If I had to pick one place from my entire itinerary that I think everyone should go to, I would choose Cambodia. I absolutely fell in love with this country - the people, the food, the landscape. It was the first port where I finally felt like I was on the other side of the world, seeing and experiencing things so vastly different from my own home. This trip was a SAS field program, so the itinerary for the 3-day trip was packed. We went from 6:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. every day, not wasting a second in between. When we docked in Vietnam our 30-person group met and headed straight for the airport where we flew to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. When I walked outside I was sure we had been dropped off in a tropical jungle. It was 90 degrees with about 80% humidity, I felt like I was wearing jeans and a hoodie inside a sauna. We didn’t stop sweating the entire trip.
As we drove to our first stop I was glued to the window. If I thought China traffic was horrendous, Cambodia was a whole level past that. The streets were packed with thousands of little motorbikes, sometimes with as many as four people on them. There were no stoplights or lanes, you just had to aggressively push your way into the flow of traffic. The little motorbikes would dart in and around our bus, I thought for sure we were going to hit one of them. They go down the wrong way of traffic, they cross over into oncoming traffic to pass slower cars, they go up on sidewalks, and there is no stopping to let pedestrians walk, they just move around you. Crossing the street is like that scene with Eddie Murphy in Bowfinger running across the highway. Also as we walked the streets of Cambodia I noticed how young their population was, kids are everywhere, sadly many of them without parents in sight. I saw one boy who couldn’t have been older than 10 carrying his baby sister around alone, feeding her, walking across the crazy street with her. It was heartbreaking.
Our first stop was the Cambodian National Museum. It was a small building with no air conditioning and sadly almost every statue or painting the guide pointed to had been somewhat destroyed during the war. Still the Cambodians seemed to be so proud of their culture and long history. It was at the museum that I noticed how conservative the women dressed. Despite it being almost 100 degrees, none of the women were in shorts or tank tops, they all mostly wore long skirts and long sleeve blouses. Also Cambodians I learned are such shy people. While the Chinese would bombard us with questions and cameras, the Cambodians would politely smile at us or avert their eyes if we caught them staring. They seemed like such kind and simple people, it was hard to fathom that a brutal war destroyed their country not that many years ago.
After the museum we headed towards the water where we took a sunset cruise along the Mekong River. We walked along a narrow wooden plank to board the rickety old boat and sailed all along the shoreline. It was so beautiful, everything was so green and tropical, and there were tons of colorful flowers and fruit trees. It was so incredible to finally see a place untouched by industrialization and concrete skyscrapers. But it wasn’t without its sadness, almost every corner was touched by poverty. We sailed past a water village (literally houses floating on the water anchored down and tied to one another) and when I asked the guide who lived there he said refugees. Apparently the government does not allow immigrants to live on Cambodian land, so these refugees build these intricate water villages to live on.
Our last stop was by far my favorite of the entire trip, the Palm Tree Orphanage. When we arrived all the children were so excited. They swarmed us laughing and skipping around. Their teacher told us the kids get few visitors so they get pretty excited when new people come around. Also Americans founded the orphanage so all the children learn English in addition to their regular studies; they loved getting to practice with us. You could tell though that all of them were so starved for individual attention. One little boy that I met when I walked in didn’t leave my side the entire time. The little kids showed us all around the orphanage. There were 3 classrooms with no air-conditioning, a big concrete area with an old swing set and a bunch of deflated soccer balls, and a small lunchroom with tiny tables and chairs. As we were walking around I asked one little girl to show me where her room was. She led me upstairs to a large open room lined with little cubbies. She told me each kid got their own cubbie where they kept all their things and then when it was time for bed, each kid had a mat that they laid out on the hard floor to sleep on. As I looked in the cubbies, each kid didn’t have more than two or three shirts to their name, and only some had worn out little stuffed animals or blankets. It was so heartbreaking, but after our tour was some much needed playtime. We gathered in a circle and played simon says, patty cake, and freeze tag. The children seemed to be having so much fun and were so happy. As it became time to leave, the children clung to our legs and arms begging us to stay or come back tomorrow. The little girl I had been playing with even began to cry. It was all I could do not to take all of them with me back home. I can now see how Angelina Jolie has adopted all those kids.
After our long day, it was finally time for dinner. We ate at a small, outdoor local restaurant near our hotel. When we walked in there were two long rows of tables for us. I was among the first few people to walk into the restaurant and as I made my way to our tables I over heard the waiter say women on the right, men on the left. I figured it was a unique Cambodian culture thing, so as everyone walked in I told them we all had to sit with women on the right and men on the left. Everyone was so confused; we looked like a long table of speed dating. Pleased with myself for organizing everyone accordingly, I finally sat down to eat. It was then that my friend Phoebe, who I had walked in with, leaned over and said, “Um, Nicole, I think that man was just referring to the bathrooms.” Sure enough when I looked over to the far right wall where the bathrooms were, the women’s was on the right and men’s on the left. I about died of embarrassment. When the group finally found out they teased me about it for the rest of the trip. The only redeeming part of the evening was that the food was delicious.
The next day in Cambodia was something I could never have prepared myself for. Until now I had no idea how isolated I was in the U.S., ignorant to the horrific things taking place around the world. I was tired and groggy when I arrived early that morning to the concentration camp turned museum, but it didn’t take long for me to wake me up. Before the war the building we arrived at was a primary school for children. However, once the Pol Pot regime moved in, schools were among the first places they targeted. The building was a long rectangle with a large courtyard in front. Around the perimeter was a concrete fence with curled barbed wire along the top. In the courtyard was row after row of white grave stones. When our guide took us inside, we saw the tiny cells in which the victims were detained for days at a time. We saw the rooms where they were tortured through unthinkable measures. Some of the walls were still bloodstained and the entire place was eerily quiet. Covering most of the walls were thousands of pictures of the victims - men, woman, and children. Most of the prisoners were executed solely for being educated intellectuals. It all was unthinkably sad, but I remember how much my heart sank when our guide told us this place was only 1 of 300 all over Cambodia.
From one somber place to another, we arrived at the Killing Field next. The minute you get there you can’t take your eyes off of the huge tower of skulls and bones before you. It becomes hard to wrap your head around the idea that one sick, black-hearted man could carry out such a gruesome and horrific genocide. It makes you angry and sad all at the same time. Our guide gathered us in a corner of the field to talk about what took place here. The killing field was the largest prison camp of the Pol Pot Regime. They killed an estimated million people in this site alone. All across the fields there are large pits where the bodies of those exterminated were piled up. None of the victims were killed by gun because according to the exterminating officers the victims were not worth the bullets. Instead they were tortured for the enjoyment of the officers and brutally mutilated. Up high in all of the trees were speaker boxes, our guide informed us they played loud music to cover the sound of the screaming people so neighbors wouldn’t become suspicious. As we walked I noticed little shreds of fabics and white rock exposed along the ground, when I asked my guide about it he told us it was the remaining clothes and bones from the victims. There were so many bodies, buried all over the land that as the surface becomes eroded away, the remains reach the surface. I felt a pit in my stomach at the thought of walking over so many dead people. The whole experience just made me feel so thankful for my family and my life.
After an intense morning we visited the beautiful Royal Palace and then the Silver Pagoda. Later we stopped for lunch at a restaurant in town and ate Pho, which is like a noodle soup and its soooo good. Then we shopped the markets, which were so hot and sticky, I couldn’t imagine sitting out there for 10 hours a day just hoping to sell vegetables for 35 cents. They are so chaotic and colorful though, I just wanted to take a seat and people watch all day. Back on the buses we drove to the airport where we took an even smaller plane to the city of Siem Reap where the Angkor Wat kingdom is. The best part was our hotel or rather our Resort and Spa. I had heard that SAS puts you up at nice hotels but this place was incredible. They gave us a little towelettes and a glass of champagne when we came in. Also they had a huge outdoor pool and a spa open till 11:00 p.m. All of us girls signed up for massages, which were fantastic. I could have stayed there for the rest of the trip.
The last day we got up, ate breakfast at the hotel, and were on the road by 8:00 to go see the Angkor Wat. For those of you who don’t know, Ankor Wat was the magnificent temple built for the Cambodian king over 1000 years ago. It is an incredible site and has been preserved so well. We spent the day climbing all around it, often up steep steps and along narrow passages. Angkor Wat is built right into the jungle and from the top you can see tons of forest and greenery. Walking in we even ran across a pack of monkeys, they were so fun and were not scared of humans at all. All the Cambodians would walk past and laugh at how excited we all got by the monkeys. Then it was on to the Ta Prohm temple where I had to be covered from my shoulders to my ankles. I was so miserably hot that I hurried through the tour. After we toured Bayon, Baphuon, Elephants terrace, and the Terrace of Leper King. It was all a little overwhelming but I must have taken over a hunded pictures because it was all so beautiful.
After a long day we took a 5:00 p.m. flight back to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. I could have stayed in Cambodia though for the remainder of the time. There was just so much to see and do. I absolutely loved my time there and it’s trips like this one that remind me why I wanted to challenge myself to go on Semester at Sea and see places I might never get the chance to visit again. I made so many new friends on my trip which I ended up traveling with for the rest of Vietnam. I’ll add pictures below but they just don’t do it justice to how incredible it all was.
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