Finally. Here it is: the very first travel blog. Due to the last exams of the school year I had no time to finsih and post the blog sooner.
Last summer my family and I went to Cambodia for four weeks. It was by far the best, most amazing and most interesting holiday I’ve ever had. We have learned so much about the culture, the impact of climate change, the Khmer people and made many friends.
I wanted to share my experience so I’m starting a little series of blogs about Cambodia. Where we went, what we did, photos and more.
Before we started our trip we made sure we read a few books to have a basic knowledge about the country and the culture. Based on this we made a planning where we wanted to go and for how long we would like to stay there but we hadn’t booked anything yet, besides the flight and the first two nights in Phnom Penh.
The reason we didn’t book our hotels in advance was that we had much more flexibility and we could choose our rhythm. Whenever we liked a hotel or city we stayed longer and if we didn’t like it we would leave earlier. In fact we could have even left the country (if we had visa’s for another country but that’s beside the point).
Before I wanted to kick off with the first blog, I wanted to share a little bit of knowledge about the country.
Short history
After the independence of Cambodia, Narodom Sthanouk becomes king. And although his autocratic leadership is doing well, Lon Nol commits a coup with American support in 1970. The CPK (Khmer rouge) cooperates with Sihanouk for the next revolution.
When Cambodia is bombed by the Americans during the Vietnam War, the Khmer rouge manages to enlarge their following and around 1973 they control a large part of the country. On April 17, 1975, they march into Phnom Penh and the civilians are forced to work in the countryside.
The year 0 (of the Khmer Rouge regime) begins, no schools, religion nor cities. Intellectuals (and people with glasses) are the first victims. After that it's the turn of everyone who "deviates" from the ideal of farming. Many mass graves followed, torture in 'safety centres' and children were send to re-education centres.
Between 1975 and 1978 about 100.000 Cambodians were murdered (and maybe even more). That's not all: in the end, some 1.7 to 2 million people died in rural areas as a result of hunger, forced labour and exhaustion. There are many so-called 'Killing Fields' where 1/3 of the population ended up.
Economy
Even before 1975, Cambodia’s economy was one of the least-developed in Southeast Asia. It depended heavily on two major products, rice and rubber, and consequently was vulnerable to annual fluctuations caused by the weather and world market prices.
Agriculture dominated the economy, with most families engaged in rice cultivation.
Although the tradition of landownership was strong, family landholdings were relatively small, and the population was largely self-sufficient. Two and a half acres (one hectare) of rice paddy provided for the needs of a family of five people, and supplementary requirements were traditionally satisfied by fishing, cultivating fruit and vegetables, and raising livestock.
Since 1992–93, Tourism is a large part of the national income, but the economy has continued to be hampered by poor communications, bad weather, widespread poverty and disease. Although income has been rising, it still remaines among the world’s lowest.
Religion
Hinduism was one of the first religions of the Khmer people. After Hinduism, Buddhism developed and spread to Cambodia. Buddhism is different from Hinduism for the two main reasons: Buddhism does not believe in gods, and it does not use the caste system.
Most ethnic Khmer are Theravada (Hinayana) Buddhists. Until 1975 Buddhism was officially recognized as the state religion of Cambodia.
Under the Khmer Rouge, all religious practices were forbidden. The pro-Vietnamese communist regime that ruled Cambodia in the 1980s encouraged Buddhism in a limited way, and Theravada Buddhism was restored as Cambodia’s state religion in 1993. Almost 20 years of neglect have been difficult to reverse, and the religion has not regained the popularity and prestige that it had before 1975.
Land
Much of Cambodia is heavily forested but the central lowland region is covered with rice paddies, fields of dry crops such as corn and tobacco, tracts of tall grass and reeds, and thinly wooded areas. In the eastern highlands the high plateaus are covered with grasses and deciduous forests. The trees can grow over 30 meters that emerge from thick undergrowths of vines, rattans, palms and bamboos.
In the southwestern highlands you can find rainforests growing to heights of 45 metres or more.
The northeastern forests of Cambodia once sheltered large populations of wild animals such as elephants, wild oxen, rhinoceroses, and several species of deer, but the loss of forest cover sharply reduced those numbers. Small populations of most of these species may still be found, along with some tigers, leopards, bears, and many small mammals.
You can spot most animals during the dry season, especially birds and monkeys.
The places we visited are: Phnom Penh, Sen Monorom, Siem Reap, Kampot, Chi Path and Kampong Cham. In the up coming blogs I will dedicate one blog to each destination.
In the map below you van see the route we've taken. Not the most practical and fastest route there is but it is the one we took.
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