and did some temple hopping. Visited 4 Temples in one day and that was enough! I'm not a temple hopper at all... way to exhausting! To get to Siem Reap, I booked a local bus, non air-con and no board toilet, for a trip of 6 hours. I expected something like the local buses in Northern Thailand...but what I got was an air-con bus with incredibly good seats! I really have to stop expecting because this country keeps on surprising me.

The trip to Siem Reap started and ended the same....endless views of rice-fields and of nothing. Really calming scenery, but just outside the towns they are so poor. They have nothing, no food, no clothes, no toys, no medication...just nothing! In between something happened which really shocked me and awakened me. The bus slowed down quite rapidly, but that was nothing unusual. This time I checked out why he slowed down and saw a man laying down on the street, dead, shot down. How do I know this...well it was quite obvious and I talked about it with the Cambodian guy next to me. He whispered "this is nothing special". Why do I tell you this? I know it's not nice to read but...this is Cambodia as well...this is daily life...besides all the smiling and laughing they argue, they fight, they are not satisfied, and yes they shoot.

I'm still thinking about volunteering, Cambodia could really be one of the countries. After the Pol Pot time about 30 years ago now, with all the killing of educated people, there are hardly educated people, hardly any kind of knowledge outside the big cities. Children for example don't know what to do with a pen....they can't even draw. The government is not really investing in these people...who knows where all the money goes.

Discovered the old city of Siem Reap: Can I keep on falling in love? When Phnom Penh is Zurich, than Siem Reap is Winterthur...and I love Winterthur! Joined a Yogaclass, with a dutch Yogateacher :-) and I liked doing nothing, although it's sometimes really hard. I'm still not completely used to it...doing nothing. I always start to read, drink, eat, walk, but just sitting and doing nothing...that's quite hard. The best way to practice is in a bus or train. So I decided to not take my music in the bus from Siem Reap back to Phnom Penh. What happened??? Nothing... except for vomiting kids around me and a lovely Cambodian girl that slept in my arm for hours :-)


Why Phnom Penh again? Well just had to pick up my passport with the visa for Laos and Vietnam...for me no Killing Fields, no horror musea, it don't need this confrontation with cruelty! But keep on practicing doing nothing :-) 

For the next two weeks I planned to go more in north-eastern direction, but take it step by step: Kampong Cham, Kratie, Stung Treng, Ban Lung....Laos.


I'm doing fine!
Carry