The question "why" ?

As many of you know my favourite question or indeed exclamation is why?! I found my inquisitive nature and thirst for answers or comprehension really hard in Phnom Penh. After visiting the killing fields of Choeung Ek and the haunting Tuol Sleng museums which used to be the main prison of Pol Pots regime I was struck by the brutality of a regime without reasoning or stated doctrine other than a loose notion of Communism. I have through Art History studied and understood the nature of Nazi Germany and Russia's Histories but Cambodia's past just would not remain clear in my head. I am not sure it ever will.

I was deeply disturbed by the fear factory that the country became and the way that family and human nature was eroded. This explains why Cambodian people are they way they are now, it will take the country generations to catch up or be in a comfortable place both economically and socially having had all their generations of intellectual property and institutions literally killed over a 4 year period. A fifth of the population was slaughtered. Through Mr Lims story and speaking with other local people through my time in Cambodia I became to realise why Angkor Wat is so much more significant than i gave it credit for its not just another relict from the past but a symbol of national pride that is tangible and constant for the Cambodian people.

An annoying tourist wrote in the museum visitor book " it is awful that these things happened but it is good that this place remains as a reminder to us so these atrocities never happen again in the world"

These atrocities are happening again all over the world in different ways and on a different scale...Africa...Burma... people are just afraid to look, see and change just as there were when Cambodia suffered.

I would not say i had an amazing time in Cambodia that it was beautiful and "awesome" what I would say is that the experience I had is one of the reasons that I wanted to travel in this way and experience the light and the dark side of the world, for me it is what travel is all about and sets it a side from a 6 month 'holiday' !