The World in My Pocket

The sky is as brown and hazy as the air and the earth around me. Everything tastes a sort of brown around here. The heat is intense at just a smidgen below 130 degrees F, and it is a relatively cool day. When the motobike driver stops, I hop off from my "sideways-seated position"(as is custom for women in Cambodia) and am greeted with a stream of vibrantly colored scarves hanging everywhere beneath the dusty tented market. I slip inside (not easily, as it is Saturday and many people, foreigners and locals, are shopping all day in the jam-packed narrow aisles). I cannot help but purchase two scarves immediately, as I have never seen such detail, and for such an incredible bargain!!

I continue to shop for most of the afternoon. Outside was hot, but inside the market in the sweltering heat and excess body heat from people nearly wedged in was close to unbearable; several times I admit to stepping out again to catch my breath. I bartered with the locals (as I learned it is insulting if you do not!) and got all of my items for even more of a steal than they were to begin with, but by the grins on their faces, to them, I was a ignorant American who just got taken to the cleaners, when in truth I got bags and bags of brand-new items for less than it would cost to eat at a cheap restaurant in the States. It turned into a win-win situation.

Beware of "heart-wrenching" when you look into the eyes of the beggars in the marketplaces. Many of them are severely disabled and are (as well as can be put) shocking to see. Be sure to bring even a extra little bag of food, or you can purchase some for them in the marketplace. I am not saying it is useless to give them cash (although what they are almost guaranteed to buy are drugs and glue (also drug-related) to sniff to take away the hunger pains, the smallest children included, or just gamble it away at the end of the day) It is truly best, in my opinion, to give food or clothing or even toys and stickers to the children. It really makes an extraordinary difference in their day-to-day lives and will make an unforgettable impression on your own life.

Be watchful and forewarned on Khamai (Cambodian) New Year for a bucket of water on your head and people who will come up and rub baby powder all over your face with their hands. Be light-hearted and enjoy it, because it is not like something like this happens every day in the world and you may not experience it again. Join in the fun of game playing, laughing, powder, and water and you will look back on it as an enjoyable, crazy experience.

This one is a doozy. It is much like visiting a very small, quiet actual concentration camp from the Holocaust. What happened in Cambodia was very very similar to what happened in the Holocaust, and the real difference is that for the Khamai people it only ended several years ago. The museum is actually a schoolhouse that was taken over by the Khmer Rouge (you can read all about their history and their leader, Pol Pot, online), who turned it into a torture camp. It is really incredible to see, and you will not soon forget it. You will be able to watch a documentary in one of the upper rooms of the schoolhouse on a projector wall and then walk through the rooms where people were tortured and witness the instruments used, see photographs of the individuals, and read some of their sad stories. It is difficult to see but is definitely worth seeing in order to understand what these people have been through and to better understand them as a people.

What a road to get out to this on!! I do NOT recommend taking a moto!! A bus is difficult enough--you will surely be bouncing all over the place anyways-- they have been fixing the roads recently in Cambodia, though, so there is a chance this road in particular is getting better. When you arrive, you will pay a fee (minimal, really) to enter the Killing Fields. You will then take a short walk from your car to a tower of glass that holds countless skulls of native people who were killed in the genocide ruthlessly (hence the term "Killing Fields"). You will also witness plots of dry, dusty earth all over the place (some of them are fenced-in areas) where more skulls and bones are protruding through the ground, some of them simply lying there looking abandoned.

There is a good chance you will see several small children (possibly nude) playing in a shallow lake near the Killing Fields who will probably come over to make friends--do not back off!! MAKE friends with them!! They may ask you for money, but you can just tell them no and try asking them all their names and ages instead (you may want to pick up a Cambodian/English dictionary/phrase book in the gift shop before you enter the Killing Fields if you are not familiar with Khamai). Remember, it is invaluable to carry around stickers or even a little candy or something of the sort for the kids. The village kids do not often get such "luxuries," and THEY LOVE IT!!!