The real Asia, finally...

 

ONE COUNTRY, ONE DREAM
Flying in Cambodia would have been convenient and immediate enough to shell out $ 170 and was in Phnom Penh (reads simply as Pnom Pen) in an hour. In the bus story is different: you pay $ 6, you pass the border on foot and bring you eight hours. Obvious as we choose the bus. Salute Saigon and Vietnam, and after three hours we reach the border at Moc Bai. The Vietnamese have built a huge granite building, where they accommodate us. We are all tourists, no more than 50, and two Buddhist monks with woolen caps improbable. It is very hot, especially us wait a lot. Nearly two hours, only to leave the country. The olive green uniforms were arrogant faces, and dull, the faces of those who think they have the knife on the side of the handle, and does not know to be just a little 'stupid. These faces do not look at you when leaving Vietnam, simply smile, indolent, to each other. And to put too much time to record your departure.
Will do, finally, and we are in no man's land between the two countries. Burnt by the sun, then begins Cambodia. It begins with a set of barracks, where the military is waiting for us-no. There are no files or expectations: they give a look at the faces and visa, make us fill out a form, and in five minutes we are enrolled. We expect, just across the border, another bus that will take us to Phnom Penh. About three hours, the capital of a road that allows you to run a little 'more than in Vietnam, given that in Cambodia there are so many cars so-cially pigs, and cows, and dogs, to avoid.
We arrive in town around 17: the usual crowd of people offering from sleep, to eat. Our choice for the hotel, is not happy, but Cambodia can not offer the quality of Vietnam, at least not always. And if there is no hot water, or if the air conditioner is crazy and you can not shut it down, we must take a right. And doing it quickly, because this country is a dream, a wonder. Because here you are assaulted by maimed, crippled, blind, dirty children, and themselves, and torn, and lean and hungry little girls. And you're wrong, of course, but it is also good, because it really seems to be in the heart of Asia. In Vietnam, look at your cellphone with interest, while in Phnom Phen, if you look at your phone too with interest, the risk of you to crush an elephant, when crossing the road. Here is looked different, magical, and it is impossible not to love Cambodia. A country that has offered sof the unthinkable, that in the death camps of Pol Pot, the day after, we saw piles of skulls and graves, and human bones everywhere. Only Cambodia, I believe, could give birth to school-S21 prison where the Khmer Rouge until 1979, torture those that were considered counter. And there they took us over 14mila people, including children, and killed them all: all except seven miracles, saved after the Vietnamese. In their lucid madness the Khmer before torture and kill, those 14mila have them photographed, cataloged, please register. And now when stroll among the classrooms of the S21, you can see in the photos, the faces and eyes of all those deaths that were not yet dead, but knew that would be dead, and you can not not be evil, and you can not not love the new Cambodia. A young country that has lost generations (1.8 million deaths between 1975 and 1980, about one fourth of the total population), and that is trying to start again, after years of neglect and an endless pain, that there was no family saved from that folly.
Phnom Penh is an extreme, and schizophrenic, a city that can offer the S21, and endless misery, and dirt roads up in the center, or the incredible opulence of the Silver Pagoda and Royal Palace, and a beautiful river, where the Mekong meets the Tonle Sap. And where dreams meet reality, because this, finally, is the Asia that we wanted.

Angkor, BEFORE IT IS LATE
The next morning levataccia usual, there's a boat, even a species of catfish, which will take us to Siem Reap. Three hundred kilometers of the lake, in the heart of Cambodia. On board all tourists, except the most elderly, or fifoni, we settle on the roof. Seven hours this transfer will last seven hours, which start in the warm sun of dawn and end in one of the two torrid afternoon. A sun that turns the microcosm of the torpedo, initially composed of enthusiastic observers (and photographers) the world around them, in a mass of bodies on the roof spiattellati, cooked by the sun and the fatigue. Fired from a boat that fails to go forward, because the level of the lake in March is too low, and the propeller on the bottom strip. We must turn back and seek a breakthrough, and move all to the tip groped for the lift, this blessed helix, and try to get in some way. To avoid having to spend the rest of the trip in one of the many piles that adorn the banks of the lake. But Cambodia is also why it is above all this, and if not we will not leave your heart, and a piece of soul in this amazing country. So that in the end it all goes well, and Siem Reap we arrived, albeit late, and with the neck skin.
Pier (molo. four cross .. so not to get wet feet) ahead with the two boys used motorbikes, which lead us to see the Coconut Guest House (this I remember). There we go, but with no commitment, just to take a look at the camera. Rather then stay there, which is nice, clean, has air conditioning, hot water and friendly staff: the money? $ 15. The boy who carried me I lost the name, as usual, while he had loaded Virna named Ren, and he will become our companion for three days that we remain there. With its' tok tok ', a kind of handy horse motor leads us where we want to do what we want, for the time you want. Ren has 19 years, speaks English as his crackling scooter, it's nice and it is a dream for yourself. Available, but not servile courtesy, always laughing. Ride of us, at times, but ride with us, more often, a rice infectious, joyful, sghembo. Ren is a spectacle, and you love. Do not ever say no, the limit a little shaking 'his head and laughs in the face of all requests, even the most strange. It would not take us by the elephants, which are "too expensive, too expensive (then we have been, $ 15 for half an hour, no Ren, are not too expensive), but wants us to see all the temples and palaces that can. And the next day to see them really carrying around from morning to evening. Laughing, always stronger when we returned to his "tok", each time more soaked in sweat, spoiled by the 40 degrees.
Describe Angkor Wat, the Bayon, or, or the Terrace of Elephants, or what nature is doing to Ta Prohm, simply is not possible. We must see that if the world is ripping their hair for Egypt or the Aztecs of Mexico, I do not know what aspects to run here to see what were capable of doing a thousand years ago, the Khmer. The real ones, not the red.
In Siem Reap we were fine, but sooner or later had to finish, and the third day he ended the evening we had a plane to Bangkok ($ 150, compared with 6 of the bus, but having regard to the roads we are not heard, that if you broke something we were still there), and Ren has also accompanied to the airport. In the previous two days had given $ 17 for this race we asked 5th Once you get to see who has to pay 4000 riel (USD) to enter, and I intend to reimburse sarglielo. Only that when stretching the hand to take the $ 5, then again immediately, to make me understand that those were the terms. So I have reopened, the hand, and we have dropped several dollars more than agreed. And he was first surprised, then smiled, and then rice, and then she put her hand on the shoulder, and I on his. And then we looked, we have shown with two fingers and says "Love for you." Love for you too, Ren, and good luck, really. Really.
When we climb the ladder of that plane that will take us to Thailand, we realize that the magic is about to end, that Cambodia is about to fly away, that Vietnam is already a memory. Soon, too little, it will be time to remember for me too, even for us. Time to reflect, and even admit mistakes. Admitting that he had always avoided for fear Asia, admit that Asia is not at all afraid to admit that Asia is charming and magical, and that we accepted as best he could not. Admit that we had to come first, finally admit that we come back soon. Early, if possible. Before that Cambodia change forever.