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Published: March 18th 2007
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Hey Guys
We arrived early that evening and booked into the Okay Guest House which was nice enough, though our room was a bit of a dive. You had to walk through the kitchen and then through the staff quarters to get there and the red silk sheets, created a distinctly brothel like ambience. The hotel was located near the riverside, and so we took stroll down there in the evening and found ourselves a very nice Italian.
That night, Dani woke up and was convinced that there was a little old Cambodian woman in the corner of our room, which, while not the scariest of subjects, it (she) still scared us a fair bit.
On Sunday (11th) morning we headed out to the Killing Fields, about twenty minutes outside the city. The journey itself was quite an eye opener, passing through various shanty areas which reminded us of the poorer areas that we’d seen in India, particularly the smells.
Upon arriving at the killing fields we really didn’t know what to expect or how in fact to go about viewing the area without being disrespectful and so we hired a guide. The chap that showed us
round was really informative and had some harrowing accounts from his childhood. He’d actually lost both his parents (a teacher and Doctor) during the genocide and was obviously quite bitter. The area is actually home to 129 known mass graves (nearly half have yet to be exhumed) and there are thought to be far more in the surrounding fields. Of the graves that have been disinterred, the bodies of approximately 17,000 men, woman and children have been recovered. In the centre of the fields, stands a massive white stupa that serves as a memorial to the victims of the Khmer Rouge. Behind the glass planes of the stupa, sit over 8000 skulls, many of which show only too clearly the horrific manner of their execution. We really weren’t sure about taking photos of the graves and in particular the skulls in the stupa (despite everybody else clicking away) and so we asked the guide whether he thought it was disrespectful. His response was that he wanted everyone in the outside world to know what had happened and that by taking photos and telling people what we’d seen the message would be spread and hopefully some lessons learnt.
As you
walked around, you would consistently see items of clothing and bone breaking through the surface of the soil, which in many ways was more shocking then seeing the thousands of skulls. There were also information on display, detailing numbers of victims in particular graves and the methods of execution. One of the boards, positioned next to a tree, described how a speaker had been positioned on a tree (known as the magic tree) to drown out the sound of the victims as they were executed and tortured.
Of Cambodia’s eight million inhabitants, over 1.5 million people were either murdered or starved to death during the Khmer Rouge era from 1975-1979.
The guide also kept trying to persuade us to watch ‘The killing fields’ as he said that this was a very good film that gave a fair account of what happened.
In the afternoon, we went to the Tuol Sleng genocide museum, formerly the Khmer Rouge S-21 Prison. Prior to its use as a prison, it was actually a High School, which if you take away the barbed wire fences, is exactly how it looks today, without any trace of the atrocities that took place there only
30 years ago.
Though, not a particularly large complex, it is thought to have housed some 1,720 workers, undertaking roles from administration through to interrogation. The victims of the prison, were taken from all over Cambodia and from all walks of life. There were also many different nationalities, including Americans, British, Canadians and Indians. According to reports found on site, the prison held on average, between 1,200 and 1,500 prisoners at any one time and some 12000 individuals are thought to have been killed here. The duration of imprisonment ranged 2 to 4 months and in many cases whole families, from the bottom up, including new born babies, were brought in for execution.
There is little in the way of information on display and visitors are basically just left to wander in and out of the cells, viewing the beds and in some cases weapons of torture that have been left in place, largely as they were found. Adorning many of the cells, sit black and white photos of victims that had been tortured which obviously speak far louder then any words.
In many of the larger rooms, there are display stands with thousands of mug shots
of the victims. With what information that was available it became ever more apparent, just how indiscriminate the killings were. Prior to visiting the museum, we were under the impression that the regime primarily targeted the educated, though in light of what we read it would appear that in fact the farmers and peasants were equally persecuted.
After, one of the most thought provoking days of our lives we retired back to our hotel and after a quick wash, headed out for a meal along the riverside.
Phnom Penh is a truly incredible place. When walking along the riverside with it bustling crowds, stalls and families enjoying a night time picnic (as you do!), it is easy to forget the horrors that gripped this country (particularly the city) only three decades ago. On the surface, the Cambodian people are quick to smile and appear very warm hearted and were the nicest individuals we’ve met along our travels.
While walking to the restaurant we stopped to look at the many food stalls and as you’ll hopefully see from the photo, the Cambodians will eat just about anything, including beetles, tarantulas, sparrows, crickets, scorpions, cicadas and duck embryo’s……nice! Not
wanting to miss out on this exciting opportunity to try something new (Dani made me!) I opted to try a cricket which in a fairness wasn’t too bad, a bit crunchy to start and then chewy with a nutty BBQ kind of taste.
The following morning it was time to leave Phnom Penh, a place that we’d never intended to visit but are very pleased we did, and to head back to Bangkok and then onto Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand.
We left Phnom Penh at about 6.30am and arrived at the Thai border at 2.30pm where, after crossing back into Thailand, we had to wait for an hour to get a bus to Bangkok, where we arrived at 8pm ish. We realized that we weren’t going to have enough time to get a bus to Chiang Mai that evening and so we checked into a guesthouse for the night before heading out the following morning to Chiang Mai.
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