Cambodia - The Land of Contrast

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Phnom Penh
After our usual overnight flight from the Gold Coast to KL, we had just enough time to make it through customs and board our flight bound for Cambodia. Excited for a new country to visit in South East Asia too as neither of us had been here before. Grabbing a tuk tuk from the airport the humidity and heat of this place hit us instantly and just takes your breath away! We were able to get an early check in at the hotel and hit the streets straight away to grab some lunch and get stuck into the sights that lay before us.

We landed smack bang in the middle of the Khmer New Year celebrations that ran from the 14th to the 18th April so the country was in full swing party mode! We jumped into a tuk tuk to get us around for the afternoon for USD25 (they prefer to use US currency and small change under $1 comes back to you in their local currency the Riel). First stop for the day was the one of the many hundreds of Killing Fields just outside Phnom Penh (Choeung Ek) where collectively more than a million people were killed and buried by the Khmer Rouge regime, during its rule of the country from 1975 to 1979, immediately after the end of the Cambodian Civil War. The mass killings are widely regarded as part of a broad state-sponsored genocide (the Cambodian genocide). Pol Pot who led the Khmer Rouge from 1963 until 1997, presided over a totalitarian dictatorship, in which his government made urban dwellers move to the countryside to work in collective farms and on forced labour projects. The combined effects of executions, strenuous working conditions, malnutrition and poor medical care caused the deaths of approximately 25 percent of the Cambodian population.

We were able to hire audio which as you walk around the site explains the various devastating things that happened here during the Khmer Rouge regime, mass graves containing almost 9,000 bodies, bones exposed still in some areas in the ground and they say that when flooding occurs even more are visible. Many of the dead were former political prisoners who were kept by the Khmer Rouge in S-21 (Security Prison 21/Tuol Sleng Detention Center).Today, Choeung Ek is a memorial, marked by a Buddhist Stupa. The stupa has acrylic glass sides and is filled with more than 5,000 human skulls. Some of the lower levels are opened during the day so that the skulls can be seen directly. Many have been shattered or smashed in.Today, Choeung Ek is a memorial, marked by a Buddhist Stupa. The stupa has acrylic glass sides and is filled with more than 5,000 human skulls. Some of the lower levels are opened during the day so that the skulls can be seen directly. Many have been shattered or smashed in.

After spending time here we headed to S-21 (Formerly the Chao Ponhea Yat High School) the five buildings of the complex were converted in August 1975 into a prison and interrogation center. The Khmer Rouge renamed the complex "Security Prison 21" (S-21) and construction began to adapt the prison to the inmates: the buildings were enclosed in electrified barbed wire, the classrooms converted into tiny prison and torture chambers, and all windows were covered with iron bars and barbed wire to prevent escapes. From 1975 to 1979, an estimated 17,000 people were imprisoned at Tuol Sleng (some estimates suggest a number as high as 20,000, although the real number is unknown). At any one time, the prison held between 1,000–1,500 prisoners. They were repeatedly tortured and coerced into naming family members and close associates, who were in turn arrested, tortured and killed. In the early months of S-21's existence, most of the victims included soldiers, government officials, as well as academics, doctors, teachers, students, factory workers, monks, engineers, etc. Later, the party leadership's paranoia turned on its own ranks and purges throughout the country saw thousands of party activists and their families brought to Tuol Sleng and murdered. Out of the estimated 17,000 people executed at S-21 there were only seven known survivors, and of these seven only three are known to still be alive today. They were kept alive as they possessed skills that their captors thought to be useful. On the way out of the grounds that afternoon we saw one of these survivors, Chum Mey who was a mechanic. Needless to say it was a very heavy and somber afternoon and to think this only happened 42 years ago. We also happened to be in the country still for the 42nd anniversary on the 17th April.

The following day we were picked up in town from the hotel along with three other Aussies and taken an hour out of town up into the hills to get a taste of shooting some very heavy artillery! Sam had been looking forward to this the most - how many chances do you get to shoot an RPG?!? As we arrived there was a few English crew there as well and one of the lads was just about to have his turn at shooting an RPG and that was something we were not ready for, the sound was so deafening even with your ears covered. So away we went, with a very, very brief instruction on how to shoot each firearm in broken English, we put on the camo jacket and ear muffs and each had a go at feeling like a warlord. Sam shot and RPG and 30 rounds on an AK47, and I had my turn on 30 rounds on an M16 and 10 rounds on a 50 caliber machine gun - good times!

Our third and final day in Phnom Penh was very different in contrast to the day before, something I was looking forward to the most, volunteering for a day at the biggest Sun Bear Sanctuary in the world. Free The Bears is an organization started by an Australian woman back in 1995 as a not-for-profit charity. Thousands of Asiatic Bears (Moon Bears as they are also known as) were being kept in deplorable conditions, usually in small cages and farmed for their bile via a dirty catheter going directly into their gall bladder. The bear bile is used in traditional Chinese medicines which unfortunately still in this day and age there is a high demand for. The Sun Bear (the smallest breed of bear and our personal fave) is being kept as pets or sadly butchered in Cambodian restaurants for Bear Paw Soup. The sanctuary is currently home to approximately 130 Sun & Moon Bears, all of which have been rescued in one way or another and it has educated thousands of its visitors every year about the threats facing the wild bear population.

We got picked up about 8am from a café not far from where we were staying and after an hours drive we arrived at the sanctuary ready to meet our new furry friends. Due to it being the Khmer New Year the park was extra busy, the bear sanctuary is also surrounded by many other species of animals that have been rescued, predominately from illegal wildlife trade. We had a guided tour first around all the other animals which included gibbons, elephants and lions just to name a few. We had the feeling that this part of the park was set up more like a zoo though, they were planning to breed the gibbons and the lion enclosure was pretty poorly kept, we were not impressed with the conditions that some of these animals were kept in but I guess the alternative for most of them would be death anyway. After getting around the rest of the park it was time to finally start our 'Volunteering For a Day' with the bears. We first prepared some food (enrichment) which was a mixture of bananas, pineapple jam, dry dog biscuits, beans & spinach put into the holes of some very large plastic balls which the bears retrieve very quickly too I might add! After preparing all the food we went to a couple of different sections and threw them over the fence and watched them eat with delight, mostly rolling onto their backs to enjoy which we got a good video of.

After a lunch break we again headed back to the kitchen to prepare more food for the bears, this time chopping up turnips, sweet potato and agave fruit - loads of it, it costs a small fortune every day to feed them all. In the afternoon we were able to hide food for the babies in their enclosure and then sit up high above and watch them come out and search for it all. It was such a privilege to be a part of their lives for a day and be there to support them even if just for such a short time, the workers here clearly have a very important role and are making a difference to these adorable creatures.

Siem Reap
To save time we took a cheap flight (25 USD each) from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap, within half an hour we touched down and made our way to the guts of it all, staying not too far from the famous 'Pub Street'. The humidity was crazy here it was unbelievable. We had a pretty chilled first day, just walking around and seeing a bit of the town. The next morning we got up at 4am and took a tuk tuk bound for the sunrise view over the beautiful Angkor Wat Temple. Angkor Wat is the largest religious monument in the world, it was originally constructed as a Hindu Temple and gradually transformed to a Buddhist Temple towards the end of the 12th Century. Knowing we would be fighting hundreds of people for good pics of this beautiful place we got around it and managed to get some pretty good shots without anyone in them but you had to be quick and a bit ruthless!

After a good couple of hours of scouting around Angkor Wat and watching the sunrise, we headed over to Bayon Temple. Bayon Temple is a well known and richly decorated Khmer temple, and it's most distinctive feature is a multitude of serene smiling Buddha faces which jut out from the upper terrace and cluster around it's central peak. Many monkeys called this place home and we managed to get my fave shot of the trip (a lone monkey perched on top of one of the peaks - see images below). Ta Prohm was the last on the list to visit, heavily under reconstruction at the time but the photogenic trees growing out of the ruins makes it must see and one of Angkor's most popular temples to visit (and I believe was featured in the movie Tomb Raider). It is really easy to be 'templed out' in Siem Reap, and having spent the whole day immersed in the main ones we wanted to visit that was enough for us, our camera full of stellar images (mostly without people too - what skill!) and very sore legs from trekking, it was off to Pub Street again for cheap cocktails and beers and maybe a scorpion and tarantula for dessert!

The last day in Siem Reap we just chilled about, beauty treatments cost next to nothing so I had a spa day while Sam kicked back in our air-conditioned room watching movies and drinking cheap beer. Neither of us had been to this country before and it didn't disappoint, we managed to fit a fair bit in the six days we had to explore but we had enough of the heat and need to get under the water, the next day we set off for Koh Chang Island in Thailand for some island time and to finally get certified as Advanced Open Water Divers.

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