Killing Fields and Silver Pagoda

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Phnom Penh is nowhere near as nice a holiday spot as is Siem Reap. Instead of the Lost City of Angkor Thom (for it is really a city and not just a temple complex) and the great Angkor Wat, continuously used for worship - both Hindu and Buddhist - since its construction, it has the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek - not nearly so uplifting a venue.

There are many more beggars here too, very persistent, and not only are the tuk tuk drivers more insistent then their like in Siem Reap, they charge a lot more too.

Phnom Penh is not really as nice a city to walk in, either. It is too big and too hot, with fewer places of interest to stop at. Still, there are some remarkable things here too.

I hadn't intended to visit the Killing Fields today, in fact I'm not sure that I ever wanted to go there. I started doing the Walking Tour as given in my Lonely Planet Book (bought second hand in Siem Reap - right up to date and costing just $5). This involved walking from my hotel first to Wat Phnom, then to the market of Psar Thmei and the Sorya Shopping Mall and then to the Independence Monument and finally to the Royal Palace, Silver Pagoda and the National Museum.

Wat Phnom is definitely a good place to start when exploring Phnom Penh. Incidently the first part of the city's name is pronounced as P'nom by its citizens although the normal pronunciation in England is Nom Pen. An elderly lady called Penh apparently found four Buddha images washed up by the river one day and lugged them up to the top of the hill where she lived. Hill is Phnom in Khmer, so Penh's Hill was Phnom Penh and the city was named after this. And Wat Phnom is the Wat on the hill.

Wat Phnom has followed the monkeys in the ground route rather than the chicken option favoured by Angkor Thom (and also by Choeung Ek). The monkeys are relatively well behaved and didn't take my tea until I offered some to them this time. They also have the optional elephant add on, and it was nice to see elephants trundling around at the base of the hill.

There are lots of interesting things to see in the Wat and there is even a statue of the elderly Ms Penh herself. There is also a rather odd Vietnamese shrine to Preah Chau with Chinese style statues and pictures.

The only drawback is the beggar children and I'm afraid that I spent rather more than $20 buying them water to drink etc. But you can't give to everyone and I was folowed away from the wat by two rather persistent children (six or seven years old, at a guess) I offered them my hat, as I hadn't any loose moey left but they didn't want it.

I finally lost them just before the covered market, which was not of real interest to me. I'll try the night market later this evening. It was interesting along the way to see Khmer sculpture for sale - including an equestrian statue!

The Independence Monument is as interesting as such roundabouts usually are so I walked on to the Royal Palace. This was closed for lunch and a tuk tuk driver took advantage of my temporary indecision to propose that he take me to the Killing Fields. He spoke good English and I agreed.

The Killing Fields are not really a fun place to go to. Signs show the location of mass graves. Thousands of human skulls are on display as are various other human bones. It's a lovely area, the birds are singing and butterflies flutter about, and the trees are labeled according to which one children were beaten to death against and which one a radio was hung from to mask out the groans of dying men. Indentations everywhere show where bodies have been disinterred. I realise that we should not forget, but remembering the Nazi Holocaust did not prevent this Khmer auto-genocide.

We drove back to the Royal Palace, which had reopened, and he charged me $30 which I think was on the high side.

The Royal Palace itself was a pleasant place to visit in contrast but the Silver Pagoda, in the same grounds, was more interesting. It's called the Silver Pagoda because the entire floor is paved with tiles made out of solid silver. They're mostly covered with carpets but you can see many of them and even stand on them. This wat, too, like its counterpart in Bangkok, houses an "emerald" Buddha (this one is apparently made of something called Baccarat Crystal). There is also a life size standing Buddha made entirely out of solid gold (apart from nearly 10,000 diamonds some of which weigh 25 carats).

I didn't enjoy the National Museum so much as the one in Siem Riep. There were many more exhibits but they weren't well explained. What's the point in describing something as a "loom for weaving 'hol'" and leaving it at that? What is, or was, hol? Why was it weaved? Who weaved it?

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Photos

Equestrian statue for sale
If you have to ask the price, you can't afford it

Random golden dragon
A buddhist symbol according to a tuk tuk driver

Golgotha
The place of the skulls

The chicken option
Monkeys at the killing fields would have been out of place