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Published: November 16th 2006
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Sunset over Boeng Kak lake
The view from our $4 dollar guesthouse On April 17th, the year before I was born a guerilla army named the Khmer Rouge entered Phnom Penh. The country had been through years of civil war leading up to this point so its people took the arrival of Pol Pot's army as a new beginning and the start of peace.
Like in our last stop in Saigon, the Americans had involved themselves so when the Khmer Rouge soldiers told the innocent people of Phnom Penh to evacuate the city for the countryside they did so fearing US B52 bombings. The truth was that the Americans had left Cambodia as they had Vietnam and that most of these people would never return.
It is hard to belive that the Phnom Penh we arrive in, after a 6 hr journey and effortless border crossing from Vietnam, could be the same place that remained almost deserted for 4 years after that awful day in 1975. It is vibrant, colourful and friendly from the moment we step off our bus. We choose the tuk tuk driver with the biggest smile, Sim, to take us to an area around Boeng kak Lake - a backpacker retreat offering basic guestouses all with communal retreats
Rush hour, Phonm Penh.....
...not quite the same as in most Capital Cities hanging over the peaceful waters at the rear. Lakeside Guesthouse (as with most guesthouses on the lake) offers 4 walls, crappy fan and cold shower for $4, but arriving at dusk it's the view from their veranda which makes us stay, so I fill in my name in the guestbook and am handed a room key and a bag of weed by our host Funny (he insists this is his real name everytime I ask him).
Boeng kak Lake proves to be very much like Van Vieng in Laos, relaxing and set in beautiful surroundings but not a true reflection of the country so we decide to stay 2 nights before heading over to the riverside area which displays much more of the vibrancy and colour we had experienced as we arrived.
We are glad we made the decision as unlike us most people have accepted the bag of weed and just sit around watching Vietnam war movies on wide screen TVs all day (and night).
We are sorry to leave Funny though who after eventually giving up on selling me his dope proves to be a really switched on young guy with strong views about his country's past
Cold beer and a Cambodian sunset
It dont get much better !!! cheers and future (at 23 he has a wife, 3 girlfriends and a child on the way).
Our 1st days sightseeing gives us more of an insight into Cambodia's ancient past with the beautiful Grand Palace which is very similar to its name sake in Bangkok. We also visit the temple on the hill which gives Phnom Penh it's name (Hill of Penh after the woman who discovered the site), here we are surprised to find an army of monkeys who feed off the fruits in the trees. The monkeys prove to be a much more interesting sight than the temple itself, which we guess may be the 100th of our trip (slight exaggeration but you get my point).
Before we left Ban Lok we got Funny to get hold of Sim, the smiling tuk tuk guy, to take us to the sites of Cambodia's more recent and terrible past. The S-21 museum and the Chong Lek Killing Fields. Before arriving in Cambodia we both had taken some time to understand what had happened, I even remember a Blue Peter appeal for Cambodia when I was a kid which proves how recently these horrors have taken place.
After that
Faces of the innocent
every person admitted to S-21 was photographed and recorded before the toture began day in April 1975, Pol Pot announced Year Zero and systematically went about removing any history this ancient country had. The people he evacuated were made to work as peasants and separated from their families so that the younger generation would grow up believing that Angka (Pol Pot and his Government) were their family and their future.
The other threat, apart from human emotion, to Pol Pot's mindless plan were those people who held positions which required intelligence such as teachers, monks and even those who simply wore glasses!! 20,000 such people were taken to what now stands as a museum of a former school named Tuol Sleng or the S-21 prison.
Upon arrival the buildings look like a typical 1980's Grange Hill style public school with only thin bars and barb wire added by the Khmer Rouge to keep the prisoners from escaping. The place is eerie, all grey concrete and yellow floor tiles but it's the information inside that makes it one of the most horrifying and fascinating places I have ever visited.
Individual classrooms remain as-found with nothing but a metal bed frame, chains, shackles and a picture on the wall of the person found when
Faces of the innocent
Just 4 of the millions killed during Pol Pots regime the place was eventually liberated, most are bloody pulps and some are headless, still attached to the same bed. After interrogation and torture inmates were forced to admit false crimes or give the names of family and friends who would then be captured and killed. Those who didn't die during torture were sent 15km out of the city to the Chong Lek Killing Fields to be finished off. Of the 20,000 innocent people who passed through S-21 in four years only 7 survived.
The ride out to Chong Lek is bad enough on the dusty, pot holed roads in Sim's tuk tuk, so god knows what it must have been like for the surviving inmates who were forced to walk in their shackles or crammed into the back of army trucks. The site itself is pretty empty as the few buildings that had been here were ripped down by Angry Cambodians after the Khmer Rouge fell, we are told that there are planes to rebuild for tourists but hope that isn't the case.
The site is covered in craters each showing a mass grave that has been excavated so that the remains of the victimes can be collected, almost
9,000 to date. Their skulls now form part of a memorial built in the centre of the site by the liberated Government. I'm not too sure on my thoughts of this grand building housing thousands of skulls and feel uneasy as I stare at the remains of these innocent people. The whole place is so peaceful that it is hard to believe that only 30 years ago people were forced to kneel blindfolded in front of the holes whilst Pol Pot's men clubbed them over the head, not wanting to waste precious bullets. Many were buried alive to weak to cry for help, and all this within my lifetime.
We are told that although Chong Lek was te biggest is was only one of 400 so called Killing Fields used throughout Cambodia during the three years, eight months of Pol Pot's regime. A time during which as many as 3,500,000 (there are no official figures) innocent Cambodians were killed by their own people.
On the way back to Phnom Penh Sim asks if I would like to visit a shooting range - I decline telling him that his country has heard enough gunfire and feel guilty about accepting the
Faces of the innocent
thousands of skulls stacked into the memorial Stupa, Chong Lek killing fields offer only last week in Vietnam.
A Brighter Future
Against all the odds the Phnom Penh of today is a vibrant and friendly place. Its young population still suffers and begging is common but we help where we can giving not only small amounts of money but also bananas, water and leftover food from our plates. It's another one of those cities that we have both really taken to, with its beautiful Colonial architecture and wide tree lined boulevards but mainly its fantastic people who despite such recent horrors and continuing hardships still find the time to smile and make us feel welcome.
On our final day we are offered the chance to see a recent film made by some locals in a viewing room at the back of the Mekong River Restaurant which as well as explaining the role of the Khmer Rouge shows Pol Pot as a weak old man still living in the jungle close to the Thai border after never being arrested or charged for his acts of genocide. It ends with a scene showing his few remaining supporters putting his lifeless body in a plastic bag and cremating him on a fire made
The street kids of Phonm Penh
Just a bottle of water, but you could have thought it was Christmas from an old matress, tyres and a broken chair.
A fitting end to a man who tried to remove the hopes and spirit of this wonderful country.
Peace
M&C
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Trev
non-member comment
Mankind Never Learns
Nothing prepares you for the attrocities that man can do to man than actually being in the place it happened.We had just got over being bombarded with news footage of the Vietnam War,when we learned of the tragedy of "Year Zero"and this all happened during the troubles in Northern Ireland,not to mention our families accounts of WW2. So it all seemed to wash over us like a bad dream.It was not until later that the full horrors of Year Zero was fully understood.I knew you would use this trip to increase your knowledge and understanding of other cultures.To take time out to study these events is very admirable.I only wish that one day we would learn from the past ,and live in peace.Something tells me thats as far away as ever though! Love to you both,and continue to enjoy your journey.Trev