For of those of you that don’t know Cambodia has been through some illustrious decades and hellish dark ages. At one point the Angkorian people were rulers of Southeast Asia, controlling land West to Burma and East to Vietnam. In more ways then one Cambodia, at one point was more of a power house then America is today. Back in the states there are no century old temples, no almost extinct heritage, and barely any history. Granted USA was built from a group of men, from nothing to what it’s today but Cambodia had a tremendous cultural influence around the countries in SE Asia. Where is Americas culture….? Football? Baseball? Lavish useless accessories. Lacrosse is a sport that that could be considered cultural to the states because it was played by the Native Americans, but its not embraced as a main stream sport. When Angkor Wat was populated it housed 1million people, wile London had a population of a mere 20,000. But with the introduction with Pol Pot Cambodia took a downward spiral that had 20 year span and crippled the development of the country. He Xed off every person that was critical for building a nation, Teachers, Lawyers, Doctors, Police, Construction workers, any one that could undermined him was killed. Teachers write on the board and kids copy and don’t ask questions, Lawyers are pretty much non-existence, Medical practice is a joke, serialization of tools is not a concern, Police will pull you over for lunch money but wont pull you over for reckless driving, The tallest building is 42 floors and it’s a Canadian Bank.

What I’m getting at here is that we think we have it the best but in fact our country hasten seen much. No genocides, which is a good thing, no rich history that spans hundreds of years, no world heritage sights that can tough the temples of Angkor. But we do have stability and a proper government. A former leader of the Khmer Rouge fraction is now a prime minister under the king who refused to leave and if he was forced out he said he would start another coup because the army now was former KR under his control.

There’s a lot of history here for anyone who is willing to explore!