Phnom Penh - Tragic Past, Hopeful Future

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April 26th 2008

Published: July 10th 2008

Day 51-April 25th: I woke up early, but didn't get up til 8ish. I ate breakfast at the guesthouse, then went off for a walk to see some sites. Here's what I saw in my wanderings:

- Independence Monument - a large statue commemorating, what else?, Cambodian independence.
- I followed the grassy boulevard along the avenue leading from the monument to the river.
- Tonle Sap River - the riverfront is under construction, they are building some water/sewer project; this river is reminiscent of the Mekong River in that it's a busy waterway and many people live and work near the river.
- Cambodia-Laos-Vietnam Monument - a tribute to the three countries working together.
- I found the river again and walked near it and saw the outside of the Royal Palace, which was closed for the middle part of the day. It looked cool from outside the gates, but I wouldn't have time later to come back.
- National Museum - I didn't go in because I wanted to keep walking and checking out more parts of the city.
- I found the ex-pat zone and walked by several upscale restaurants/bars/guesthouses near the river. One of the places was showing documentaries daily about Pol Pot, the genocide, and also about landmines in Cambodia. I decided to come back later and check it out.
- New Market - I walked around the marketplace.
- Wat Phnom - I walked by this temple on the hill.

I walked back to the bar/restaurant which had the documentaries and ate some lunch and watched the documentary about Pol Pot and the Cambodian genocide. It was very tragic and eye-opening. It was about Pol Pot's regime and his attempt to "return" Cambodia to it's former Angkor Wat/glorious civilization period by turning everyone into farmers. All the intellectuals and urban residents were driven out of the city into the countryside to work in the fields alongside farmers. Many got sick and died, many were murdered. As the genocide increased, Pol Pot and his cronies grew inceasingly distrustful of everyone and began murdering anyone suspected of being a traitor. Children were forced to spy on their parents and no one was above suspicion. The end result: nearly 1.5 million people died. Unbelievable yet true.

After the documentary viewing, I walked over to the Old Market and further up the road to Boeng Kok Lake. The area near the lake is filled with guesthouses, bars, restaurants, and backpackers. So this is the backpacker zone! The lake itself is very large and very green, lots of plants growing in it. I ended my day by walking back to Narin. I used the internet, took a shower, relaxed, and ate a delicious late dinner at the Indian restaurant across the street from the hostel.

Day 52-April 26th: I got up at 7ish, ate breakfast, and met Lillian and Charlotte at 8:00 AM to go to the museums. We were in for a day learning about the recent tragic history of Cambodia. First up was the Choeng Ek Killing Fields. The fields are outside of the city, in the farmland. Tourists are allowed into a field with open pits where they had dug up mass graves. The pits have wildflowers growing in them now. Near the entrance is a large stupa with stacks of human skulls and bones and clothes that they have found in the mass graves. As we walked around the fields with our guide, we saw bits of bone and clothing coming up from the earth. Our guide explained what we were walking by: this was the tree where they hung loudspeakers to drown out the screams from the victims; that was the tree against which the Khmer Rouge would beat the children; here was the pit where they found women and children; this is the tree whose branch edges are sharp enough to slit a person's throat; over there was where the holding room once stood and was where people were kept before they were murdered. Beyond the pits that tourists can walk around are more mass graves that have not been dug up yet, where there are surely more bodies waiting to be unearthed. This is a horribly tragic place and is a reminder of the senseless genocide (to be redundant) of an entire generation of Cambodians at the hands of Pol Pot and his insanity.

Our next stop of the day was the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum in Phnom Penh. This former high school, also known as S-21 prison, is now a museum dedicated to informing people about the horrible things that happened at the hands of the Khmer Rouge. Our first stop is a video room for a short film documenting stories of survivors who lost family members. There was also the story of a man who painted scenes that he either witnessed or imagined based on the screams that he heard. He was a guard at the prison, not by choice but he was forced to do this job or be killed. There was some history but mostly it was about the personal stories. We walked from the video room to an exhibit of photos and stories of the former Khmer Rouge members. Many were just pawns in the grand scheme, and had thought they were joining a revolutionary movement, but were unaware or in denial about the tragedy unfolding at the hands of their leader. In other rooms in the musuem, there are photos of the victims. The Khmer Rouge always photographed their prisoners. Men, women, children, none were immune. To see former classrooms divided up into wooden or brick prison cells was bizarre to say the least. The fact that they turned this institution of learning into an institution of torture and death is ... I don't know the word I'm looking for here... sociopathic on a twisted government-sponsored scale. There were several torture rooms that were left more or less as they had been found, minus the victims bodies which were buried in the yard by the liberators. There were photos of the rooms as they had been found hanging on the wall. In other rooms, you could see the torture devices displayed. The open-air corridors had barbed wire covering them. The yard contained a gallows. Outside the walls of the museum hang barbed wire that was put in by the Khmer Rouge, minus the actual barbs which were wisely removed or filed down. There are blooming trees which give the place its only semblance of beauty, yet adds to the graveyard feel of the museum. It's an eerie, scary, sad, baffling story of political leadership gone mad. I encourage my readers to read the wikipedia article about the Khmer Rouge to learn more about this slice of Cambodian history. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khmer_Rouge

We spent a long time there, and I thought that we would miss the 12:30 PM bus to Sihanoukville. But we arrived back at the guesthouse to find that they were waiting for me. So I quickly grabbed my backpack and headed to the bus station in the tuk-tuk which the guesthouse had arranged. I said goodbye to Charlotte and Lillian (they were staying in Phnom Penh for another day) and was off.

I arrived in Sihanoukville around 5:00/5:30 PM and split a tuk-tuk with a British couple that were, like me, looking for cheap accommodation near the beach. We were taken to GST Guesthouse (GST was also the name of the bus company we had come with...hmmm...) and it seemed okay so we all checked in. It's near Serendipity Beach, so it's a decent location for some relaxing on the beach. Goodness knows I need some down time after the Phnom Penh Tour of Tragedy. I had some Indian for dinner at K2 Indian Restaurant and went to my room to watch TV and relax and change before heading out to the beach to see where the night would take me. More to follow....

Phnom Penh - Tragic Past, Hopeful Future

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