phnom penh and SAIGON!

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we finally left the cool ocean breeze and relaxing atmosphere of sihanoukville, and arrived back in phnom penh, in the same backpackers area alongside the lake. that area is so strange, because rather than isolating travellers away from the local people, the locals actually live alongside the guesthouses. in order to get to a guesthouse, you often have to walk down a long narrow alley with puddles from the rainwater that never quite drains, lined with little houses and rooms with the doors wide open to get as much ventillation as possible. inside these rooms, you can see local people reclining on mattresses or on the floor.

just as sihanoukville, there are children everywhere selling things, mostly books. they use their cuteness to hook you, and then use guilt to convince you to buy. if you so much as look at a book and then don't buy, they pucker their faces into a miserable pout and pester you some more before they sulk off.

the problem is that there is just too much supply and not enough demand. i bought two books, but i was accosted by dozens of kids.

another thing, though, that i noticed in cambodia, is that there are just SO many children! i never knew there were that many children! there are almost as many children as adults at times! i think this is because in the west, and even in korea, people put their children into child areas, like schools and academies and playgrounds, but here in cambodia, once school is out, children are everywhere.

the next day, we decided to go to two places: the shooting range, and the killing fields. we got there by motorcycle taxi. the two locations were pretty far from one another, but it gave us the chance to look around at the cambodian countryside. the shooting range just held the allure of a place where you could go, and for a price, you could shoot all sorts of guns that i'd never have the chance to in the US, outside of the military. of course, the price was the issue. you can shoot M-16, AK-47s, U ZIs, M-60s, and, if you really want, you can throw a hand grenade. the price for the cheapest started at $40, so it was out of our price range. instead, we watched a bunch of guys terrify themselves as they spent their $40 in about 8 seconds of gunfire.

from there, we went to the killing fields, the site where dozens of mass graves were unearthed, following the collapse of the khmer rouge regime in which a quarter of the cambodian population was executed. the human remnants have since been exhumed, and the mass graves sit open and full of rainwater, with little plaques next to each, saying how many bodies were found in each. one had 450 bodies. another had bodies of only headless victims. another was reserved for children and women, all found naked. the skulls have been put in a stupa and are on display. they are on acrylic shelves, stacked on top of one another, and it is impossible to see how many there are. even around on the ground, you can see human bones and teeth. there is a tree against which babies and children were beaten to death. apparently babies were held by the ankles, and their heads bashed against this tree before they were thrown into the adjacent mass grave. it is almost impossible to believe what happened on the very spot where i was standing, just 30 years ago.

the next day we went to the genocide museum, which is set in the location of the old S-21 prison camp. it was pouring rain on the way there, which is always fun on the back of a motorbike. every time it rained really hard, all the motorbikes on the road would veer off and park under the shelter of trees or gas stations or the eaves of buildings.

inside the genocide museum, i was struck by the fact that an entire floor of one building was just fulled with massive presentation boards with both sides filled with the photos taken of each prisoner. prisoners were often the educated, the government officials, the religious people, doctors, anyone who represented the supposed evils of capitalism. and their families. at first, it seemed like just too many pictures to look at. and from far away, they all look the same: glum faces in black and white photos. but when i slowed down to look, one by one, i could notice specific things about each one. one girl looked like someone i knew from before. some of them were smiling. i wondered what they were thinking at the moment the picture was taken: did they think they'd be leaving after they were questioned? did they know this was the last documentation anyone would have of their life?

the genocide museum had various cells and holding chambers, in addition to interrogation rooms. the cells were crudely constructed, and tiny. the space inside was about the size of a twin bed. some were made of brick, and others of wood. another floor was reserved for "interrogations." all that was in the room was a bed frame with ankle or wrist shackles. on the wall was a large black and while photo of a dead person shackled into that very bed.

the thing that i couldn't shake from my mind this whole time was that this prison had previously been a children's school. and even eerier, it had a similar look to various public schools i attended at home in hawaii. the large, 3-story concrete buildings, checkered floor tile, outdoor concrete balcony and stairwell. it could have been any school.

after the genocide museum, we were meant to go to the royal palace, but instead chose to just walk around the area, as that is how we have seen most of the most interesting things thus far on this trip. later on, we got a little bolder and rented a motorbike to drive around the city on our last afternoon in cambodia. the driving here is crazy. for instance, it is fine to drive the wrong way on a street, as long as you honk the whole way. that is, when you have the luxury of lanes in the first place. since i was on the back, holding on desperately to the little handle behind me, the ride was a bit harrowing. we managed to get completely lost, and asked for directions from the only people who don't speak english, and then our motorbike ran out of gas just as it was getting dark. we apparently needn't seek out adventure, because it finds us quite easily. luckily there was a gas station around the corner, we found directions, and the adventure ended well.

this morning we got up, hopped on a bus, and 6 hours later we are here in VIETNAM!

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