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Published: October 5th 2011
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The other week I did my final visa run with my roommate and fellow intern, we've had to leave the country once a month to renew our visas which has given us a great chance to get out of Thailand for a few days and see parts of SEA that we'd not been to before or in a long time. This was the first time though that I'd been to Phnom Penh, I'd been to Siem Reap once about 9 years ago and figured that Phnom Penh would be much the same, small, relatively quiet and not a great deal to do except for visit temples, when I got there my expectations were put into overhaul.
Phnom Penh is busy, the trip from the airport into the center of town was almost bumper to bumper traffic, making what could have probably been a 10 minute drive into a 30 minute crawl. The lack of street signs and functioning traffic lights didn't do much to help the situation either.
The city itself was also a surprise, with a rather well thought out grid of roads and a surprising selection of pubs and restaurants that I was not expecting to find, although
I was very happy that they were there as it's the Rugby World Cup and there were several good games playing. The first day (or evening I should say) passed rather uneventfully, wandering around the town trying to get our bearings. The second day, our first full day, was a bit more exciting, we rented two motorbikes and headed out for some exploring, again though, the lack of road signs didn't help our cause, following the river was the best we could do to keep from getting completely lost, traffic seemed a lot less intimidating on two wheels than on two feet.
We rode around the waterfront just getting the feel for the bikes and for the road, after all, the last 4 months we've been in a country where they drive on the left hand side of the road, then all of a sudden, just across dotted line on a map, they're driving on the right.
Getting back to the Irish pub which has kind of become our home for the last day an a bit we got to talking with the owner who gave us some good recommendations on places to go, unfortunately, we only had
the bike for half of the next day so our time was limited, even so, we knew where we wanted to go, the killing fields. We wanted to go to see where so many of Pol Pot's atrocities took place during the Khmer Rouge's regime.
The following day we hopped on our bikes and took to the road, with our trust map, given to us by the bar owner and a rough idea of the direction we'd be taking, it took us 10 minutes to take a wrong turn. A few more wrong turns and bad directions given to us by a clueless tuk-tuk driver and finally we were on track and headed to the killing fields. Even though we were on the right track though, that didn't stop us from falling into a trap or two, namely, a patch of very soggy, sticky mud disguised as dry dirt, trying to take a short cut has never proven so idiotic.
The killing fields were really quite emotional, I've been trying to think of the best words to describe them since coming back, harrowing, distressing and other words that are synonymous. There is something eery about the fact that
Skulls of the victims
The Khmer Rouge did not discriminate between who they killed, there are the skulls of children and old people alike countless people were executed there on a daily basis yet it was so bright and sunny, the grass was green and the trees were lush, completely in contrast with the emotional portrayal of the place.
Walking around the different pits which could have only been mass graves we walked in silence, each of us just contemplating the sheer scale and magnitude of the genocide. The museum at the fields was a bit of a let down though, it didn't provide the desired information, merely biographies on the various perpetrators and failed to mention really
why it happened or how many people were actually killed. I have heard somewhere between 3 and 5 million but that is a rather large margin of error.
We both left the fields looking visibly drained, emotionally and physically, I wanted nothing more than to get on my bike and ride far away from that place.
I would certainly say though that a trip to the fields is well worth it, just to understand a piece of Cambodia's history beyond Angkor Wat and the other great temples.
Aside from the cultural side though, there are some great bars, restaurants and clubs to be
checked out there as well, the best thing being that there's no need to wear anything impressive when you go to them, sandals and shorts is just as passable as crocodile skin shoes and a feathered cap. I rate Phnom Penh very highly on the places that I've visited since starting my internship and certainly a place I'm keen to head back to.
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Xiomara
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Interesting.. I thought we went to Phnom Phen together all those years ago... I remember my parents refusing to take me and Tiziano to the Killing Fields, but it really must have been fascinating. You should read these following autobiographical accounts of life under the Khmer Rouge: "When Broken Glass Floats", "Stay Alive, My Son" and "First They Killed My Father".