From Kaam Samnor to Siem Reap by the river. Cambodia travel experience

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Let fly a Cambodian flag on the left bank of the Mekong, this means that we are the border of kaam Samnor. The border was opened recently. Vietnam behind, in front of Cambodia! The Mekong s'allarga so that the banks are barely distinguishable. Continuing we see huts submerged up to the roof, find boats full of people, some of which have the flag of red cross ... we put a little ', then, finally, we understand: The Mekong is flooding. The way to go rescue boats were sent to flooded population remained homeless.
Continuing to go up the stream, the river, little by little, part of those who are his natural levees. Cambodian territory, apparently the landscape does not change, the usual children splash in the water, women and men in rowing across the river from one bank to another, boats that go back further downstream positions of persons or goods, but the villages that dot the banks are far more miserable than those seen in Vietnam. In Cambodia felt greater poverty.

Spend almost an entire day to reach Phnom Penh, the first visit to Tuol Sleng Museum is the notorious prison "S - 21" in which the notorious Khmer Rouge of Pol Pot tortured and even killed those who were suspected of anti-ideas . The prison is horrifying. Echoes raggelanti come from the corridors and cells. Fixed shocked by the pictures of civilians with their bodies torn by cruel tortures. Shudders to see the spots of blood that still blur the walls and the tools used to procure those horrible pains poor to induce death.
The torments suffered by the prisoners were so inhumane that the prisoners preferred to take her life plunging from the windows rather than continue to suffer the most absurd moral and physical humiliation that a human mind can imagine. Pol Pot, however, also thought to this and made fence with barbed wire, corridors, balconies and windows to prevent suicides. Finally I feel the cold in scroll bones to read the motivations that led to so much horror: just be intellectual or even just bring the glasses. If I were born in Cambodia, rather than in Italy, bringing the glasses would have been certainly a victim of the regime. The Khmer Rouge of Pol Pot as one of the saddest episodes in the history of humanity! When in 1979 the Vietnamese army entered the prison he found only 7 people live. The dead buried in mass graves in the courtyards. The horrors of the prison became public world, a major scandal and now has become the symbol of the folly of human Pol Pot UNESCO, I think, should include the list of the heritage of humanity "prison S - 21" as one of those places which bear witness to the genocide perpetrated by so many, so that the whole of humanity, no matter what religion or race, boaster wondering about moral values and civic won.
The preference given to prison "S - 21", unfortunately, there is a visit to the Silver Pagoda, shame not to see the 5000 plates containing silver. We dive, then, in the animated life of the square outside the Royal Palace, today especially since it is a hectic day. People come here to meet, to discuss the men, women and children to walk to play. Cambodia appears to be laboriously trying a size of a normal life after the wicked of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge.
Way we arrive at Wat Phoma, which makes the dark because of the charming votive candles lit along the access path to the temple. On the hill are several monkeys, the fin comes almost at the door. The church is empty except for three Buddhist monks, dressed in the orange tunic and with his head shaved.
At the temple, but in fact throughout Cambodia, beggars, victims of landmines, we are asking for alms. In Cambodia just a step wrong in the countryside and is likely to remain crippled for life. People maimed by mines are not considered by the government and victims of war so they can not rely on any government subsidy, which uses minimal or no recognition.
A race to market Psaro Thmei that reminds a Babylonian ziggurat shopping and then dinner. The Goldfish consume the River Restaurant. The evening begins in heaven. With the full moon, eat on a balcony on the banks of the Mekong, all sorts of fish, but before the wind, then rain, ruining the magic. Typhoon, the owner screams inviting us to enter. Returning to the hotel, two couples at the bar attracts our attention. These are two elderly people, and big fat western men, along with two young, small and lean Cambodian girls. It 'clear which company they are.

Good morning to the port we board the boat direct to Siem Reap. Let finally the Mekong tributary Tonlé for el'omonimo Sap lake. Life on the banks of the Mekong that had accompanied us so far during our ascent towards the north, now on Tonlé Sap, as we s'inoltra becomes more rare and more desolate shores. Udong look at the latest signs of civilization. On the horizon stood out on the mountain ridges, white temples that seem to have for their grandeur and sacredness significant. The river, - strange but true - in this time of year, because the abundance of water flowing backwards into the lake basin rather than toward the Mekong. As the lake, then up the coast s'allontano not to see more and for an hour or so seem to sail on the high seas. Before landing at Phnom Krom our little boat reduces the speed to cross the real floating city. Here the children do not play in the street, but in water. Taxis are not cars, but canoes. Homes, schools, the small museum, the gas station are built on stilts or boats.

We arrived at the final destination of our journey, the temples of Angkor, the ancient capital of the Khmer kingdom, right in the heart of Cambodia. Few places in the world bewitched like these ruins in part overwhelmed by the jungle. Angkor is not only an archaeological site that locked hundreds of temples, but it is a unique place that is an enchantment and 'lose all sense of reality. Each of us has submitted several emotions: we have caught, surprised and moved away for a whole day from the trip and civilization.
The appointment is at the rising of the sun at the entrance to Angkor Wat. We arrive by bicycle. The temple is reverent, one gets the feeling of crossing something forbidden, and when it appears Angor Wat is like a living presence, not a palace of stone. The charm is completed by harmony of the morning breeze and the mysterious sounds of the forest.
At Angkor Thom is, however, the impression of entering a newly discovered archeological site because of its monuments hidden in the forest. A grave silence hangs in the humid and smelling of mildew. The monuments emerge with difficulty, but sumptuous, from the roots of the trees.
Reached the Bayon, I do not know that a mysterious kidnapping us. Are profiles of the giant petrified faces of faces that constitute it, around which s'irradiano multiplying infinite and endless times as if to symbolize eternity. The light of the sun is about to give way to the scene of the evening shadows and the huge sides seem unearthly whisper among themselves in an ancient language and in an area that seems beyond time.
Angkor ... The magic is done!