Tim’s Nomad Diaries

Here in Phnom Penh during my favorite holiday, trying to get over an ugly case of pink eye and food poisoning from several days earlier , I can’t help but feeling a deep yearning for gathering around a table with all the traditional Thanksgiving food, friends, and family.

It’s been an interesting week plus here in Cambodia, surreal all in all, filled with some downs and a lot of ups. As I already mentioned, I came down with a nasty case of food poisoning, which, incidentally, I received while munching down western food at a German NGO party in Phnom Penh, and not, or never for that matter, at one of the countless outdoor street kitchens which I have been frequenting.

That sidelined me for a solid three days while in Siem Reep, the city best positioned for visiting the fabled Angkor ruins, home to the ancient capital of the great Khmer Empire. You’ve probably seen pics of Angkor Wat before, which is the largest religious building in the world and one of the greatest architectural feats know to man, but going through the entire complex of Ankor, with its countless ornate and grandiose temples stretching over 400 square acres , is truly an awe inspiring experience, something that photos can’t come close to revealing. I only had one entire day to cover a whole lot of ground due to my illness, so my Angkor experience was a quite rushed for me, but it still left me shaking my head at the great feats this now defunct civilization accomplished.

Witnessing first-hand the wonders of Angkor is no doubt extraordinary, but this wonder pales in my opinion to that of the perseverance and warmth exuded by the Khmer people, after only so recently undergoing one of the greatest tragedies of human existence.

For those that don’t know the story, here’s a quick executive summary. Within the years 1975-1979, Khmer ruler Pol Pot, who adopted an extremist Marxist view and wanted to return to an agrarian society starting from ‘Year Zero’, wiped out about one quarter of Cambodia’s population. He slaughtered about two million people in that short time, depending on your sources, mostly consisting of professionals, such as doctors, lawyers, monks, artists etc–basically anyone who Pol Pot thought would object to his notion of returning to ‘Year Zero’. Pol Pot succeeded in almost complete genocide of the entire intellectual class in Cambodia, ripping all notions of culture that the already troubled Khmer people had. Even though Pol Pot got overthrown by an other yet less abusive ruling class in 1979, he still lived and had much influence within the ranks of the Khmer Rouge and Cambodia up until his death in 1997.

Just attempting to begin to imagine what these Khmer people have been through in their death and war trodden lives seems quite like an implausible objective. Yet still, somehow, there is a warm glitter in many of their eyes, a glow whose beguiling radiation penetrates from miles afar.

Living on an average of less than two dollars a day, living for much of ones life in a perpetual state of fear, and living without so many of the people who one has through much of one’s life lived for; if the Khmer’s can live through these hurdles–yet not only live but smile also–at any point in time, what the fuck are we all bitching about?

It’s kind of ironic. Here I was complaining about being away from America for Thanksgiving, and here I am in a country where the notion of this holiday is most exemplified. It’s right in front of my eyes, I just didn’t realize it until now. To me, Thanksgiving isn’t really about stuffing your face with a bunch of Turkey and pumpkin pie, or any inaccurate historical accounts of pilgrims and Indians holding hands and playing nice. It’s more about giving thanks to what you have, what all of us have, right in front of us; just stop for a moment, and soak in the splendor all around us. Just sit back and soak it all up! That old line from some song that I can’t place comes to mind: “What we want is all around us, but what we need is right in front of us”. If the wonderful Khmer people can realize this after all they have been through, why can’t we?