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Published: April 2nd 2008
There were 18 of us on the small boat out of Siem Reap, and as we picked up a few locals en route things became a little cramped. Once across the Tonle Sap lake and moving down river towards Battambang, progress slowed up somewhat as we passed through many small communities living in floating villages. Our boat, containing mostly Westerners, was of great interest to the kids both in and on the water waving frantically as we passed. One small boy chose not to wave, instead pulling his shorts to one side and exposing himself to Sam, which was only ever gonna produce instant laughter from both of us.
As the river banks narrowed, the water level (as predicted) started to drop and a very hot day became even hotter as we slowed to a walking pace. Our driver did his best to stay in the deepest part of the river that was now meandering into a stream. It was inevitable, but eventually we ran aground, and it took a few minutes, and a new hole in the ozone layer (what with all the engine revving) to get us floating again.
Another 10 minutes crawl up river saw us head towards
the riverbank where we were instructed to disembark.
We clambered up the bank where we were met by two men in ONE Toyota pickup. Hold on! 18 tourists and our baggage, 2 locals, and 2 mountain bikes into ONE 4x4; It was an equation that even Carol Vorderman would have struggled with. While we stood melting in the midday sun, the guys packed the pickup as I'm sure they've done a thousand times before. Sam was selected for the front passenger seat (due to no leg room), while the rest of us squeezed into a position from which we were unable to adjust until the vehicle stopped. That stop came after an hour of slow progress on off-road terrain, negotiating potholes that were deeper than the truck itself. By the time we stopped, we'd been marinated in dust and baked in the sun, furthermore I couldn't feel my feet......now that's travelling!
Battambang appeared after another 40 minutes along a relatively smoother road. We found Battambang fairly unremarkable and after two nights we left for Phnom Penh. However, finding the transport we wanted was more difficult than we expected as it would seem the 'Mekong Express' bus with air-con and a
Daddy's little helper.
Selling sweets on the river.toilet (mentioned in the Lonely Planet) no longer goes from Battambang. So we travelled with the locals in a warm coach for almost 6 hours to the nation's capital. It's not that we mind travelling with the locals, but the music on these coaches is loud Asian whining noise, so on go the ipods.
We arrived at Phnom Penh, which compared to Siem Reap or Battambang is huge. As the coach pulled up we were met by a wall of tuk-tuk drivers waiting to rob you, sorry I mean touting for buisness. Yes the scams continue and nothing has a fixed price. There are a lot more beggars here too, including mums with babies, the elderly, the crippled, the grotesquely deformed and children. We surrender to some but you can't give to them all. What we have done is had meals in cafes that are charitable non-profit making organisations that help the underprivileged and 'street' children. We have also had a massage at a place where the blind are taught the art of massage so they can make a living.
Whilst in Phnom Penh you can't escape (and quite rightly so) the savage past that once gripped this
Ingenious fishing net.
Made on a bamboo frame. city; indeed country. It would be better if you could quietly, and with a little dignity, seek out these memorials that capture and tell of the awful suffering and death, but every tuk-tuk driver wants to make an extra few bucks on the back of a nation's horrific past and will offer to take you there without a prompt, and I'd be a liar if I said it's because they're trying to spread awareness. Maybe we're missing the point??
The two main sites around Phnom Penh that are a harrowing reminder of the genocide witnessed by this country are:
TUOL SLENG (also known as S-21), a former school turned torture/holding facility. and
CHOEUNG EK (The Killing Fields), the place where those held at S-21 would eventually be brutally slaughtered.
We've pondered on whether or not to include these places within the blog, because you can't just mention them in passing; they require some background. Although comparisons can't be made, these historical areas are as significant as the Nazi concentration camps when it comes to one human's awful treatment of another. We never wanted the blog to be a history lesson but we did want it to be a reminder of
Typical rural house
On stilts, not for rising water, but so as the occupants can look for tigers before coming down. the places we've been and what we've learnt, so for our own benefit and for those of you who are not familiar with this time in history, I'll attempt a summary, but it's not pleasant.
The Khmer Rouge, a revolutionary movement, mistakenly assisted by a former King of Cambodia (who was in exile at the time) took over the country on the 11th April 1975. Past years of fighting that had seen hundreds of thousands killed, coupled with the overspill of the Vietnam War, and the carpet-bombing of eastern Cambodia by the US (which in itself is estimated to have cost 250,000 civilian lives) led to desperate and angry people who had seen their families, friends and livelihoods destroyed, to join the Khmer Rouge without knowing the extreme radical views and ideologies of it's leader, Pol Pot.
Apart from the torture and murder of it's own people, and the renaming of the country (Cambodia to Democratic Kampuchea), one of the most disturbing things about Pol Pot's regime is on the day they took control they attempted to erase the nation's history by turning the clocks back to YEAR ZERO; an act so extreme, it's hard to comprehend the mindset
of someone who could even think up such a thing. The Khmer Rouge drew most of it's support from the peasant workers in the fields who initially benefited from the movement. But soon this social group would suffer, as would certain 'factions' (as Pol Pot described them) within the Khmer Rouge ranks, as he began not only ethnic cleansing (as it's called these days) but the subsequent slaughter of generations; if children were killed, there would be no future uprising for revenge. His views were so contorted that any person that could think for themselves and rally support against the regime would also be killed. Hence the round up of doctors, teachers, former politicians and students. Sometimes whole families, including newborns, were taken to S-21 for torture and eventual execution.....without trial. This wasn't restricted to Cambodians, it included any nationality within Cambodia - Thais, Australians, Americans and British to name a few.
Everyone was documented and personal biographies were compiled which formed lists of family members. This would often include Khmer Rouge soldiers who would then be sought out, and exterminated. Some had the foresight to lie about their family tree, most however would give in to terrible torture, or
All aboard the skylark
20 people + luggage and 2 pushbikes. comply in the hope of leniency, but both would ultimately sign their own family's death warrant.
The prisoners were kept in awful conditions, shackled in only their underwear in cramped conditions under strict and inhumane rules. Skin rashes and diseases went untreated. Washing consisted of being penned into one room which would then get a hose through the window for a short period. Sleeping would be on the hard floor without any cushioning.
As you wander through the museum there are hundreds of mugshots of the victims who were held here (it's very personal) as well as the instruments used for torture. There were also pictures of the 14 people found murdered in the torture cells when the prison was liberated.
It's estimated that approximately 17,000 people entered S-21, including more than 2000 children; only a dozen people survived. The rest destined for The Killing Fields.
The Khmer Rouge had radically restructured the society. The entire population of Phnom Penh and surrounding areas (approx. 2 million) were forced to march out to rural areas irrespective of age and health to undertake slave labour consisting of 12-15 hour days, disobedience of any sort brought immediate execution. Currency was abolished, postal services
halted, and the country was almost completely cut off from the outside world. The geographical zones that were put in place during the initial phase of takeover (when many family members were unknowingly split forever) were then systematically 'cleansed'.
The memorial at Choeung Ek displays hundreds of skulls of those who were murdered in the Killing Fields. We saw skulls with the clean entry holes of a bullet - they were the lucky ones. Others would be stabbed, hacked, or clubbed (to save bullets) at the edge of large pits where they would fall to either bleed to death, succumb to head injuries or be burried alive in these mass graves. One pit contained more than 400 bodies, another the remains of men and children only....all had been beheaded. Yet again proving how monsters are born out of power during human conflict.
The Khmer Rouge was eventually overthrown in 1979 by the Vietnamese - amazing really after so many of their troops were lost against the Americans.
Through the bombing raids from the US, and the reign of the Khmer Rouge, millions of Cambodians had been killed, but the death toll continued... As a result of little harvesting during the
The Silver Pagoda
It's name comes from the fact it's floor is covered with 6000 solid silver tiles weighing a kilo each. Khmer Rouge years, drought would then cause the famine that any of you in your mid-thirties and onwards would remember seeing on your TV screens in the early eighties. It's a staggering statistic, but another legacy of this period of Cambodia's history is that at this moment in time, 1 in 290 Cambodians has been injured by a landmine.
So what happened to Pol Pot, the leader of the Khmer Rouge and perpetrator of this genocide? He died in his armed compound in Thailand in his seventies; untried. Could you imagine the outrage if Hitler remained alive, protected, and without so much as a trial??.....
We'll be leaving Phnom Penh, and Cambodia soon. We try not to mention most of the annoyances as we travel around, in an attempt to stop these blogs sounding like a persistent moan, which they could easily be since we arrived in Asia. But things are proving difficult, or perhaps the start of the trip was just too good!
We can hear you all saying, what do you have to moan about? You're not at work like we are! So with that in mind, we set off for our next country with renewed
Silhouettes
The Royal Palace - Pnohm Penh enthusiasm, and hope to report a change of attitude and fortunes as we head off down the Mekong River and into Vietnam.........
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Bruce
non-member comment
Great Blog
Hello you 2. Just to say I (very) occasioanlly log into your blog... simply because I'm jealous! However, just to say I really enjoyed this one. I will try and read more, but anyway, take care, keep the history lesons coming and see you sometime... x