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After decades of war, disorder, and a failed model of socialism...
which left behind thousands of victims and a country in ruins...
Cambodia came back to the world map.
And to think that once it was the cultural capital of NE Asia.
The Khmer Rouge rule plunged Cambodia into isolation and terror for four years.
War with Vietnam followed, then 10 years of guerrilla warfare. Vietnam's intervention...
even today keeps the country in a peculiar state of hostageship...
since it cannot exploit its main economic resources: the subsoil and Angkor Wat...
the world's largest religious monument, and Asia's most important archaeological site.
Peace was restored in the country in 1999; still, security remains far from granted...
since six million landmines, remnants of war...
cause two victims everyday, on average, many of which are children.
And in the middle of all, a people who still endures poverty and lack of infrastructure...
but has managed, amidst all adversity...
to keep his kindness and smile.
Poipet border is a madhouse. You tip for everything, without even knowing.
Even if you travel alone, it is very hard to avoid the "professionals"Β ...
who will hasten to help you, with a view to profit of course...
as there is just no other way for you to reach your destination.
And since there is no access to group travelers...
we become those people's target group.
How can you blame them? Tourism is a totally new thing.
And if you take a look around...
you won't even mind the few euros you will waste.
A typical example of this...
is what we are experiencing right now crammed into this minivan.
The trip from the border to Angkor normally takes 3-4 hours.
Our driver and co-driver will make sure it will take at least 8 hours...
so that we will reach our destination at around midnight.
At that time they take us to a hotel of their choice.
Tired and dirty, very few of us will go look for another hotel.
We will stay there.
The head count will determine the commission amount.
So it happened. At least the hotel was good.
As for the ride through the jungle, on a dust road suitable only for tractors...
it was an experience!
Our trip goes on, not always under the best circumstances.
At some point we run out of gas.
Putting gas is something theoretically easy in Cambodia.
Theoretically, anyone can do it.
All it takes is a few plastic jerry cans and a balance.
As for the price, you have to negotiate.
Good thing is no one steals; the balance can never be wrong.
Or, almost never.
With such images, so exotic for our Western way of life...
we continue our trip to Siem Reap, near Angkor.
The road is long and we will arrive past midnight.
The next day, one of the most important monuments in the world is waiting for us.
Angkor Wat.
The temples of Angkor are the heart of Cambodia.
A source of inspiration and pride to all Khmers...
and a point of pilgrimage for locals and strangers.
For different reasons, of course.
Angkor is located near Lake Tonle, on the NW of the country.
The temples were built between 9th and 14th centuries BC...
when Khmer civilization was at its peak.
Its approximately 100 temples, spreading over several square kilometers...
were the skeleton of a spectacular administrative and religious center.
Angkor's history begins in 802 AD, when king Jayavarman...
declared Khmer kingdom's independence in the area where we are today.
His children kept extending the city until the middle 14th century...
when the kingdom's decline practically begins.
Buddhism was until then the official religion.
At the same time, Hinduism was a strong influence...
not only on people but on the higher ranks of the hierarchy.
Thus, after Jayavarman V's death, around 1219...
Hinduism becomes the state's official religion.
Many religious monuments of that time were destroyed by zealotry...
and the existing monuments began to incorporate elements of Hinduism.
Strange but true; today you can see Buddhist temples with Hindu idols...
or temples of Hindu architecture with Buddha shrines.
Cambodian religion is alike; a mixture of Hinduism and Buddhism...
of which we did not make much more than what we saw.
As the Khmer civilization declined, Angkor was abandoned...
and gradually left to the jungle.
In some travelers' diaries we read that in 1600...
Portuguese explorers came here, and a little later some Japanese.
For the Westerners, though, Angkor...
was rediscovered by the famous French explorer Henri Mouhot in 1860.
Many followed, as suddenly Cambodia became of great archaeological interest.
Today, the monuments have been declared a Cultural World Heritage Site.
The ancient ruins are always full of people. Yet, it is impossible to miss...
hundreds of children asking for money in exchange for a photo...
or selling odds and ends and souvenirs, or just doing what they should:
play happily.
The 20th century was not the best possible for the area.
At first, and for years, Angkor was under Thai occupation.
Then it fell into the hands of the Cambodians and the French settlers.
During WWII it was Japan's military basis, with French consent...
and after the fall of the Khmer Rouge, in 1979, into Vietnam's hands...
which was that people's greatest source of humiliation.
Today, hundreds of locals work at Angkor; still, the monument...
with thousands of visitors each year and an expensive entrance fee...
is operated by a Vietnamese oil company.
A shameful deal that followed Vietnam's invasion.
Getting ready to enter the market!
The scenery from now on is of course a little harsh...
Cambodia's markets are a must-see.
Food, souvenirs, clothes, jewelry, artifacts...
anything you ask for, and for a very good price in euros.
If you are about to buy something, which you certainly will...
you would better buy it from the vendors in Angkor.
Prices are equal, and this way you help the less privileged.
Just do not buy anything the vendor says is from Angkor.
Whether original or not, you will only encourage illicit dealers.
The war may be over in Cambodia, but in reality...
it goes on a few inches underground.
Today, in this country...
6 million landmines stay buried since wartime.
Around 40,000 Cambodians are today the victims of this nightmare.
About one out of 175 inhabitants. One of the world's highest rates.
27,000 of them are in Siem Reap province.
An area the size of Peloponnese.
In Siem Reap we find an ex-Khmer Rouge child soldier...
and later soldier for the Vietnamese army and the UN.
His name is Aki Ra and his activity is known beyond the country's borders.
As an explosives expert during the war and the civil conflict...
he organizes mine-clearing missions.
Besides that, he has taken under protection many children...
who either lost their parents in mine explosions...
or are landmine victims themselves.
All children are hosted at his house...
a place that reminds anything but a house...
and which he has converted into a museum with the help of foreigners...
who got to know the situation and his efforts.
Twenty-five children are living there today...
supported by donations from tourists and simple people worldwide.
Nat is not older than 10 years old.
Still, he can explain in English...
how Russian mines work and the damage they cause.
One of them took his right arm.
Every new day brings two more victims.
Mostly children who play happily in the fields...
or next to roads, or in places that, even today...
have not yet been cleared by the army.
It is an improvement comparing to a decade ago...
when the victims amounted to 10 per day.
To give an idea of how complex the problem is...
it is enough to say that in areas cleared and considered safe during dry seasons...
when monsoons and floods start...
the mines move, turning the same areas once more into minefields.
As Aki Ra will say...
"two years ago I found 17 mines one km away from my house" .
Just think that this area hosts Angkor...
which attracts thousands of tourists each year.
Aki Ra is now training soldiers in finding and deactivating mines.
Organizations and simple people voluntarily take part in the effort...
coming from Britain, Canada, the US and other countries.
Today, special landmine hunting teams...
can find and deactivate one mine every three hours...
at a cost of US$ 300-1,000 per mine.
Aki Ra is clearing three every hour for one dollar each...
hoping than in 25 years, his country will be safe again.
As Aki Ra will tell us, apart from the human cost...
the situation has also financial impact...
since for the rehabilitation of each amputated victim...
the cost is estimated to about US$ 3,000.
Multiplied by 40,000 victims...
it reaches US$ 120 million, which Cambodia is impossible to afford right now.
The price gets even higher if we add the damage to agriculture and tourism...
since whole areas are inaccessible...
and to the rural economy, since the biggest part of the fields...
are minefields.
And from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh.
In fact, to the outskirts of the city...
to a place not easily accessible, as you can see.
To the Killing Fields.
Choeung Ek, aka the Killing Fields...
is 17 km from Phnom Penh.
Under the Khmer Rouge, it was an extermination and mass burial camp.
In 1975-78, around 17,000 people lost their lives here.
In 1980, 86 for a total of 129 mass graves opened up...
and their macabre content can be seen today here, in this monument...
reminiscent of this country's darkest period.
Phnom Penh fell into the hands of the Khmer Rouge...
a few months before Saigon's fall into the Vietcong's hands.
The Americans already had an open front with Vietnam...
so they did not pay due attention to neighboring Cambodia.
As soon as the Khmer Rouge took over...
they established a rigid, cruel and inhuman Maoist regime...
executing the dissidents before proceeding to internal purges.
From 1975 to 1978, 17,000 men, women and children...
were tortured and executed right here.
In 1980, 86 for a total of 129 graves were opened...
and the remains of 8,985 people were exhumed.
43 more graves have been left untouched due to lack of money.
The idyllic landscape around...
is by no means consistent with what was happening...
and what eventually took place in the whole region.
Walking around, you can clearly see...
the bones of the executed - like here.
Most of the executed were transferred here from S-21 camp...
similar to Greece's Bouboulinas Street at the time of the military junta.
They were clubbed to death to save using bullets.
Today, this place is neat and peaceful.
Still, the Khmer Rouge violence...
has been replaced by the violence of poverty.
In 1975, Tuol Svay Prey High School...
was taken over by Pol Pot's security forces...
and turned into a prison known as Security Prison 21 (S-21).
It soon became the largest centre of detention and torture for dissidents...
or simply suspects...
and until 1978, as we said before...
more than 17,000 people were transferred here.
Today, this place has been turned into a museum...
as a testament to the crimes of that period.
The truth is it has not gone through much repair or serious restoration...
and this intensifies further the visitor's depressing experience.
Like the Nazis, the Khmer Rouge were keeping records for each prisoner.
Each one was photographed, sometimes before and after torture.
The photographs in every room of the museum prove it.
At the bottom of each photo...
you can read the exact execution day.
Detailed records tell the prisoners' personal stories...
and a guide will gladly narrate to you many of them.
Members of the regime were themselves imprisoned...
since intra-party conflict began.
In 1977, the number of people who lost their lives here...
is estimated to an average of 100 a day.
In 1979, when the Vietnamese army liberated Phnom Penh...
it found only seven prisoners alive in S-21.
Fourteen others had been tortured to death just before the Khmer Rouge quit the city.
Strolling around S-21...
we reached some abandoned and unguarded rooms.
We were curious and we did take a look.
We immediately walked into evidence of what we had heard and read.
As simple as that.
Phnom Penh looks dangerous at first.
Reality, though, is totally different.
We ran into no hazard, and we saw nothing weird...
even at night, in districts far from center.
According to our information, the worse thing possible is to run into a pickpocket.
Most visitors do not stay in Phnom Penh for long.
After seeing the depressing sights...
they leave for Siem Reap or the jungles in the North.
Pity, as the city is great for relaxing, walks, shopping...
and meeting interesting people.
Like Siem Reap, Phnom Penh has its own markets.
This is the Russian Market, which is the best place for shopping.
From souvenirs and branded clothing...
as some of the garment factories are located here...
to DVDs with recently released movies and computer programs.
Of course, in Phnom Penh you can do shopping for a cause.
There are shops selling handicrafts made by invalids, victims of landmines...
or people hit by polio.
Your money will certainly be of use there.
Branded stuff we are buying is made here!
Until today, Cambodia remains a chaotic country...
where it was hard to live and work.
Since 1999, when political situation stabilized...
the government went to great lengths to reconstruct the economy...
and fight corruption.
Still, Cambodian wages remain low.
Textiles, small industry and other businesses...
can today find their way to the Western markets...
but things will not get better soon.
What can bring immediate relief is tourism.
The number of tourists grew by 35% in 2005...
and the target is to triple that in the next 15 years.
Visitors were more than 1.4 million, according to the Tourism Ministry...
and more than 1 million in 2005.
The Ministry aimed to 3 million arrivals a year by 2010.
Stability and security achieved by the government are credited for this jump...
as well as efforts to encourage ecotourism...
and visits to historic sites as Angkor.
Cambodia's GDP growth slowed to 4.5% in 2005.
According to the Asian Development Bank and the International Monetary Fund...
GDP would rise by 1.4% in 2006.
This slowdown was due to expiration of a WTO Agreement on Textiles and Clothing...
and the imposition of quotas.
Our journey ends now, having left the best impressions...
for this beautiful country and its wonderful people.
We keep hoping that next time...
we will see less poverty and a country in faster growth path.
We leave Cambodia full of beautiful moments and divine images...
though not ready for the happening that was waiting for us near the borders.
Not moving!
In a few seconds we'll start pushing again...
How do you feel?
Good...
I could use some working out with that heat!
You can wait till Doomsday...
They're here!
We'll go on by bike!
Our driver took the bike and left...