Project Angkor

Written by Chuong Dang, MD PGY3 at Kaiser Permanente Oakland Pediatrics Residency Program on a Global Health rotation with Project Angkor in Cambodia.

We departed from San Francisco Airport on 12/29 early morning, transit flight in Taipei and arrived in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia on 12/30. We picked up our supply boxes (about 30-40), applied for expedite visa at the custom then were on our way to the hotel via buses. It was free time the first evening in Phnom Penh; we went to the Russian Market to buy some personal goods in preparation for the trip. It was a surprise to me that the U.S. dollar is accepted almost everywhere we traveled to in Cambodia.

The second day, the program organized a field trip to the infamous Killing Field, where the old Khmer Rouge regime executed and massacred  tens of thousands of people during 1976-1979 coup. This place taught us to