I travelled to Cambodia with two of my best friends after finishing my work in Thailand in December of 2004. The main reason was to see Angkor Wat in the Northwest of the country, just outside of Siam Reap. This is one of the most important archaeological sites in all of Asia and in all the world for that matter, and we were not disappointed.

While in Cambodia we also went to see the capital city, Phnom Penh, and learned about the atrocities of Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge regime. What we saw and heard was shocking, but it's also critically important to learn how such terrible events come to be so that perhaps we will be wiser in the future.

Cambodians have been through a lot and they are still struggling. The country is poor and corrupt and lacks even basic infrastructure, but it was once home to one of the greatest empires on earth, and because of that it is a proud country which will one day rise above the current hardships.

Phnom Penh and CI Workshop, June 2006