It is sad how little I knew about Cambodia before our visit there. Honestly I first learned about the country from the Dead Kennedys song, then we watched "The Killing Fields", but that only captures 5 years of brutal history.
We meet a french couple who said that they don't go to any of the touristy sites. I can see her logic, if a person wants to see the people and culture with out being surrounded by OTHER tourists, you have to avoid these places. After thinking further about these statements I realized that I would be missing the entire reason for my travels. How could I understand the current people-their pride in heritage and culture, and their pain without visiting these sites along with the 10000 daily other "white" and Japanese tourists? Visiting Angkor Wat is a reminder that civilizations rise and fall continuously around the globe, the city that was over a million people in the 12th century (while London had 50,000) is now just stones and ficus. Angkor was the capital of a thriving empire with roads, hospitals, with an incredible development of arts and religion. Then, during the post French independence time of the 1950's & 60's, Cambodia was a prosperous autonomous state. Then the war in neighboring Vietnam helped to destabilize the power structure. Who knows for sure but this might have helped to open the door for the Khmer Rouge to enter. Emerging from that era, like the new seedlings after a wild fire, is today's Cambodia. The people of Cambodia smiled just as much as the 'smiling' Thais. In 1998 40% of the population was under the age of 15. We saw at least a dozen wedding parties in the week that we were there. There is still great hope for the kingdom of Cambodia (if only Vietnam would get their fingers out of the cookie jar).
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