This is the spire at the memorial in Phnom Penh, to the thousands that lost their lives to the maniacal evil of Pol Pot. How could one man spearhead such devastation in a matter of 3 years. How did it happen? I am reading a book that helps to answer that question. Under the Banyan Tree. I do recommend it. Cambodia had just come out of the devastation that the Americans wrought, bombing indiscriminately to try to attack the Viet Cong, hiding in Cambodia. So rampant bombing of innocent Cambodians. The war was over, they thought they now had peace. Black attired young "revolutionaries" took over the cities. Young boys, from the jungles, promised food and a job, came in, armed with huge machine guns, to move urban population to the countryside. Effectively rendering education, jobs, gone. Indiscriminate killings of the educated class. Pol Pot, a mad man, paranoid about allegiance, massacred the population, 3 million of a country with the population of 11 million. One in 4. The average age in Cambodia is 21. A whole generation killed.
This is the memorial to those 3 million lost. It is a tower, very simple, very awesome, filled with skulls! And bones. It speaks very simply to the devastation of the genocide. The power is in the simplicity. There are no words. I am having trouble with words.
On a walk near our hotel, (the White Mansion, the old U.S. ambassador's house, where helicopters landed to help remove Americans during the revolution 1970) in a gate of a house, a group was celebrating something, with music, and incense , and prayer. Lovely. Cambodians are so friendly. They invited us in. But having no idea what it was about, we just listened for a bit.
We went out for a walk one evening. It was other years a celebration of Water Festival. But two years ago, the influx of country folks to the city, and the crowds, caused a bridge to collapse, and people were killed. So they cancelled it last year and this. So instead of countrymen coming in to the city, many left for the country to visit family. But crowds still came to the river. The street was so full of trucks, people like sardines in a can, motor bikes with whole family on one motorcycle. The congestion! And that was with the gathering being cancelled and many not there.
Here we are with out Vernon buddies, Rae and Brian. And Tim taking the selfie. A new word in the Oxford Dictionary.
I am so in love with the Asian children. But look, how could you not be. Barefoot, pant less, but the world's best dimples!
A stop on the road side to buy a treat. On our long 7 1/2 hour drive to Siem Reap- speed boat cancelled so hired a car. Long trip. Oh my.
But stopped for flat rice. They take rice, and stand on a log to stomp it with a teeter totter type thing to smash it flat. Then they toast it and it is sort of like pop corn. But only sort of.
This little pixie will go far. She picked me out of a crowd at the night market. Grabbed me by the hand. Hello. What's your name? Where are you from? Will you buy me some food. I don't want money, just food, please. My mother has a baby, no food so no milk for the baby. So sucker Jane was led in to a store and she pointed to Similac. I have heard that these kids do this, and when you leave they sell it back for the money back. After all it is $25! But she was so cute, I bought it. Then she wanted some treat for herself. I balked at the chips, then the candy and held firm on the Similac only. I would love to know if it really was for a baby, and I would love to know how she makes out in life. She was GOOD!
How can you not fall in love. No clothes, But eyes to die for. They love seeing themselves on the screen of the camera after you have taken the pic.
A group of lovely spirited kids.
I absolutely LOVE the lotus ponds. They are beautiful. The lotus is so important to them. They eat the flower as a salad. The stems steamed as spinach. The corms, the roots. AND they are so beautiful.
At the airport. A chanting chorus of monks, and praying people listening
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