Advertisement
Published: January 20th 2016
Edit Blog Post
Our next stop in Cambodia was the capital city of Phenom Penh population 2 million. This is the city that our son's girlfriend Rachel bases her clothing business in. Here is also where her primary store is located and where she lives for about 3 months of the year. Again she showed us around Phenom Penh and took us to the most amazing restaurants!
Although we enjoyed the bustling streets and super nice people of Phenom Penh our tours of the Killing Fields and Prison were educational, disturbing and conjured feelings of disbelief. Our first reaction was how did mankind let this happen? As young adults in the 70's we had no idea of the horrors of the Cambodian Civil War. We seemed to hear a lot about the Vietnam War but Cambodia wasn't really a topic of conversation in our generation.
Through our tours we learned about the civil war and genocide that took place between 1970 -1975. The politics of the war are complicated but basically the conflict began as a result of the Communist Party (Khmer Rouge) taking power and trying to rid anyone who stood in their way. They began by interrogating and torturing the
educated people as well as killing them and disposing their bodies in mass graves. They felt the educated people would have the potential to uprise. They used the poor and uneducated to continue on with the work and economy of Cambodia as they thought they would be less likely to object to the communist regime and promised them better times ahead. At this time the Khmer Rouge closed all the schools and healthcare facilities. Many were literally destroyed. Basically they told the educated people they would be retrained at a center so they could have a good job with the communist party. Instead they arrived to a prison where they were interrogated and tortured if they didn't cooperate. Eventaully they were all taken to the Killing Fields where 1.7 million lost their lives.
On our tour of the prison there were two men (in their 60's now) who survived the persecution due to the fact they had skills they needed at the prison.(fixing generators for example). They have written books and are available to speak to the visitors about their ordeal. It was so emotional to see them. The living conditions and methods of torture and murder were horrendous.
Today Cambodia has a democratic government which defeated the communist party with the help of South Vietnam in 1979. Many of the leaders unfortunately are corrupt and some were part of the communist regime so you have wonder about their ideals. An example of the corruption is the 50 million dollar per year revenue generated by the tourist who visit Ankor Wat. One man in the government owns the rights and only pays $500,000 per year and the rest of the 50 million is pocketed by him instead of benefitting the Camodian people.
On a lighter note we toured the grand Palace and walked along the riverside area which is along the Mekong River. We shopped at the Central Market and enjoyed a beer on the busy and entertaining streets. As well we walked to an enormous oval one night where they play soccer. For fun and exercise the local people gather each evening and line dance to Lou's upbeat music. There were literally hundreds of them all different ages dancing on the top level of the bleachers!!
All and all a very enlightening and fun time in Phenon Penh!
I wanted to mention a little
bit about Rachel's clothing line in Cambodia. She designs the clothes and has them sewn in Phenom Penh at her workshop. She has a store in Siem Reap and well as P.P. and is hoping to open one at the airport in Siem Reap soon and perhaps in the states in the future. She also sells her fashions on line. She started her business about 6 years ago and employs about 30 staff. She pays them well in Cambodia standards. The great thing is that she used remennets from other manufacturers for her fabric and in general has an environmental focus. If you are interested in looking at her clothing line here is the website.
www.tonledesign.com
Advertisement
Tot: 0.114s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 10; qc: 28; dbt: 0.0312s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb