Sitting in Dalat, in the mountains of Viet Nam, I offer you a couple of my impressions of Cambodia:
When arrived in Phnom Penh, sitting in a tuc tuc, other cars, tuc tuc’s and so many mopeds - moto’s they call them here - were overtaking us from all sides. It was noisy and crowded, but I simply enjoyed it, as watching it from the eye of a storm.
Many, many people have been slaughtered here, so a lot of energy work had to be done. Going to the Killing Fields near Phnom Penh was a special experience. The funny thing was: I only saw beauty. It was a stunning place near the river with many butterflies flying around, as the messengers of passed away souls. I thanked and honoured every one of them for the life they had chosen, for teaching us now that separation and murdering each other is never the answer. The trees and nature were thanked by me too, for they have seen the ugliest side of our human experience here on earth. For instance, small babies had been smashed dead against those trees……
The famous Angkor Wat was visited by me at the back seat of a moto. I loved the ride on the motor bike. We arrived very early in the morning, short after sunset. There were so many temples there, that it took me two days just to see a glimpse of it. It is very impressive to visit all the ancient buildings from a glorious ‘past’….
My travelling around Tonle Sap Lake brought me to Battambang. Another trip was made on a moto to the Killing Caves. I did not realize it were the famous Killing Caves. I was just climbing the mountain and visiting some temples, until I ended up in a cave. The moment I entered that cave, an ear deafening silence exploded in my ears. I had to sit down to experience what happened. Realizing that many souls were using my body-vessel to return to the light. It was a wonderful experience, their guardian angels were embracing me with love and gratitude…. Only afterwards, I was told that many thousands have been killed there by the Khmer Rouge, but I had already felt it on the place of the so called crime.
You could also ride on a bamboo train in Battambang. I enjoyed it so much, driving with high speed on the ground of the rails, thru amazing rice fields and nature that I got the tears in my eyes of merely pleasure.

"The bamboo train is a unique and creative form of ad-hoc local transportation. It consists of a small (perhaps 2.5m x 4m), motorcycle engine-powered bamboo cart that rides the railroad rails picking up and dropping off passengers, cargo, animals, motorcycles along the way. When it meets on on-coming train or bamboo train, it can be disassembled and taken off the rails in a minute or two, allowing the other to pass."
I had another heart-to-heart talk with the moto guide and it was great to hear him saying the things I have always been telling people: He declared that the people in his poor village were happier than the people in the town of Battambang. Now the war is over and tourism has arrived, people only seem to think about money. Worrying how to get more and afraid of loosing it…. He told me the people in his village were much more connected to each other and due to their simple lives they knew much less problems.
Cambodia has some great beaches too! In Koh Rong Saloem Island there were only twelve simple bungalows right near the beach. I stayed in their newest hut, the farthest away from their restaurant, where I enjoyed maximum privacy. How to explain the feeling, to step right out of your hut in the breaking waves. Playing with them and loving the ocean…..
There have been so many conversations on a soul’s level with so many people….. People in the new ice cream shop at the riverside of Phnom Penh, because they wanted to stay as young as me…. A gay Vietnamese refugee, who now lives in Melbourne, Australia, with whom I had a wonderful diner in Shinoukville, after our mutual stay on the same island. He and his boy friend had both seen a counselor, without knowing that from each other. Both feeling sorry, that they could not express and share their feelings. Both having to deal with feelings of unworthiness. Coming out of the closet at a ‘very late age’. He was inspired by me, when he heard me saying that I wanted to overcome all my fears. As a result he overcame his fear of swimming in the ocean, he actually turned his fear around and started enjoying the water!!
I am so proud of all those beautiful people I have met. The gorgeous girl, who gave me a foot massage in Shinoukville, telling me she had no one to love her. She had lost her father and her mother when she was five, now she was 32 years young but without boyfriend or husband. They did not like her dark color, she confessed. I only saw a sparkling diamond. I told her I love her, but that she had to love herself first. I gave her a bracelet with “I love Lily” (sold and immediately custom made by sellers on the beach), so every time she looked in the mirror, she could remember my words of love.
Isn’t it funny that dark people want to be white? And white people want to be dark, sunbathing all day to get tanned? In the shops here in Indo Chine you can only find products that are “whitening”….
Isn’t it funny that no matter how crowded it is on the roads here, there is so much more order and calm in traffic? For there are no ego’s driving here. Everyone is sharing the road and everything fits like a puzzle. I drive without helmet and with bare legs and feel totally relaxed, trusting mySelf and 'my' moto driver completely.
Isn’t it funny to be alive?
Thank you Cambodia for everything that was given me in this hear shaped country…………
I love All of You!
Cara
Dalat,
Viet Nam
Pictures:
1st:19 July 2009, temple near Angkor Wat, Cambodia
2nd:22 July 2009, Bamboo Train Battambang, Cambodia
