Robert Durrette

This is a very brief update with only a few pictures. After the last update in Saigon, we traveled around 6 hours to the west towards a border town known as Chou Doc, in Vietnam. We crossed some pretty rough (ie nonexistant) road at some points and took a ferry across the Mekong, our third sighting of this river. Chou Doc is rough-and-tumble, but it was also the most pleasant town I visied in all of Vietnam. The primary reason? It's residents were charming, and there is a definite feel that one is off of the beaten path. This made for a very good evening. I think someone captured a photo of me playing soccer with kids in the market...it will get to me at some point.

We took a "speed boat" from Chou Doc (it picked us up at our guesthouse) and went through the rather third-world process of immigration and customs between Vietnam and Cambodia. It's a good thing we had a guide, because if you'd told me that both Vietnam and Cambodia's points of entry were fishing warehouses, I would have believed it.

We arrived in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, and I spent the first day going to get some food, followed by a cyclo tour of the city. We ate dinner at a very special place: Bo, the tour leader's cousin, runs and NGO that provides english education for poor children of sweatshop workers just outside the city (in the rougher part of town). We spent about 1 hour working with the kids, teaching them english, and afterwards we went up to the family's house, where we were served a feast of Khmer food. FYI--The country is called Cambodia, but the people refer to it as "Kampuchea." Furthermore, the primary ethnicity and language is known as Khmer. Just for reference. We had chicken curry, a special beef dish, crazy spring rolls, some kind of Khmer meatballs, and--you won't believe it--spider. Tarantula. The legs are actually not bad, but that is as far as I went. Ugh.

The following day (yesterday), most of my time was spent seeing firsthand the atrocities of the Pol Pot/Khmer Rouge regime. My god, it's something that isn't for the weak of heart. First, we went to S-21, the most notorious torture center/prison of the Khmer Rouge. It was formerly a high school, but was converted once the regime took power. The city of Phnom Penh (along with all other cities in Cambodia) were emptied out, as many people know, turning them into ghost towns. Millions died. Millions. Later in the morning we went to the Killing Fields, a place where I nearly lost my breakfast. You see, you're walking around, looking at the exhibits, reading all of the signs, when you suddenly notice little white specks beneath your feet. Then you look more closely and you see teeth. And larger pieces. All of this is bone. Essentially, you are walking around inside a mass grave, the pathways made of dirt and bone. This was abhorrent. I don't want to delve any further into this, but to say it is one of the lowest points of human history is a severe understatement. The actions committed were sheer evil. As Bo's cousin stated, "They were still in human form, but their hearts were no longer human. Their hearts had grown black, evil."

Alright--on from that heavy material. After a break to recover from the aforementioned, I visited the national palace. I was unprepared for how marvelous it was--I was expecting nothing close to the natural beauty of the grounds. Excellent groundskeeping. Then I went for a walk around and wound up at Wat Phnom, a very cool place where one gets to view Cambodians being Cambodian. There were also plenty of monkeys--including some very fat ones.

We caught a short flight today north to Siem Reap, home of Angkor Wat--a wonder of the world, in my opinion. More to follow! Oh, and check out the picture I took of Monks--at the mall! Valley-monks.

Take care,

RWD