We visited two cities in the kingdom of Cambodia, the current capital, Phnom Penh, and Siam Reap, close to the old capital, Angkor. The Angkor Empire lasted for a long time, from AD 800-1432. The remnants of the empire, the Angkor temple complex, have over 800 temples that were built during the prosperous times.
As history tells us it was neglected for centuries. Luckily it has come back to life especially after UNESCO declared it as a World Heritage site in 1993. Surprisingly it survived mostly intact after the Khmer rouge regime.
More recently the Kingdom of Cambodia (official name) was born after the French occupation ended in 1953. Soon after they found themselves in the middle of US-Vietnam war. The Ho Chi Minh Trail that served as a way for the North Vietnamese to get to South Vietnam passed through Cambodia. It was bombed indiscriminately for 10 years by the US during the war. That destruction gave power to communists, Khmer Rouge, who toppled the government led by a US puppet, Lon Nol, and barged into Phnom Penh in 1975. Pol Pot, a crackpot, who believed that Cambodia should become an agrarian society in which everyone toiled the soil, displaced masses to work in the field. Millions were killed during the five year reign of this brutal rule. A North Vietnamese invasion put an end to this nightmare in 1979.
The atrocities committed during that time are well documented not only in museums but also in minds of people. Our guide who was born in 1969 was taken away from his parents and spent his childhood on the Thai border. His parents were killed and the four siblings separated. He did find his two brothers and one sister later on. He married a girl who was also an orphan and living in the camp. Catholic nuns educated him. Of course there was no formal school, but he learned English and that landed him job with UN Peacekeepers. He spent time with them and then in one of the factions opposing the Vietnamese occupation of Cambodia. Finally, after a Peace accord in 1991, he found peace. So did his country.
There is a whole generation that was not educated. People were displaced and institutions had fallen apart. I read somewhere that only fifty or so doctors were left in Cambodia at the end of 1979.
It appears that finally Cambodia is emerging from its ashes. The current government is trying to keep independence from stronger neighbors like Vietnam and China. Chinese are pouring money to help with building infrastructure that makes many “educated” locals uncomfortable. The others are poor and don’t seem to have a choice in the matter. We have been told that freedom of speech is limited and one can get arrested if caught speaking against the government.
In a short time we have learned to love the Khmer people. They are very polite and non-confrontational. Granted we mostly met people in service industry but they appear genuinely polite and peace loving. We did not see any groups of Khmer who were loud or unruly. Of course the same cannot be said about the tourists, especially from one large Asian country.
We will be watching how the country progresses. We wish them all the best. They deserve a break.
Meera 10 March 2019
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