TRAVEL TALES

Young Chang

It rained just before David Garfitt walked through the killing fields

in Cambodia, washing away the top soil.

As he traversed the area, Garfitt spotted remnants of clothes,

buttons, fragments of bones and teeth.

“It was very very eerie, walking on top of people,” said the Costa

Mesa salesman. “It was gruesome.”

Garfitt spent a week in Cambodia last month learning about the

country’s culture and war-torn history. The world traveler went by

himself, which spurred him to meet more people, he said.

He got a tour of Phnom Penh, the capitol of Cambodia, through a driver

on a motorbike who only charged him $5 for the whole day. He hung out

with monks at Angkor Wat, a temple at Siem Reap, and gambled at foreign

casinos.

“Learning about different cultures, it just enriches the soul, I

guess,” said Garfitt, whose excursions include hitchhiking 4,000 miles

around Africa and multiple trips to Thailand. “I think it gives you a lot

more education than what you can find in any classroom.”

He learned, firsthand while visiting a firing range at Phnom Penh,

that customers can shoot an AK47 for $20 and throw hand grenades for a

similar price. He observed, despite stories about the city being unsafe

after 11 p.m., that it wasn’t any more or less a problem than it is in

any typical city. And he was impressed by how most Cambodians speak two

or three languages -- Cambodian, English and French.

“They’re actually more educated than what I thought,” Garfitt said.

At Angkor Wat, one of about 100 temples built between the 9th and 13th

centuries, he got to know local monks and marveled at how the temple’s

size resembled a big city. The structures had beautiful stone carvings,

he said.

At the fields, Garfitt stopped by a tree against which infants were

killed in the late 1970s by the Khmer Rouge, a Communist guerrilla group

which reigned there for about four years. About two million Cambodians

were killed during this time, which totaled about 30% of the population.

“They had the pictures right there,” Garfitt said of a memorial at the

killing fields.

History lessons aside, Garfitt said he just enjoys traveling.

Being a tall white male, people “check you out” when you walk down the

street, especially in the countryside, he said. The food in Cambodia

resembled Thai cuisine and suited Garfitt’s tastes. The people -- who

spoke English well -- were friendly.

“Once you get into [traveling], you can’t stop,” he said.

* Have you, or someone you know, gone on an interesting vacation

recently? Tell us your adventures. Drop us a line at Travel Tales, 330 W.

Bay St., Costa Mesa, CA 92627; e-mail young.chang@latimes.com; or fax to

(949) 646-4170.