Unconfirmed Reports

I’m in cambodia, been here nigh on a month. I’m in Phnom Penh, been here a
day. Freaking hot, and pretty damn busy, moreso than usual anyway as there
is ‘the water festival’ taking place. As any good tourist would be,
I’m quite ignorant as to what its all about… What it means for the tourist
(me) caught up in it all is that the city, which by South-East Asian
standards is pretty negotiable, is now a clogged mess of motos, pickups, and
whatever else can make its way around the streets. Along the riverside last
night was pretty wild, a sea of people walking up and down, not really sure
what people were actually doing, but they were THERE, walking. Verity, the
girl I’m travelling with, chose to wear a bright batik (?) dress, which
didn’t do much to ward off the stares of the sea. With my fantastic dart
playing skills I won a warm fanta, then sat back to watch a cambodian
fireworks display as boats festooned in all kinds of gaudy light decorations
chugged up and down the river playing clanky festival music (in competition
with each other). My favourite one was the ANZ Royal boat, that was really
pretty. we were imagining ANZ putting their name to an HIV awareness
campaign… or not.

Yesterday was ten or so hours on a bus coming down from the mountains where
we stayed in a beautiful place run by an israeli girl and a cambodian guy,
great people, lovely little place, they even spoilt us with a euacalyptus
sauna… not normally one for saunas, but being in seriously remote
cambodia, in the mountains, just having spent the day on a motorbike
negotiationg probably the worst roads in the world… the sauna seemed like
the most ridiculous luxury conceiveable. pretty nice indeed. that day
we had made it to one of the most spectacular waterfalls I’ve seen (the day
before we just got lost). Going in behind the curtain of water was awesome,
thunderous noise, lord of the rings style, power. Found a few other
beautiful swimming holes, some fun rocks to jump off, one waterfall you
could just be washed off the cascade into the waterhole below. yup, pretty
nice.

We spent a night in a little village up there too, a bizzarre thing to do
really, spend time in someone elses house when you have little to nothing in
common, except being human and enjoying a drink. Ah rice wine, so horrible
but so enjoyable. The rice wine led to singing, and some wonderful
cross-cultural collaboration, me providing backup with guitar to cambodian
love songs the guys were singing. go karaoke, inform the world! That was
fun, which was good because earlier in the day we weren’t too sure that we
were welcome, or whether we should be there, or… well, I think all was
good. Tourism, livelihoods, better than chopping rare rainforest trees down,
which is what a lot of the regions economy centres on. Crazy land stuff up
there, its all government land, the indigenous people, as they used to
practice shifting agriculture, don’t seem to hold ownership of much land as
they didn’t ‘own’ the land they used freely up until around 2000. It was
only around then that a road got built out that way, I think the governemetn
did a deal with a chinese company, chinese company got the logs and in
return they built a road to mondulkiri. great deal. anyway, there is a road
now and shifting ag. has stopped, and the rich crew in this country have
pretty much usurped the land via dodgy deals. I’m pretty sure the government
here doesn’t actually govern (the more than 1000 NGOs doing any work the
govt might oversee), they seem good at making money though, ‘giving’ land,
‘aquiring’ land, providing for a better future… I think something like 80%
of the govt budget is from foreign aid as well, though don’t quote me on
that.

I paid my first bribe the other day, US$ 15 for the word ’stolen’ over
‘lost’ in a police report. he wanted 30 at the start but managed to haggle
him down. A captive market that guy has, the tourist police, what a score
that job would be. $15-30 every time someone gets something stolen. What did
I lose? My camera, boo hoo. And then the other night someone decided to
climb in our window, steal a watch and some cash while we were sleeping.
woke up with the door open, the blinds pulled, and some guy a bit richer. No
major loss there. My camera though, pretty miffed about that, all photo’s
gone too. shithouse.

I’ve been here a month so obviously there has been quite a bit go on. I
shared sunrise at Angkor Wat with 5000 other tourists, really magical…
but it is a really beautiful place, impressive, majestic, beautiful. Some of
the quieter tempes were great, all green moss, twisted trees, and tumbling
down temples. just that other tourists give me the shits, and watching 5000
or so raise their hands to the sky at the same time in a bizzarre
camera/angkor sunset pilgrimage ritual was kind of entertaining in itself. A
ritual I of course participated in,.

Also went out to a place called Sissophon, a place not normally frequented
by travellers/tourists, but where we knew a few people who were working for
some NGOs. Some (sort of) funny moments when one friend was told by a guy
who has worked in the area for a while that the org she is working for is
dodgy, more a business than an NGO. But that seems to be a recurring
phenomenon, for profit ‘NGOs’. Quite a few people I’ve met here actually
think that Cambodia is flooded with NGOs, and that most of the work here is
dodge anyway. still, I’m sure theres good work being done. THere is. Except
for those BLOODY CHRISTIANS! No, love to all the christians, just not to
those ones who like to go and sell god in exchange for some kind of basic
health care or education or the like. Conversion is WRONG. Right, back to
Sissophon, getting out of there was pure hell. Stuck in a pickup truck for 9
hours, hot, more squished than is at all comfortable. Very close to
unbearable. My head kept flitting to thoughts of confinement torture.
horrible but I’m alive now. its ok. won’t do that again if I can help it.

The start and end of this trip have been very different. I started out in
the south, lounging on tropical islands, snorkelling, getting burnt,
drinking cocktails at a weird australian mans guesthouse, swimming, eating,
swimming. really beautiful coastline down there, cambodian coast, who would
have thought? THere are heaps of islands ready to explore, and compared to
the isles of thailand, these places are amazing, not so much more beautiful,
but that they are relatively deserted. One place we stayed had 6 cannons
behind our bungalow, just in case the vietnamese decided to attack. Sad
thing: people with money destroy things. One of the islands has been bought
by a korean company (I think), and they are going to build a nice casino on
it. All the locals have been told to vacate in the next year. great stuff
development. Amazing thing: on that Island, in the evenings, there was the
most amazing phosphorescence I’ve ever seen. Watching someone else swim you
could see their whole body outlined in millions of little sparkles, that WAS
magical. Almost needs to be experienced to be understood.

Another thing that needs to be experienced to be understood, but in a very
different and sinister vein, is Toul Sleng, the genocide meuseum. It was an
old school that pol pot and co converted into a prison. 14,000 went in,
about 12 survived (something like 2 million people died between 1975-79 as a
result of the Khmer Rouge policies). THere is a display of the photos of all
those who died there. As did the nazi’s, the kmher Rouge tried to keep
meticulous documentation of those who they killed. That photo display, with
children under five up to old people staring out from suffering, is
unbelieveably chilling. the place is horrific. the khmer rouge seemed to
have operated like china during the cultural revolution, continual internal
purging, denouncing, extreme surveillance of behaviour by the population
itself. the mode of government being the threat of death. its like a beast
that started eating itself. insanity. SUch recent history. It is the
undercurrent of this country. The place is about as disfunctional a
democrazy (!) as you could get, and the people want to forget, move on, but
the picture don’t look so good. corruption, poverty, democrazy. shit stuff.
but real.

Thats enough about here. What now? The official story is this: On the 18th
of November 2006 I arrive in Sri Lanka to participate as an Australian Youth
Ambassador for Development, along with Verity, Ynys, and Ynys’s partner Bo.
We should be living in a little place called Seenigama in between Galle and
Colombo, supposed to be a beautiful place with tropical beaches, surf, and
hills nearby. I’m going to be a Youth Development Officer with an org called
the Foundation of Goodness (FOG). Great name huh? A little scary for an NGO
to presume that they are goodness, but all the same not a bad place to start
from, the doing of good. and it gets better, their website is
www.unconditionalcompassion.com Its a buddhist org, if that helps explain
things. THey have done a lot of work rebuilding after the tsunami, seenigama
was destroyed as a result of it.

We’ll be over there for a year, doing whatever it is that it is that we will
do. I hope to play lots of cricket, surf, and make friends. these are my
goals… and maybe, if its possible, assist the FOG in their efforts to
promote goodness. Visitors are most welcome (paul and helen, chani and tao,
dan, others?) and will be put up in our colonial era mansion on as hillside
overlooking the beach, which at this stage exists only in my head.

Now, none of this is certain. I live in fear that violence between the Tamil
Tigers and the SL government will again flare up, a sitiuation no good for
SL, but also no good for me… I was supposed to be there at the end of
september but they called it off due to civil unrest. Then I was going to
Tonga, but before the paperwork was done the king died, and as the
government goes into mourning for 3 months (so I’m told) my place was
cancelled. But then, magically, Sri Lanka was put back on the cards. SO I’m
praying nothing stupid takes place for it to be called off again. If that
happens I have no Idea what I’ll do for the next year. BUt it won’t will it?
SL here we come.