Cambodia:: Part 01: Capitol City, Phnom Penh

Along with my parents and little sister, I decided to take a trip to Cambodia. I'm a Cambodian American, so it seems natural that I should visit where my family started from.

As long as I can remember, my parents have always told me of stories of a depraved country, one that was full of violence and no hope for the future. They had grown up in the days of the killing fields and a lot of the trauma they endured still probably haunts them to this day. I could never imagine how it was like back then. So because of those stories and old pictures sent from Cambodia, I had this conception of people struggling everyday, always starving.

I feel ashamed to say this but I never did an in-depth research on the current state of Cambodia before. I really thought it would be uninteresting; something that really had nothing to do with me. The prospect of actually going there though made me research. The things I discovered really threw me for a loop. I was pleasantly surprised at the development of Cambodia. Internet, electronics, High-ways, and businesses were booming! It's a country in a state of rapid development. Unfortunatly it is still a third world country and like most third world countries, the gap between the rich and poor is fairly large. It's even more evident once I actually got into the main capitol, Phnom Penh, zooming through it by on a moto-taxi.

Anyways I'm just going to conclude that Cambodia is definitely not what I expected and I value my over all positive experience there. It's really amazing to see how much progress the country is making. On a sidenote I want to also say that the people in Cambodia seem a lot more relaxed and happier almost than what I see from the thousands of faces I encounter each day in NYC.













Part 02 coming soon!