I Heart Phnom Penh (Again)

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Well this will be a relatively short blog because basically, I went to Phnom Penh not too long ago, and this time around I did basically the same things: went to the Killing Fields and Tuol Sleng. I reckon I'll be coming back to Cambodia again though, because even the second time around, I took a lot away from visiting those sorts of places (not to mention I love the vibe of the place).

Tuol Sleng especially, first time I was there, I read some graffiti a traveller had written on the wall near the children's cells and something clicked. Second time, our guide was giving the two reasons that the guards used to slice open to stomach to kill the prisoners, and something clicked. It takes a place like Tuol Sleng to really put things into perspective. (If you're interested, the reasons for slicing are: a) to eat the liver, because apparently that will make you better than your opponents and b) to sell human organs to the Chinese. Yeh, apparently a main reason all the Cambodian people were starving to death is because Pol Pot was giving all the resources to China).

The second time was also great because, while I felt like I already knew a lot (a rather cocky assumption on my part really, seeing as I've only scratched the surface), it gave me the oppurtunity to learn things a little more firsthand. Our guide for the day had lost 7 siblings due to overworking and starvation during the Pol Pot regime, and was himself forced to do harsh farm labour as a kid for Ankar (name used for the Khmer Rouge cause). It was really compelling hearing his firsthand stories of children being brainwashed into wanting to be soldiers, about how he didn't get nearly enough to eat, and to survive, ate any insects he could find raw despite severe punishments if caught. He told us things like the fact that Ankar forbade anyone to cook anything. Only Ankar was allowed to cook food. That seems rather extreme and weird. Thus, a great example of the kind of things that were going on at the time. Our guide also told us other interesting things like: the imaginative ways that babies were killed at the Killing Fields (Abbey, a paediatric nurse, had to walk away for that one), and the case of the mistaken identity of one of the Australian victims (knowledge he possessed because he had been the guide for the victim's wife).

It also happened to be a pretty good time to go to these places, because it was only 2 days after the Khmer Rouge's second in charge was arrested for crimes against humanity by the International Tribunal set up by the UN. There's so much more I could say about the state of the justice being done to those involved, but it would take a long time. Let's just say that if ex-high ranking Khmer Rouge leaders are now working in high up positions in the government, well no wonder the country is in the state it's in. The ONLY infrastructure and support being given to the Cambodian people is from foreign aid, everything from the taxes people have to pay goes straight into the pockets of the government. It's the whole taxi thing at the border all over again... grrr, corrupt governments. Actually on that topic. Burma is experiencing the biggest pro-democracy protests since 1988. I was totally there a bit over a month ago. And I was totally going to go back. Damn protests. But the monks are involved now, if the government tries killing them there'll be an uproar. Yay! Overthrow corrupt governments!

Oh yeah, I actually did other stuff in Phnom Penh as well. We went out to dinner, then to a pub that Marty recommended. It was pretty empty with really drowsy music, but ultimate fighting was showing on the big screen. And I'll say, it might be incredibly violent, but that sport looks just a little gay. Watch it, you'll get what I mean. Um, then we headed over to the backpacker district, to a pub that I remembered the name of because it was right near the guesthouse I stayed in. I hadn't actually gone there last time, but it turned out to be pretty good. So yeh, that's pretty much it. There's heaps more I could say about Tuol Sleng and the Killing Fields, but let's face it, I'd go off on some big tangent anyway.

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Photos

Battered skull at Tuol Sleng
Evidence of the brutal ways people were killed.

Mistaken Identity
This isn't David Lloyd Scott as though, but one of his friends who was also killed.

The Stupa
Full of skulls of victims from the mass graves. By the way, I didn't take any photos the second time around, they are all from my first visit.