I am glad I decided to join a tour. Having someone tell you what bus to get on that takes you directly to a place to sleep is so nice for a break in the 4 months of travelling alone.
We started in Bangkok and drove to the border of Cambodia
During the 5 hour drive I read a book about Cambodia called Alive in the Killing Fields. I wanted to understand the history of Cambodia before arriving and now I feel more connected to this country than I ever felt while in Thailand. The book is a narrative of a boy who survived the Khmer Rouge beginning in 1975. Pol Pot came into power and similar to Hitler slaughtered 3 million of his people, mostly the intellects. Pol Pot believed that Cambodia needed a fresh start and that by killing all of the intellects and converting Cambodia exclusively over to farmers would lead Cambodia in the right direction. Although this makes zero sense to me, in a manner of 3 years Pol Pot and his rebel regime killed 2 million Cambodians and another 1 million starved to death. This devastating story really shook me up as you can imagine. Now walking the streets of Cambodia I imagine the millions of people hiding for the lives, walking miles and miles for freedom, scavenging for a single bite of food and standing on the same land that innocent people lied dead on.
Although there is peace in Cambodia today there is still a distinct sense of poverty. The kids run around very dirty. Some without pants, most with ragged clothing. The Khmer Rouge was not very long ago so memories are still deeply embedded in these peoples minds.
In addition, what has also been left behind from this time period are numerous land mines.Often you see kids limbless as they go off to play in a field and accidentally run into a land mine that blows up. Shame. This is horrible to see. This is heart breaking.
I can already tell Cambodia is going to be a difficult country to visit. I'm glad I'm with a group of people that I can process my feelings with while here.
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