Packing up

Well - I admit that I haven't been able to keep up the blogs in a regular fashion.

Cambodia whipped by. Thailand has also been a blur.

Thailand is a beautiful country and it looks far more prosperous than either Cambodia or Vietnam.

In Bangkok I have enjoyed the Chaturak weekend market; the biggest market you can ever imagine. If you've been to the Grand Canyon and thought you were prepared for its size and then discovered that your mind couldn't hold the picture of the canyon, this market is like that.. but in market, not canyon, shape. It was incredible, sprawling in size and variety of goods and I scored a vintage Miu Miu skirt!!! For 8 dollars!! Heaven.

I've seen Buddhist monks, temples, pagodas, and buddhas everywhere I look, had the best dal and bean curd I've ever eaten, and been amazed by Mah Boon Krong (MBK) mall. The mall is 7 stories high and jammed with stores selling everything from knock-off IPhones to knock-off sunglasses. The top floors are a maze of food stalls selling delicious food, a bowling alley, adorable and sound-proof karaoke stalls, and the most ginormous cinema complex I have ever seen.

I also visited Jim Thompson's little jewel of a house. An American architect, Jim Thompson revived the silk trade in Thailand and preserved six traditional Thai houses that have long been open to the public as a museum that showcases traditional Thai architecture and art. Unfortunately, Mr. Thompson disappeared while hiking in Malaysia in 1961.

Yesterday I visited the bridge on the River Kwai. The original was blown apart by Allied forces in 1945 but the new bridge has been reconstructed in the same fashion. It was interesting to visit one of the three cemeteries where some of the 15,000 soldiers who died in the construction of the original bridge and railroad are buried. 100,000 civilians also died.

On my last day here I decided to take the plunge and treat myself to a traditional Thai massage. I was a little nervous because I'd heard that Thai massages are very different that Swedish massages and that they involve pulling of limbs. It was the best massage I've ever had. The masseuse though wasn't happy that I elected to have just a one hour massage. She told me that two hours is better because she had to rush otherwise. She also scolded me because everything was so tight.. I suppose I'll just have to find a Thai masseuse in Ottawa :p

All in all it's been a really wonderful trip and I am very glad that I had the opportunity to see as much as I did.

There is much that I haven't written about the trip because of a lack of time and because sometimes I have found it difficult to put experiences into words. I don't know if I'll post more about my impressions and experiences after I'm back in Canada but I am looking forward to talking about them with all of you.

All the best, thanks for reading,
Emmanuelle

Cambodia so far

Cambodia is going by very quickly. In fact, I only have 24 more hours before we leave for Thailand.

In Phnom Penh I visited the Royal Palace, Tuol Sleng (the genocide museum), and the Killing Fields. There is a contrast to these places that is impossible to overlook. The links between the three however, are unclear to someone unschooled in Cambodian history or politics.

The sad truth is that although the Cambodian royal family did not instigate Pol Pot's revolution, which history will remember as a sick social experiment, they did have a hand in the murder of millions of Cambodians. The grandness of the Royal Palace is overshadowed by the fact that in 1975 Cambodia had approximately 7 million inhabitants and that by 1979, under Pol Pot's regime, nearly 3 million had been murdered. Nearly half the country's population was killed by its own government.

Today the genocide museum appears as a token remembrance. Its existence is pretty tenuous. It is falling apart and is in desperate need of repairs and steady funding. The mere reality of the museum is a small miracle. Looking around, it is striking to realize that anyone older than me must have had some role to play in Pol Pot's regime. Pol Pot and his cadre forced children as young as 12 years of age to become Khmer Rouge soldiers. They were terrorized, tortured, and forced to kill in the hope that they might be spared. More than anything, Cambodians seem to struggle with the need to forget and the desire to remember.

I need to go.. so much more to say.

On a radically different note, my stomach is waging a war but Dukoral is winning. Thank God.

xoxox
E