Eventful ride

This afternoon we drove from Posat to Poipet. Having Pastor Setan in the van made it quite a memorable trip. He's living history, and no, I'm not calling him old. Ok, maybe a little bit. ;)

He shared about his journey out of Battambang fleeing the Pol Pot regime. He was caught on the road and put to work at a hard labor camp with thousands of others building irrigation canals for rice paddies. He escaped from there and made it out across the Thai border. Getting to see a lot of that in person as he was describing it was quite an honor. I know it still brings back tough memories for him.

Along the way I also got to see a couple more snakes (ugh) and some roadside stands selling...(I'll let you figure it out - see picture below). Tonight we rest in Poipet, and the next couple of days will be based here. Tomorrow we'll be distributing rice to some army vets. I understand pensions don't work here like they do in the states. Hard to see those serving their country be in such need.

These trees with the red flowers are so beautiful!

This scary looking guy is at the entrance to Battambang.

Roadside stand outside Battambang. There were at least half a dozen carts selling hundreds of these things. Hungry?

This is the area that Pastor Setan was forced to work when he was captured by Pol Pot's forces. He says that this area is now one of Cambodia's best rice-producing areas because of all the slave-labor work that was done to build the irrigation canals.