Oh Cambodia! Such sights, sounds and smells. A country set back a couple of hundred years by that terrible Pol Phat who killed over two million Cambodians, mostly their doctors, engineers, architects, lawyers and business men leaving the poor and uneducated or under educated.. Devastating for this country and I believe it was in worse shape than Viet Nam.

First we went to a Bhudist Temple and we were able to see the reclining Bhuda and a good view of the landscape beyond. Note the funny tail-like things on top of the temple. Those are dragon tails. Second, we went to a beach and were treated to a very nice sandy beach and it appears they are trying to build up resort areas to bring in the tourist dollars. But, even seeing these sights it was the views along the way that sealed my impression of the country.

A man was steering a motor-scooter and behind him was a little boy in pajamas. Possibly his father was behind the boy holding an IV drip quite high as it was still attached to the boy. The next sight was of a Bhudist monk dressed in his “French’s Mustard” color clothes carrying an umbrella of the same color for shade from the sun. It was very hot. The monks must obtain enough alms before noon for their last meal of the day or else they can’t eat until 6:00 am the next morning. I was not able to get a photo of either sight since the bus was going too fast but even with out these photos I will never forget these images.

The next stop was the market place and it seemed to go on forever. Hot, humid and stuffed with goods and foods of every description. I was only looking for a keychain so I opted not to go into the bowels of this mammoth warehouse. As I was trying to make the shop girls understand what I was looking for a young man who spoke very good English translated for me and the girl ran off to find one. We as Westerners from our parts of the world forget how complicated our lives are what with locks and keys. The poor in the third world countries don’t have this problem so they are not readily able to understand the motions for opening a door with a key. Most of them have a gunny sack over their entryways.

This young man informed me he was studying English at the University and that he hoped one day he would be a tour guide. Not a lawyer, doctor, businessman or engineer, but a tour guide.

Our next stop was the local fishing village. Now, you must imagine a scene from the nineteenth century. Nothing different than it was then except for the occasional motor-scooter honking at us as they would drive out on the docks and a few plastic boxes and baskets. The fish smell was overpowering and in order to walk around you were stepping in fish remains. Despite this primitive lifestyle the people were smiling, friendly and seemed happy. Apparently the life expectancy in Cambodia is about 64 so when they saw one of the passengers named Margery (97 years of age) they wanted to touch her.