On the Road

I traveled to Cambodia and Thailand from 11 to 21 August. In Cambodia I was checking on the MMAF lay missioners there, especially in light of the coup and current political instability. In Thailand all the Maryknoll members--lay people, priests, sisters--of what is called the Maryknoll Mekong Missions (Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam) had one of their regular meetings.

Notes from the Trip
(New material in italics.)
11-14 August Cambodia The most noticeable thing about Cambodia when I arrived there was that it was HOT! And not in the warring sense, just the temperature. It was in the low 90s, a bit hotter than Hong Kong but with less humidity. There is no air conditioning in the house where I stayed, but it was comfortable sleeping with a fan going.
Life is pretty much back to normal for most people in Phnom Penh although there is still tension and anxiety about what is going to happen next. Hun Sen's forces have consolidated their control in the city--partly by executing dozens of the opposition CPP or Royalist part--but there is still fighting continuing in the northwestern provinces along the Thai border. Residents generally stay off the streets of Phnom Penh after dark, but that is mainly because of the increased attacks by muggers in the last year.
One of the Maryknoll projects was delayed a week in starting its new cycle for incoming students because they were scheduled to arrive when the fighting was actually taking place. Most of these students are from the provinces and are not familiar with Phnom Penh, so their families kept them at home until the situation had calmed in the city. It was about a week before they all trickled in.
It was very interesting to me to hear the reactions of the Maryknoll people I was going to visit. They did not evacuate, unlike most foreigners, and were able to provide both some physical safety to some Cambodian staff and friends who could not return to their own home areas, and also moral support to the general population who would come and thank the obviously western foreigners for not leaving them. Looming large in the minds of the local people was the Khmer Rouge invasion earlier, when Pol Pot entered the city and forced the entire population out into the countryside in a matter of hours. That was the beginning of the "killing fields," and many Cambodians remember that it was preceded by a general exodus of all the ex-patriates which allowed Pol Pot to do his worst without the glare of international publicity.
One of the Maryknollers trying to get home about a week after the coup flagged down what he thought was a "motordupe," the motorcycle taxis that operate in Phnom Penh. The driver drove him to the Maryknoll house but then refused to accept any payment, saying that he wasn't really a motordupe driver but just wanted to show his appreciation for the foreigner who stayed with the Cambodian people during their trouble.

14-21 August Thailand We flew from Phnom Penh to Bangkok and had arranged for a van and driver for the trip to Hua Hin, a small town--formerly the site of the summer palace of the Thai royal family--about 4 hours south of Bangkok. We went to the Salesian retreat centre there and met up with another 22 Maryknollers from Vietnam and Thailand. The purpose of the meeting was a workshop on conflict resolution which had been requested by several local groups, followed by a prayer day, and then by several days of meetings as a large group and as country groups and as groups of priests and sisters and lay people to discuss various issues.
One of my tasks in Hua Hin was to interview the 12 associate lay missioners who were present to check on their well-being and the progress of their ministries in their respective countries. In addition I taped radio interviews with most of the Maryknollers from Cambodia, recording their feelings and insights and experiences during the recent coup there.
Normally I am able to log on to the Internet from Hua Hin through a long-distance call to Bangkok, but for some reason connections were really bad this time and I was not able to keep up with the mail while we were there.

21-23 August Trying to get home... I was scheduled to fly from Bangkok to Hong Kong on Thai International on Thursday, 21 August, at 1600, but when we headed for the gate, the security staff told us the flight was canceled. A Thai information desk on that concourse said the flight was not canceled but only delayed. It was hard getting even that info because the aircraft was a 747 and for all those people, there was one young woman to give information, without even a bullhorn. And there was never an announcement the whole time except for the usual "Will the last three passengers on flight...." The woman told us that the flight would be at 0400 the next morning because of a "typhoon" in HK and they would put us up in a hotel.
As the plane load of people was walking back through immigration (we had to leave our passports, tickets, etc., with immigration), an airline staff member pulled me out of the group and said they were separating people into different hotels. I was taken to the Amari Airport Hotel which he told me was "better". I didn't understand why I was taken there until after they had checked me in and I asked another Thai Air staffer and she said that business and first-class passengers were taken to the Amari. I explained that I was an economy passenger but she said not to worry. I suspect it was blatant racism--they pulled my white face (the only one) out of the crowd of Chinese people just because I was white and they thought I should get better treatment. That's going into my letter to Thai International.
After I went to the hotel room, the flight arrivals and departures were displayed on the TV there. Several hours later, while looking for the news, I noticed that another Thai International flight was getting ready to depart to Hong Kong! I hurried back to the airport, too late for the flight, and went to talk to the station manager to ask why, if a plane was flying to Hong Kong just three hours after ours was delayed till tomorrow morning, they hadn't informed us. He didn't explain but just kept saying that our pilot had decided not to fly into that weather and that I'd have to come back at 3:00 AM.
At 2:30 AM I checked out of the hotel and when I got back to the airport, found that the flight had been delayed a second time, to 8:30 AM! Since I had already checked out, I went to the station manager again and got him to send some Thai International staff with me to the airport to get me checked back in. Then when I got to the airport the third time, at 7:30 AM, the flight had been delayed a third time, till 11:00 AM. But a ticket agent told me another Thai flight was leaving for HK at 8:00 AM (again without our being informed). I literally ran back to the hotel, checked out, and ran back to get on that flight with just my carry-on bag. The flight was uneventful--except that they moved me up to business class!--and we landed with no problem at Hong Kong. Of course my checked luggage was still on the original aircraft and it didn't arrive till late Friday night when Flight TG 606 finally made it to HK 24 hours behind schedule. Hardly a way to run an airline!

Notes from the Trip (New material in italics.)
11-14 August	Cambodia	The most noticeable thing about Cambodia when I arrived there was that it was HOT! And not in the warring sense, just the temperature. It was in the low 90s, a bit hotter than Hong Kong but with less humidity. There is no air conditioning in the house where I stayed, but it was comfortable sleeping with a fan going. Life is pretty much back to normal for most people in Phnom Penh although there is still tension and anxiety about what is going to happen next. Hun Sen's forces have consolidated their control in the city--partly by executing dozens of the opposition CPP or Royalist part--but there is still fighting continuing in the northwestern provinces along the Thai border. Residents generally stay off the streets of Phnom Penh after dark, but that is mainly because of the increased attacks by muggers in the last year. One of the Maryknoll projects was delayed a week in starting its new cycle for incoming students because they were scheduled to arrive when the fighting was actually taking place. Most of these students are from the provinces and are not familiar with Phnom Penh, so their families kept them at home until the situation had calmed in the city. It was about a week before they all trickled in. It was very interesting to me to hear the reactions of the Maryknoll people I was going to visit. They did not evacuate, unlike most foreigners, and were able to provide both some physical safety to some Cambodian staff and friends who could not return to their own home areas, and also moral support to the general population who would come and thank the obviously western foreigners for not leaving them. Looming large in the minds of the local people was the Khmer Rouge invasion earlier, when Pol Pot entered the city and forced the entire population out into the countryside in a matter of hours. That was the beginning of the "killing fields," and many Cambodians remember that it was preceded by a general exodus of all the ex-patriates which allowed Pol Pot to do his worst without the glare of international publicity. One of the Maryknollers trying to get home about a week after the coup flagged down what he thought was a "motordupe," the motorcycle taxis that operate in Phnom Penh. The driver drove him to the Maryknoll house but then refused to accept any payment, saying that he wasn't really a motordupe driver but just wanted to show his appreciation for the foreigner who stayed with the Cambodian people during their trouble.
14-21 August	Thailand	We flew from Phnom Penh to Bangkok and had arranged for a van and driver for the trip to Hua Hin, a small town--formerly the site of the summer palace of the Thai royal family--about 4 hours south of Bangkok. We went to the Salesian retreat centre there and met up with another 22 Maryknollers from Vietnam and Thailand. The purpose of the meeting was a workshop on conflict resolution which had been requested by several local groups, followed by a prayer day, and then by several days of meetings as a large group and as country groups and as groups of priests and sisters and lay people to discuss various issues. One of my tasks in Hua Hin was to interview the 12 associate lay missioners who were present to check on their well-being and the progress of their ministries in their respective countries. In addition I taped radio interviews with most of the Maryknollers from Cambodia, recording their feelings and insights and experiences during the recent coup there. Normally I am able to log on to the Internet from Hua Hin through a long-distance call to Bangkok, but for some reason connections were really bad this time and I was not able to keep up with the mail while we were there.
21-23 August	Trying to get home...	I was scheduled to fly from Bangkok to Hong Kong on Thai International on Thursday, 21 August, at 1600, but when we headed for the gate, the security staff told us the flight was canceled. A Thai information desk on that concourse said the flight was not canceled but only delayed. It was hard getting even that info because the aircraft was a 747 and for all those people, there was one young woman to give information, without even a bullhorn. And there was never an announcement the whole time except for the usual "Will the last three passengers on flight...." The woman told us that the flight would be at 0400 the next morning because of a "typhoon" in HK and they would put us up in a hotel. As the plane load of people was walking back through immigration (we had to leave our passports, tickets, etc., with immigration), an airline staff member pulled me out of the group and said they were separating people into different hotels. I was taken to the Amari Airport Hotel which he told me was "better". I didn't understand why I was taken there until after they had checked me in and I asked another Thai Air staffer and she said that business and first-class passengers were taken to the Amari. I explained that I was an economy passenger but she said not to worry. I suspect it was blatant racism--they pulled my white face (the only one) out of the crowd of Chinese people just because I was white and they thought I should get better treatment. That's going into my letter to Thai International. After I went to the hotel room, the flight arrivals and departures were displayed on the TV there. Several hours later, while looking for the news, I noticed that another Thai International flight was getting ready to depart to Hong Kong! I hurried back to the airport, too late for the flight, and went to talk to the station manager to ask why, if a plane was flying to Hong Kong just three hours after ours was delayed till tomorrow morning, they hadn't informed us. He didn't explain but just kept saying that our pilot had decided not to fly into that weather and that I'd have to come back at 3:00 AM. At 2:30 AM I checked out of the hotel and when I got back to the airport, found that the flight had been delayed a second time, to 8:30 AM! Since I had already checked out, I went to the station manager again and got him to send some Thai International staff with me to the airport to get me checked back in. Then when I got to the airport the third time, at 7:30 AM, the flight had been delayed a third time, till 11:00 AM. But a ticket agent told me another Thai flight was leaving for HK at 8:00 AM (again without our being informed). I literally ran back to the hotel, checked out, and ran back to get on that flight with just my carry-on bag. The flight was uneventful--except that they moved me up to business class!--and we landed with no problem at Hong Kong. Of course my checked luggage was still on the original aircraft and it didn't arrive till late Friday night when Flight TG 606 finally made it to HK 24 hours behind schedule. Hardly a way to run an airline!

Charlie's Itinerary -- 11-21 August 1997
11 August To Phnom Penh via Bangkok

14 August Fly from Phnom Penh to Bangkok
Drive from Bangkok to Hua Hin

20 August Drive from Hua Hin to Bangkok

21 August Fly from Bangkok to Hong Kong

Charlie's Itinerary -- 11-21 August 1997
11 August	To Phnom Penh via Bangkok
14 August	Fly from Phnom Penh to Bangkok Drive from Bangkok to Hua Hin
20 August	Drive from Hua Hin to Bangkok
21 August	Fly from Bangkok to Hong Kong