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Published: April 18th 2009
Seven-headed serpent
Very common in Cambodia, with Hindu origins I believe...So the next adventure begins with 26 hours of travel, finally touching down in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. This is the beginning of a three week trip that will cover Cambodia, Vietnam and my 40th birthday…haha!
Arrived late and hopped a cab to our hotel downtown, a really cool oasis called the Blue Lime. Highly recommended; the place is beautiful, walking distance or short tuk-tuk ride to everything and the people are very friendly. Also arrived to a wonderful surprise; my friends Darryl and Sarah had called ahead and arranged to have cold beer waiting for us in our room along with a note of birthday wishes, fantastic! Really meant a lot, and certainly a great way to start the whole adventure…
Next day we got up and went for a stroll to get our bearings, starting with a walk along the riverfront. The heat certainly hit us at this point; coming from Canada where we were coming out of Winter and into Spring with temperatures around the 0 centigrade mark, 35 degrees plus humidity takes a bit of getting used to! Felt sooo good though, and the cold beer(s) certainly helped… Proceeded with a great wander around town; we
took in Wat Phnom, wandered through the backstreets and some local markets before heading back to the hotel for a late afternoon dip in the pool….aaahhh! Went for a great meal that night, a place called Mali’s if memory serves me correctly. Got to sample the national dish called “amok”, which is fish baked with coconut and lemongrass wrapped up in banana leaves…amazing! All sorts of spins on this dish but very tasty all around…
Choeung Ek and the Killing Fields was our first destination the following morning, wasn’t sure as to what to expect or how I would react. We arrived and commissioned a guide to show us around, the first stop being the “stupa”, a memorial tower that contains the skulls of over 8,000 victims. We then proceeded around the grounds while learning about the circumstances there, the various methods of killing (women, children, deserters etc.), along with the excavations of the mass graves and the current conditions. Everywhere we walked you could still see pieces of clothing sticking out of the ground, as well as bones slowly making there way to the surface. If I remember correctly the place floods quite often (every year?) and with
Hammocks!
Still can't believe I made it home without one of these...haha... that erodes some of the top layers of soil revealing the horrors that still lie beneath. Even after some time now to reflect on what I saw and learned, it’s still hard to get my head around it. The sheer brutality, lack of humanity and violence that went on during Pol Pot’s regime is quite sickening and disturbing, and has certainly left an impression on me…
We slowly made our way back to Phnom Penh in our trusty tuk-tuk, stopping along the way to snap some pics of the beautiful rice paddies and countryside (our driver almost being run over for the sake of a good pic!). Visited the Russian Market in search of souvenirs (there aren't a whole lot of tacky souvenir joints in downtown PP which is fantastic, they all seem to be localized within this market) and then back to the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda in the afternoon. Beautiful grounds, the pagoda is named that way because the floor is tiled in silver, fantastic.
By this point I really needed a shave (?) so conveniently found a road-side barber and after some quick negotiations I was in the chair, face lathered up and receiving
Our first Angkor beer!
...and certainly not the last... ;) the first straight blade shave of my life…all the while the cars, tuk-tuks and general mayhem were wizzing by a few feet from my head…very funny!
Took off for a couple of days to Siem Reap and Angkor Wat (next post) but came back for one more day before heading off to Vietnam. Still wanted to see the the Tuol Sleng Museum, otherwise known as the infamous S-21 prison.
Again, what to say; horrifying, sad, disturbing… The regime meticulously documented every prisoner, so seeing the walls of photographs and names of the victims became overwhelming. The torture devices were still there, along with the cells that used to hold dozens of victims in each. There were also photographs of both victims and guards in “before and now” displays; and after all the atrocities the thing that grabbed me the most was how the majority of the guards saw themselves as victims, with some to this day believing they had done nothing wrong. I reserve judgement as I was obviously not there and can have no idea as to the circumstances that would drive a human being to commit these acts, but it’s something I will certainly never understand.
And then to have all the people just assimilate back into “normal” life after the regime had been defeated is even stranger to comprehend; so many were brutally killed and now victims and fighters alike live side by side…
Cambodia, what to say, I loved it. Wish we would have had a few more days there; one more in Siem Reap and a couple more to get down to the Southwest coast would have been great but now I have an excuse to return. The contrasts are many though; the people are amazing and friendly, but there is still a sadness in their eyes, especially among the older ones. The countryside is lush and beautiful, but the scars of war can still be seen if one looks for them. And finally Phnom Penh was fantastic, really enjoyed the mayhem of this city, and it would prove to be a great introduction to the madness of other Southeast Asian cities we had yet to visit…
Enjoy the pics!
(Some photos copyright of Karen C., denoted by (KC)...used with kind permission)
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