First Impressions of Cambodia

Around noon, we headed to the airport this time to continue our journey to Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh. We got a chance to explore Bangkok's new airport a bit more. It's really impressive! At 4 PM, we arrived in Cambodia. There's always something extra exciting about landing in a new country for the first time. We've read about it and watched documentaries, but you can never really get a proper impression until you see it for yourself. Getting our visas was easy, albeit a bit comical. It cost $20 and required a photo, which we had brought from home. The communist mindset still lingers here. When we went to get our visas, there was a long line of 11 people behind a counter, all needing to see our passports and visas before they could hand them back to us. Our passport just passed from one hand to the next in the line. At the end of the long row, someone would call out the name of the person whose passport was ready. Often, they couldn't even pronounce the name, so they just held the passport high above their head until a tourist recognized themselves in the photo. It was completely random which passports got finished first. The country is quite poor. Only the most important roads are paved; the rest are still dirt paths. It's a chaotic mix of cars, motorcycles, and pedestrians crossing the streets. There isn't a backpacker area in Phnom Penh like there is in Bangkok and Saigon, so it’s a bit tricky to know which area to choose. We opted for a hostel, Nairan, which has a good reputation according to Lonely Planet. $10 for a double room with air conditioning. Not a bad price at all. In the evening, we went down to the Riverfront, where the upscale hotels are located. That means there are also more restaurants, bars, and shops in this area. It's incredibly exciting to be in a country where tourism isn't widespread yet, but it also means there aren't as many activities for us to do besides sightseeing. The area we’re staying in feels very local, meaning the shops cater to Cambodians. Motorcycles are a big deal here, so many stores are packed with everything for your bike—new fenders, seats, handlebars, wheels, etc. Quite interesting for a motorcycle owner! We headed down to the Riverfront to meet other tourists and gather information about the country. We ended up chatting with a Cambodian girl who shared her experiences from the time of Pol Pot. She lost 18 family members during Pol Pot's regime and recounted this: Her mother grew up near the Vietnam border. Her grandfather was sick, so when he heard that Pol Pot's men were near the village, he called the family together. He told her grandmother to take all the children and hide. No matter what sounds or screams they heard, they mustn't come out. The grandfather was too ill to get up, so they had to leave him behind. From their hiding place, they could hear the soldiers coming, talking to the grandfather, interrogating him, and then they shot him. It's unimaginable horrors that Cambodians have endured. Yet, they don't seek revenge against the Khmer Rouge—only a desire to live in peace. Several high-ranking Khmer Rouge members are still living freely today, and some even sit in the current government. The reason for this is that they have been granted amnesty. Cambodians simply do not want any more bloodshed.