The extremes in Phnom Penh

We made it into Phnom Penh yesterday morning after a relatively sleepless night as we'd left our hotel at 4 AM to make the red eye flight.

Cambodia is something else... For one thing, the traffic is crazy here, Basically, if it has wheels and can somehow move, you'll find it on the streets. Motorbikes are the primary mode of transportation and they'll pile as many people as possible on one of them. The record so far that I've seen is 5 people, but I was too slow with my camera. There are also animal-drawn carts, bicycles, moto-driven carts and tuk tuks (but they don't call them that here). Driving against traffic to make a left turn is perfectly acceptable, and there aren't many traffic lights, which would be ok except that in those cases, there aren't stop signs up either. People just kind of drive slowly down the street and figure out the right of way. It seems to work though.

Everything here is cheap, and American dollars are the currency of choice. In fact, everything is quoted in dollars. A full meal with drinks, etc will run you about $4-5. That's definitely easy on the wallet.

We saw the king's palace and the silver pagoda yesterday before getting hit by a monsoon shower and being stuck in the gift shop for an hour and a half until the rain stopped. Man can it rain here. Unfortunately, the sleep deprivation and jet lag hit around 8 and I was out like a light. That did mean an early morning however and we were able to start on the Cambodia depression tour:

First off, was the Tuol Sleng prison. The compound had started out as a high school before the Khmer Rouge turned it into a prison and interrogation (torture) facility. Many of the original torture implements were still on the premises, and some of the buildings had been left as they'd been found. I got the eerie feeling as people have said about Auschwitz that if one wanted to, the compound could be up and running again in 24 hours. It was appalling how evil people can be, and disturbing as to how much time and thought had gone into the methods of torture.

Next up were the killing fields which are about a 40 minute tuk tuk ride out into the country. The "suburbs" start very soon after the city, if you can call them that. It is sad seeing that there is so much poverty in this country - the houses along the street were made out of anything that could be found, and the skeletons of the abodes which were going up were made out of these rickety wooden sticks - you couldn't even call them a "beam". I guess that seeing the horrible experience that the country went through almost 30 years ago, and having lost a significant percentage of the population to it makes sense. The wonder is that the ordinary people you meet are so upbeat and hopeful despite it.

The killing fields were also very disturbing. There is a Memorial Pagoda that houses the bones and clothes of the victims that were disinterred in the early 80's - and it's several stories high - just all bones. Many of the sheds where the Khmer Rouge housed its weapons are there, as are trees that are marked off with things like "the tree that babies were hit against to be killed" - just gruesome. There are holes all over where the mass graves were found and excavated.

We went from there on a quick stop to the Russian Market - an indoor market that sells pretty much anything under the sun, and bought 50 kilos of rice to give to an orphanage in town that our tuk tuk driver was associated with. The orphanage was the most depressing thing out of the whole day. The structure, if you could call it that, was made out of some beams and corrugated steel. Our gift of rice was enough to feed most of the orphans that day. The staff there were teaching, housing, and feeding them and just barely getting by. Their biggest concern when we were there was how they were going to feed the orphans tomorrow. The kids were all in a good mood and talking to us in pretty good English. While the other sites were horrifying - they were in the past. These orphans and street kids were very much in the present, and would hopefully find a future better than what we saw.

We also saw several very nice, large, and extravagant houses protected by high gates. There are clearly people here with means. By the same token, you'll see Mercedes Benz's and brand new Land Rovers driving next to a bicycle carrying three people. It's just that there doesn't seem to be much of a medium - at least that I've seen driving around town.


P.S. Check out some brief clips I posted on Youtube:
Tuk Tuk Ride in Bangkok
Monsoon Rain in Phenom Penh

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