Phnom Pehn - Capital City of Cambodia for 2 days!

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The AmaDara stopped in Phnom Penh - a very modern city with construction everywhere! It bears witness as to how far Vietnam has recovered since the war. Phnom Penh is home to many ex-pats from Australia, England, Europe and North America due to the low cost of living here. Lots of modern high rise condos are doting the 4 river intersection (the Tonle Sap and Mekong Rivers merge and split into the Basak and Mekong Rivers flowing south) that converges in this capital city! Home to the Parliament and the Royal Palace, there is so much to see and do here!



We started with a visit to Wat Phnom Historical Site which is where the city gained its name. A wealthy woman (Lady Penh) in 1372, build a buddhist temple and a Pagoda on a man-made hill by the Mekong river where she discovered 4 buddha statues and 1 statue of Vishnu in a Koki tree that washed ashore there. She took it as a divine event and built this wonderful temple and beautiful gardens to honour Buddha. The temple has many Buddha statues (reclining, praying, meditating) and interesting murals on the upper walls and ceilings. It was a busy site with many people praying and making offerings. The gardens had a lawn clock and small alters where the local Toucans rested as they picked through the garbage cans!



In the evening onboard we enjoyed the staff of the AmaDara performing Cambodian dances and then a competition dance-off between the departments; dining room servers vs Kitchen cooks, housekeeping and bartenders. The housekeeping won hands down with their air band performance with instruments made from brooms, mops, toilet seats and other housekeeping items! It was hilarious! We also watched the local fisherman, casting their nets and pulling in their catch from the muddy Mekong.



Next day was much more sombre, as we visited the Choeung Ek Genocidal Centre (originally a Chinese cemetary) and the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum or previously named Security Prison #21 (which was originally a secondary school). These museums told the incredibly sad story of the Cambodian Genocide from the repressive Khmer Rouge regime (April 17, 1975 - January 7, 1979). The Genocide Centre had boardwalks showing the numerous mass gravesites, trees that were used to kill young children, shreds of clothing still showing, signposts indicating where the trucks arrived, where the waiting area was and sadly more. The main pagoda was filled with numerous unnamed skulls of the estimated 9000 victims killed in this location. Loudspeakers were strapped to banyan trees and blared loud music 24/7 to drown out the cries of victims. A very sad energy permeated the site.



Security Prison #21 was the source of many of the victims at the Genocide centre that we visited. This was even more disturbing as this museum showed how victims were tortured until they signed a confession that they were a CIA or KGB agent. This then justified that they should then be executed. Most of the victims were from the previous Lon Not regime and included soldiers, government officials, as well as academic, doctors, teachers, students, factory workers, monks, engineers, etc. Sadly this 4 year genocide resulted in the deaths of 1.5 to 2 million people, nearly a quarter of Cambodia's population in 1975. Today the population is around 17 million with 50% of the population younger than 22 year old! Since the Khmer Rouge regime, the country has had to rebuild all their professions as most of the educated and professionals were victims of the genocide.



From 1976 to 1979, an estimated 20,000 people were imprisoned at Tuol Sleng and it was one of between 150 to 196 torture and execution centres established by the Khmer Rouge. There were 12 survivors (7 adults and 5 children). There are only 2 survivors alive at this time and they were both at the museum talking to guests and selling their books about their stories. They were kept alive because they had skills that their captors considered to be useful. The survivor author that we spoke to was able to fix one of their typewriters and thus he was kept alive as a repairman. He spoke with disdain even after all these years. I have photos of his cell and Darold with the smiling old man (92 years old if I remember correctly).



This was a sad day as we witnessed these atrocities and thought back to the great Khmer empire that was Cambodia, which had ruled an area that included Laos, Thailand, Vietnam and most of the area for over 600 years (starting around 802 until the 15th century). At its' height of power in the 12th century, there were over a million people living the its capital, Angkor.

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