Khmer Rouge

I watched a programme called "Cambodia: fields of hope" on television a few weeks ago.

I don't know how old this programme is. I was surprised to hear the narrator say that the film-makers were accompanied by the police; especially when they travelled out of Phnom Penh, because the police felt the need to protect them in case the Khmer Rouge rebels attacked them.

The documentary said that the Khmer Rouge era is over, but the risk was still around.

Is this still true? Or is the documentary simply dated?

Killing animals

I remember reading that more than 90% of Cambodians believe in Theravada Buddhism. Is this number correct?

If so, then comes the question about killing. If I remember correctly, Buddists do not believe in killing, since that prematurely ends the life of another, who is hoping to find the peace of Nirvana through reincarnation.

Ie. will we be able to buy and eat meat in Cambodia? If there are no butchers, perhaps there would be no meat?

What will people think of us, if we were to kill a rat, or swat a mosquito, or spray inseciticide around the house?

Cheap bus ride

My wife read a warning about some cross-country bus rides.

Apparently, some cheap ones do not take you the whole distance as they advertise. They will take you part of the way, and then ask you to pay more in order to continue the journey.

Otherwise, they will take you to some overnight accomodation, where you have to pay for the accomodation.

The alternative is to be left in some place you are unfamiliar with.

Is this true?

ATMs in Cambodia

I read somewhere that there are few ATMs in Cambodia.

However, the ANZ Royal Bank has a few, and one can find out where they are through their webpage.

Even so, having an ANZ bank account from Australia or New Zealand does not help. ANZ will treat transactions as having occurred at a foreign ATM, so there are no exemption from fees. This is because the banks are separate entities, as they are governed differently.

Oh well. Does anybody have any experiences using ATMs in Cambodia that they may wish to share?

Religious tolerance

It was interesting to read that:

"Cambodia was an experience in religious tolerance. Hinduism and Buddhism have fought each other ceaselessly over hundreds of years, with Buddhism finally triumphing. Yet, in each war, where one faith attempted to supplant another, there was tolerance of one another."

... on http://khmerization.blogspot.com/2009/06/vietnam-and-cambodia-impressions-of.html.

I wonder what this means in terms of the faith of the Cambodian people? Is their belief a mixed hybrid of the things said in various sacred texts? Have they replaced the sacred words with their own interpretations? Or are some people more faithful to certain texts compared to others?

I would be interested to understand further what people believe.

Cost of living in Cambodia

A friend shared this URL with me. http://darrenconquest.blogspot.com/2005/05/cost-of-living-in-cambodia.html

I wonder how much the price of things has changed since May 2005?

I read somewhere that the inflation rate is about 15% pa. Could somebody please enlighten me as to whether this is applies to the price of food, of housing, of something else - or if this is applies across the board?

Blessings.

Reading Khmer

A "Lonely Planet" Phrasebook arrived in the post for me today. From this, and a discussion with a friend last week, I learnt that:

• The Khmer script looks a lot like Burmese or Thai. This is apparently quite common in this region.
  
• The Khmer script is not read sequentially. Most languages read as left-to-right (as English or Greek), or right-to-left (as Arabic or Hebrew), top to bottom (as Chinese). I hear that in Khmer, the script can be read as "3rd syllable, then 2nd, then 4th then 1st" or something apparently non-systematic like that.
• It has over 60 letters in its alphabet.
• It is not tonal (like Chinese)
  
• Its grammar is quite simple (languages which carry a larger range of sounds tend to have simpler grammar, languages which have a small range of sounds tend to have a more complex grammar).

Wow! What a challenge. Add pronunciation and accent to appreciate the difficulty a little further.