Cambodia

Cambodia was a bit of a shock to the system coming from the well-westernized parts of Thailand and all the comforts that come along with them. We arrived in Phnom Penh, which is a whole lot smaller than Bangkok or Pattaya, so much so that the taxi driver knew the exact guesthouse where we would be staying. The city is incredibly polluted, with twice the amount of mopeds covering the streets and garbage seeming to fill up the remaining space. It smelt bad, it was hot, and there was no escape from any of it.
It was obvious that the city was still recovering from it's loss. If some of you have no idea what happened in Cambodia, or need a bit of a refresher, I will give you a bit of a summary so that you may have a better understanding of the culture.
In 1975, the Khmer Rouge (KR0, in a matter of days, forced 2 million people out the city because of bomb threats coming from America. They were made to leave without taking anything more than they could carry. The Khmer Rouge were a hierarchy of communist leaders schooled in France on the principles of Karl Marx and Stalin. They recruited from poor villages where the promise of food and clothing would be provided in exchange for their loyalty. They brainwashed them and tortured them, as methods of training. It was their plan all along to develop an entire farming community so that the KR could use the rice as currency to buy weapons from Russia and China. Those who were not able to make it out of Phnom Penh, such as those in the hospitals, were killed. Also the KR came to the conclusion that those of any higher education or societal standing, would be a threat to the group. Therefore those who were doctors and teachers, those who spoke a second language, etc. were taken to the killing fields just outside the city. You could even lose your life for wearing a pair of glasses. The KR kept an account and picture of every person they killed, including the reasoning behind the execution. It was estimated that 1.5 million people were killed, in other words, an entire generation was wiped out.