Phnom Penh

[Phnom Penh 2days]

With the guided tour, we drove 4h to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. On the way we visited a market that sold insects. We also visited the Royal Palace where the king resides and had a cruise on the Mekong river with Vietnamese karaoke and vinahouse music. I (Kim) am honestly not a big fan of this kind of music, but I still had a lot of fun watching the others of the travel group partying and having a good time.

The forth day on our guided tour we parted with the group to continue traveling in Cambodia. They traveled back to HCMC.

What comes now might be one of the most heartbreaking and terrifying experience that we had so far on our trip. We went to the genocide museum that was at the same time a memorial place for the victims that suffered and died from the torture of the Khmer rouge regime back in 1975-1978 which have become a national tragedy and trauma for Cambodia. We spent 3-4h in the museum with a really good audio guide that explained the prison complex to us which was back than a school where children played and laughed. It's unbelievable what cruelties have happened inside. I think, there are no words and pictures that describe fully what the prisoners have experienced. And there are no words to describe the experience that we had on the audio tour and by walking through the site.
I felt really nauseous and had to take several breaks from the tour because it was so intense, so sad and upsetting. There was so much injustice.

I noted some of many thoughts below that I share with you on the bottom of this post.
We also met Umut, someone we have connected with before in Ninh Binh. We had an intensive talk and exchange to process all the information and impressions we received from the visit. Then, we went to the central market, the night market and to some bars where we had great deep conversations about life, being lost, wandering around and searching a purpose in life.

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Thoughts during the visit of the genocide museum

- sad about the unfairness of the world

- how could people do this, what might be in their heads to do this, what drives them to do this?

-How can they turn into monsters, learn hatred etc and normalize it? Education is key.

-so much cruelty is happening also in our present times and we just live our lives... How can we live a happy life with all the suffering and injustice present... What can we do, what should we do?

-we have responsibilities and are a keeper of memory. We should learn from the past.

-spreading love and loving kindness, compassion is my mission, invoking that in people, inspiring that, living that.

How do I do that? Through music, poetry, though my work, through spirituality - trying to understand life more, exploring what love is, only if I understand it deeply I can give it away strongly and intensively in its purest form.

-empowered to speak up!  To not let power to those who do not spread love. Who are guided by greed, anger, hatred, ignorance 

And here an approach to write a poem...

So much pain
So much suffering
So much injustice
Surrounding me, surrounding us
What can we do to change the face of the world to the better?
What can we do to make the a world a better place filled with love, for you and me, for everyone?

What is the answer to all the hatred, to all the ignorance?
It's love, pure love, loving kindness and compassion.

This world lead by desire, hatred and ingnorance
Where is the light, where is the hope, where is the love.
It's inside of us, under all the layers, inside of you and me.
It's here, in the now, it's in every moment, in every flower, in everything.
You just need to open up your senses, your eyes, your heart.
Embrace the air of freedom, that is in all of us.

Identify the ego mind, and let go of it and expand.
It's not easy, it needs practice. Meditation. Visualisation. Manifestation.
Sink into yourself
Who are you, who am I, who are we?
Who is looking? Who is feeling? 

The quest of life is to find the answer to that.
And one answer to that is love, pure love
The next quest is to find out what love is
The next quest is to live love truly and faithfully.
That's the meaning of life, to find love, there you will find true lasting happiness.

You can find love in the moment. Connect back to it. Breath in breath out. Be one with yourself, your true self. And set it free. 

Peace outRead more