This outing included the following activities: a stop at a National liberation memorial (celebrating the defeat of the Khmer Rouge by the Vietcong), a stop at a Buddahist meditation center home to 15 monks, a stop at a secluded beach, an hour boat ride (the boat resembled a small sailless junk) through a river surrounded by mangrove forests, and a stop at a small village which was described as typical of how many poor Cambodians live. It was a lot to take in!
Our tour guide, whose name I could not pronounce and thus cannot remember, was fantastic. One detail from his youth that he shared with us concerned his father at the time when the Khmer Rouge genocide was ramping up: his father was a mechanical engineer but had to hide this from the KH, so he burned all evidence of his education and certification and claimed to be a farmer and thus his family was not executed (our guide was six at the time).
Disturbing fact: most all of the many high rise buildings under construction (ever so slowly) are owned by Chinese investors and are intended to be homes for 30,000 Chinese who will be emigrating to Sihanoukville. Apparently the government has agreed to this in order to replenish the population of residents who are literate and possess professional level skills.
The National liberation memorial park had not seen any maintenance for a long time. The meditation center complex was sorely in need of cleaning and landscaping (there was a small group of young monks working to clean up a smalll area - clearly long overdue). The beach complex we visited was under construction and a long way from the grand resort that billboards promoted. The boat ride was noisy and the scenery repetetively uninteresting. The village visit was both a happy occassion for the children and a disturbing one for this wealthy western tourist.
We were greeted by several groups of children of various ages and given local fruits to eat. The living complex was littered with trash and chicken of various ages. There was limited water access and even more limited electricity. We were invited to look into the family’s house, a large one room space on stilts, where everyone slept on the floor. Cooking, bathing, and toileting were done in primitive spaces with dirt floors.
Some photos to follow will better convey the details.
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