Cambodia: Ancient & Recent History
November 4 - 9, 2009
Cambodia was really an intense experience for us. It is one of the poorest countries in SE Asia, and that poverty makes travel there more difficult. There was also the fact that this country's entire society was wiped out and restarted in 1985 by the Khmer Rouge, a fact that was driven home to us when we visited the Killing Fields (Choeung Ek) and the S-21 KR prison museums in Phnom Penh, both in the same day. That was a rattling but good experience for us, in particular meeting a man visiting the spot at Choeung Ek where his father was killed. From PP, we kept going on up to Siem Reap, site of the world-famous Angkor temples, which we toured before continuing on back to Thailand. Visiting Cambodia remains a vivid and intense experience for us.