We arrive in Kampot Cambodia at night. I was not very keen on visiting Cambodia since it reminded me of the war, killing people and napalm bombing. Anyway we have four days here and we will visit the famous Angkor site and its temple (or what’s left of it ..).

In the morning we join the group whom we will be travelling with. We also meet some Cambodian people and our female guild. These people are very friendly (and very small...). There are about 15 million Cambodians and most of them are Buddhism. The local language is like Chinese i mean it is “kherm”  and likely they speak English and have English tourist information papers . We go to the Angkor temples with the bus. The air co is working but we don’t feel it . It is terrible hot en wet. Imagine one has to fight in the woods in similar conditions. Luckily most of the mines from the war are removed and now it is safe to travel  .While eating delicious local food  (not much meat) locals  tell us that Cambodia is a monarchy and that they also have a democratic government – so that looks like Belgium. Although they tell me that economy is growing fast – i see a lot of poverty and a lot of people that are surviving without any luxury.  Nevertheless they all seem happy and are friendly ...maybe they believe that tourism will bring prosperity. Once outside the touristic places everything we want to do or say we needed a guide/translator – without we might as well stay in the hotel or the bus.

Finally we arrive in the former Khmer Kingdom of Angkor. These people produced some magnificent architectural building or structures more than thousand years ago . It is – even the ruins – very impressive, certainly if one knows that these people had no crane or bulldozer etc.  To many tourists and to much commercial pushing can’t take away the feeling that we have seen something unique before it will disappear due to over exploitation and due to time doing its work. Leaves me with thousand digital picture’s which I will have to sort and to comment so I will remember what was what ... although it was unforgettable.

13-03-2011 om 00:00 geschreven door Pieter-Jan Van Haeverbeke