Cambodia

I've been here for a week.
Been to and climbed more temples than I had ever thought I might want to.
Been rung like a bell emotionaly.
Cambodia is utterly in your face, it doesn't take any prisoners and doesn't ever give a thought about making apologies for the way it is.

In short, in a very short space of time Cambodia will lift you up with the beauties of its imperial past, and then give you an emotional kick in the face with a hydrocephalic 4 year old on the way out.
Or the man without arms who sells you a book...and then cheerfully greets you with a loud "G'day Mate!" upon learning that you are Australian...and then shakes your hand with his stump.

The country is beautiful, The Monsoon which has flooded so much also means that the next rice crop is already in the ground whilst the current one is being harvested. The place is still amazingly wet.

There is poverty here, but it doesn't seem to be a poverty of the heart, well not in the Khmer. The Westerners are often the poor in heart. The Khmer are too busy being alive. There is a gentleness to them that makes the Khmer Rouge even harder to understand and most Khmer will tell you that the Khmer Rouge had a sickness that made them not Khmer, The Khmer are gentle, love kids (Ariel is a rock star here), surprisingly honest and will very rarely push things. Learn some Khmer and the beggars in Pnom Penh tend to leave you alone.

Today we are going to buy some shoes for me...the other ones gave up. Tuol Sleng and the Killing Fields are for tomorrow. Then Monday is the visa for Vietnam.

Not really missing anyone.
Russell