Cambodia today.

This man's face neraly brought G and I to tears. His eyes are so wise and beautiful, he seems resigned to his fate, yet bemused by the situation, as if he knew there was nothing to fear in his death.

At the genocide museum, they have saved all photographs the Khmer Rouge guards took of their prisoners. There are rooms and room filled with these displays. Walking through, you see glimpses of people you have known and expressions you recognize all too well. It is a graphic representation of the sameness of all humanity and the insanity of choosing to kill another who is so much like yourself.

Some bones and clothes laying around at teh killing fields.

This is the memorial Pagoda set up on the killing fields as a tribute to those killed under the Khmer Rouge.

This is what is kept inside.

Thousands of skulls are kept here, sorted by gender, age, etc. Some are from children. They babies they didnt save.

drunk photographer, independence monument. we are the specks in the bottom right.

Downtown Phnom Phen

Etta vs. the gecko

Big Chiang at the snake temple with JIn and her friends.

snake temple

In the turtle's mouth, snake temple

The spoils of prawn fishing PT. 2. Can you see the one huge claw they have? I think this fucker bit me and jin before we got him in the bag. They were probably the best prawns i ever ate, though. G, of course just had to take our word for it.

The spoils of prawn fishing PT. 1

Jin showed us the magic touch needed.

Prawn fishing was kind of like the mini-golf of fishing: they stock the manmade pool for you and you drink beer and wait for a bite.

Another one of Genevieve's friends

Grey day at the snake temple, Nakhon Prathom

Wow.. an intense few days here in Phnom Phen. First our day at the killing feilds and the S-21 genocide museum. An emotionally harrowing experience to say the least. You come away from it, along with many other things, with a sense that the grief of the people is not just for the deaths of their families, not just for the dehumanization and horror, but for the loss of their culture- the khmer culture which they say strecthed back to the beginings of civilization here and once had it's epoch in the contruction of the ankor wat temple- one of the wonders of the world. The khmer rouge tried to destroy it, destroy the pride of cambodia, they burnt the markets, temples, schools, they spat on heritage and despised the love that keeps a people together. People admit quite frankly that this process sent them back to the stone age and they are just begining to recover now.
It was a soothing experience to that night have dinner at "Friends" restuarant and see that recovery in operation. "Friends" is one part of a school which teaches reformed street kids to speak english and work the service industry. Yes, this kind of training is just another facet of globalization, but honestly, the way things are going i think it's the best bet for these kids. The wonderful thing about this organization is the irreverant, leftist tone the managment seems to take. The restaurant is plastered with anti-bush sentiment, anti-imperialist cartoons and awareness information about the horrors of the child sex industry, the folly of handouts to beggars and street kids, and the inextricable link between cooruption high up and poverty on the street. This atmosphere is wonderful, plus the kids who run the restaurant are great and the food (western and asian tapas) is a great break from the norm.
That night, as we sat at on the terrace of a french restaurant drinking wine, harranged constantly by beggars and street kids, i started to feel a harsh sore throat and runny nose come on. Maybe, i thought, brought on by the dust and pollution in the city.
By the next morning the top of my throat was totally inflamed. We went and had breakfast and i started to feel really awful. Genevieve convinced me to go get a massage, which was nice, but i felt like i might have to dash out to the bathroom at any second. Back at the hotel i just collapsed and felt very ill. My temperature soared and i couldnt keep anything in my body. It was another case of "What is it?" Food poisoning? Dengue? the plague? chronic boboe? Genevieve, as whenever im sick went into full-on nurse/mommy mode, which helped but i was still miserable for the next twenty hours. G went out looking for tylenol and finally came back after trying three places with some prescription fever reducer. By the time she got back I was giddy and kind of spun from the fever. I took the pills and she read to me from Henry Miller. I slept through the night and when i woke up my fever was gone. It took another day in bed to get my strength back but today i feel just about fine.
We're walking around today, heading for the national palace, and tommorow were going to take the bus to Seam Reap, to ankor wat. More pictures when we can find a scanner.
Id also like to give a special shout out to the Mass Detpartment of transitional assistance, who's lack of internal coordination and non-reciprication with the federal government made this all possible. Gentlemen, to evil!

cambodia

we are in cambodia right now and it is so beautiful and amazing. we traveled overland to phnom penh from thailand--that was slightly hellish--red dirt potholed roads, nine of us in an '85 toyota van with no shocks or air conditioning for 7 hours... but the scenery was breathtaking. the people here are some of the poorest in asia but their physicality and their spirit is just beautiful. they are radiant. it is very humbling as a middle class american white girl to spend time here-- especially considering cambodia's recent bloody history and our own government's culpability. the countryside is still littered with landmines. even in areas around angkor wat they tell you that you should NEVER stray from well worn paths. we are going to travel by boat up the mekong river to see the ruins in a few days--it will be amazing to see the mekong delta--although the trip will undoubtably be long and crowded. it is so different from thailand here. loud and engaging and altogether intoxicating to the senses. the khmer people in the backpacker areas are so much more aggressive about getting your money. everywhere you hear, "where you go? hello my friend where you go?" tomorrow we are going to hire a motorbike to take us to the killing fields. that means three of us on a little honda weaving in and out of chaotic phnomn penh traffic. i have heard a little about the killing fields and the museum of khmer rouge atrocities and i know that it will be shocking and painful to see but i think that it is important to go. there are pictures of all of the victims. in four years pol pot killed close to 2 million cambodians--out of a population of 7 million. the numbers are unthinkable.this country has suffered so much in the recent years and yet it's people are some of the warmest and most genuinely welcoming people i have encountered in SE asia.it is an honor to be here, i know it sounds corny, but it is deeply affecting. i feel like i'm going to cry half the time because of the beauty and the intensity that is all around.
Back

Farang Invasion

Being back in Thailand it occured to me that tourism there seems bigger than ever. Maybe it's just my perception, but it seems like every time i come there are more farang in every part of bangkok and the islands. Khaosan road, the clusterfuck backpacker ghetto in bunglampoo BKK seems to be spreading outward exponentially like a fungus. It's not just thailand, Phnom Phen cambodia, where we are now also has it's backpacker zone with all the amenities and comforts of home. Yes, this specialization is convenient, but somehow detracts from teh thrill of being in a foreign land. Aside from this personal middling annoyance there is a darker side to the rise of the tourist industry in SE Asia.
As we saw traveling across Koh Chang and the chain of small islands that dangle off it like water droplets, tourism reeks absolute havoc on a small island's infrastructure, both ecologically and socially. Koh Chang, once a whispered-about gem of thailand is now a sprawling mass of cheaply contructed bungalows, tacky t-shirt kiosks, and backpacker bars. The island seems to be well on it's way to rivaling Koh Samui in the west gulf for tasteless marketing and disregard for the land. Acctually from the breif glimpse we caught before fleeing to the charm of the more southerly islands, Koh Chang seems to spiraling towards ecological devestation. The littering, septic problems, water usage issues, and deforesting are a joint venture of the locals and the tourists. Both have their motives for being there and doing what they do but neither can be excused for their abuse of the land and animals.
Traveling on to the smaller, more remote islands, we were awed at their natural beauty and anachronistic charm, but everywhere the ominous sight of rusty old concrete mixers and workmen slapping together unregulated bungalows looms like foreshadowing. I think the influx of tourists (especially Brits and other europeans who are increasingly flocking to SE Asia instead of holidaying in their nearby but now Euro dollar-pricey continental destinations) will spread latterally across that chain of island until they all eventually look like Koh Chang.
But whats being done about it? Well, some outspoken local ecologists have been vocal in the press with the message "The government and commercial communities along the west coast in the areas struck by tsunamis are rushing headlong to rebuiling the tourist infrastructure there, but we should be looking into rebuilding the enviromental infrastructure. Unregualted building and greediness have turned that area into an eyesore, and we should take this opptunity to give it a facelift and trink of new, more intagrated ways to build there." As you can imagine, these scientists are none too popular with the business community and of course their incestuous partners in the government. The rift is palpable just from opening the Bangkok post. On the editorals page environmentalists sound off abou the damage that has allready been wreaked upon the west coast and undersea life around phuket and krabi, while in the soft-news, journalism-for-hire "Travel" section, the headline is: Calling all Tourists! West Coast up and Running Again!.
I think there is growing conscern about the effect tourism is having on this region, even internationally. Im sure the news item from a few night ago about the tourists who were killed in a speedboat being piloted back from the full moon party to Koh Samui at night by a probably (maybe multiply) fucked-up driver will be a wake up call to the world at the wreckless way some of the tourist industry here is run. Probably there will be call for more governmental involvment and regulation of these aparatus, but the governments here are famously incompetent for handling such things (looking over my shoulder as im typing that). Well enough of that political shit, more blissed-out recogniscience next time. word.

Koh sunset

Koh sunset

Coco trees

Island dog

Bkk temple

These are acctually photos i took on a different trip to thailand a few years ago, but they give an idea of what we're seeing over here. Actually we just got back from Koh Mak and Koh kud, in the southeast corner of the gulf of thailand, and they were probably the most beautiful island ive seen here, more beautiful even than the photos of Koh Phangan, above. We'll have some pictures of those islands up here when we get them developed ad scanned.

B day

Us and jin... whats up with the mean mugging, E? looking hurrd.

genevieve's b day

more frosting

#1 salesman in the west, genevieve and Ling Ling the monkeygirl in the fore right

peering into the mysterious orange soda

This first batch of pictures is from Genevieve's Bithday party that we had in a small town outside of Bangkok, near Nakhon Prathom. We were staying with Jin, my father's girlfriend. She was really amazing, sweet, generous hospitable, fun, just great to stay with. She took us out every day to temples, to an elephant show, to go prawn fishing, and swimming at an outdoor pool on the beautiful grounds of a christian university near her house. The first day we were there we all drove up to the Big C store, which is like a Thai wallmart. She asked us what kind of food we liked and we replied (a common phrase here) "Up to you!". She bought a bunch of thai foods and refused to let us pay. She physically rejected the money we tried to give the cashier. From then on she cooked us thai meals twice a day that were much too large to come close to finishing. She'd make little dishes of pork, noodles, whole fishes, and vegetarian stuff for genevieve. At first she had a hard time grasping the whole veg concept ("Ah.. no eat meat. Can eat fish?" "No." "Ahh.. i see. Pork?") but she eventually figured it out. She said she'd never met anyone who never ate meat. "I think good luck for, to meet you." she figured.
The other people in Jin's neighborhood were really great, too. The day before Genevieve's birthday, one of Jin's neighbor, who was a hotshot young insurance salesman (we learned this because on one singha-blurry night he brought out a plaque his company had given him: him wearing a cowboy hat in an old west motif bearing the headline: #1 salesman in the West!) took a picture of us and the next day has it screened onto a cake with frosting bunnies and candy pebbles. We ate and drank and played with the wild little kids out in Jin's peaceful alley and stayed up listening to old thai songs by Carabao. It was great.

the good life

bunnies

bunnies

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This is a test.

This is a test.