Phnom Penh

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We took a bus from 4000 Island in Laos all the way down to Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh. Immigration was easy enough although the Laos officials were typically laid back and a fellow tourist on our bus had to get out and lift the barrier so we could actually leave the country. After a bit of hanging around on the Cambodian side we were on our way. The drive was beautiful and took us right down through the rural north of the country. Entertainment on the bus was in the form of a vintage Backstreet Boys concert DVD but staring out of the windows was rather more enjoyable.

When we arrived in Phnom Penh we were greeted off the bus by a tout form a nearby guesthouse. We normally prefer to find our own lodgings but we decided to follow him as we couldn't really be bothered to wander around for too long. The guesthouse was cheap, clean and had a perfect location next to the lake with a decked drinking area overlooking it.

We headed straight out for some food. The small street behind our guesthouse had numerous bars and restaurants and it is the main drag for backpackers. During our dinner we were persistently pestered by kids trying to sell us books. When we declined one little boy called me a 'smelly bad man' which is pretty accurate to be fair.

The next morning we decided to hit the streets and explore the city. The heat was stifling, the traffic was chaotic, litter lined the street and a whiff sewage hung in the air. Around every corner there was somebody asking if we wanted a tuk tuk ride or drugs, there were many beggars and the whole place had a slightly dodgy feel to it but we instantly liked it. It had an edge, a tarnished sort of charm, that has seemed to have been lost in the gentrification of many South East Asian cities, although things could soon change as after years of neglect Phnom Penh is on the move, trying to reclaim it's title as the 'Pearl of Asia'.

Our first stop was the central market which is housed in a huge, dark yellow, art deco, domed building. It sold jewelery, watches, clothes and much more. We entered the market through its fresh food section which was an eye-opener. Much of the food was so fresh it was actually still alive. There were tubs of live crabs and fish and some of the braver ones had tried to leap to freedom but ended up just flailing around on the floor. There were recently killed animals everywhere, hacked to pieces and put on display in trays of ice, there blood covering the chopping boards where they met their grisly end. One lady had a cage of baby chicks which she was busy drowning on demand for the shoppers. Some people bought them live and carried them around by their feet, swinging them like a shopping bag. The fruit and veg section was rather more pleasant and it sold lots of colourful and exotic looking things. We bought some oranges...not very daring.

We continued on our little walking tour, dodging traffic and stopping every few minutes to stare at something, people were carving stone statues on the side of the street, tuk tuk drivers were napping in the back of their vehicles, vendors were selling all sorts from rickety wooden carts and a legacy of now crumbling colonial architecture left by the French peppered the streets. We passed the royal palace and headed down to walk along the river. There were many beggars in this area, probably because the upmarket bars and restaurants catering to the rich foreigners are located here. One man had a huge tumour on his neck and many others had missing limbs. This might sound bad but we normally have more compassion for a limping dog than a man on the streets but when confronted with these beggars, many of whom have been maimed by landmines and are in this situation through no fault of their own, it was hard not to be moved. Many of them were trying to eek out a living selling postcards and books. It was very sad.

We stopped at one of the bars by the riverside which was showing a documentary about Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge regime. It was fairly insightful but the narrative was a little confusing.

Our last stop on our little walking tour was Wat Phnom, a temple on a hill in the centre of the city. The temple itself was nothing special, and there were even more beggars here most of whom were terribly disfigured. Children were scavenging in the bins and one homeless child was sleeping naked on a bench. The temple was home to a large of group of monkey's and we spent a couple of hours watching them. Most of them were morbidly obese as people flock to the temple in the afternoon to feed them. It seemed rather wrong that these monkeys were so over fed whilst children and land mine victims were on the streets begging for food.

That evening we sat by the lake, had some cold beers and watched the sunset whilst reflecting on the days events. Walking around Phnom Penh is a unique experience, it is an attack on the senses and emotions, it is a city of extremes of poverty and excess and it is capable of both captivating and repulsing visitors. However nothing we had seen on our walk could prepare us for the gruesome discoveries we made the following day.

Cambodia has a very bloody history. In the early 1970's, during the Vietnam war, Cambodia was in turmoil. The US backed Cambodian government, led by Lon Nol was locked in a bloody battle with the rebel Cambodian communists (the Khmer Rouge) and the communist Vietnamese forces who were withdrawing into Cambodia. Despite massive US military and economic aid, Lon Nol's forces never succeeded in gaining the initiative against the Khmer Rouge and within a few months the communists controlled almost half the country.

Lon Nol's government became very unpopular, partly due to the fact that their allies, the US, had been carpet bombing the country for years in an attempt to dislodge the communists resulting in the the deaths of thousands of civillians. Also rumours of corruption within his government were rife and many people lost faith in his leadership and joined the ranks of the Khmer Rouge.

On 17 April 1975, with Lon Nol's forces weakened, the Khmer Rouge, led by Brother Number One - Pol Pot, marched into Phnom Penh and siezed power of Cambodia. What followed was one the most brutal regimes in recent history resulting in genocide and the deaths of around 2 million Cambodians. Their aim was to transform Cambodia into a Maoist, peasant dominated agrarian cooperative. The entire population of the city, including the elderly and disabled, were forced to march into the countryside and undertake slave labour for 12 to 15 hours a day. People who were disobedient were executed. Anybody who was involved in the former government were also executed as were many intellectuals as they had no place in the new peasant dominated society. Families were seperated, music, education, religion and all entertainment, amongst other things, were banned and the clocks were turned back to Year Zero. The regime was ruthless and when the crops failed to produce enough food to feed the country Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge leaders became paranoid, convinced that people were plotting against them. This was when the mass genocide began. People suspected of being traitors were rounded up and sent to prison camps where they were ultimately tortured and killed. The regime ruled the country for four years until the Vietnamese intervened in 1979 and brought down the Khmer Rouge. For many it was too late and the death and misery that the Khmer Rouge inflicted on the nation will never be forgotten.

One of the prison camps was S-21, a former school, and we decided to visit it. We travelled there on the back of a motorbike which was terrifying. There seemed to be no traffic rules in Phnom Penh. People dont stop at junctions but instead just keep going and then try to dodge any on coming traffic. Luckily we arrived intact.

A visit to the prison, now a museum, is a profoundly depressing experience but it is neccesary in order to understand the country and its past. The torture and interrogation rooms have been left as they were found. A single rusting iron bed frame stood in the centre of otherwise empty rooms. Prisoners were tied to the beds and subjected to horrfic tortures and forced to admit to things they hadn't done. There were pictures of the victims corpses as they had been found on the walls. Other rooms were adorned with black and white photos of the prisoners. Everybody who passed through the prison was documented and they each and their picture taken, we could see the desperation and fear in all their faces. Nobody was spared, there were photos of children, women and elderly people all of whom were killed. Many perished in the prison but many more were taken away after interrogation to the Killing Fields which were just out of town. Here people were blindfolded, bound and then bludgeoned to death in order to save precious bullets.

There were also rooms which had been divided up into tiny cells, not even big enough to lie down in. This is where the prisoners were kept until it was time for their interogation. Wandering around the cells and the rooms of the old school was extremely eeiry and it was scary to imagine the horror that occured here just thirty years previous. It is a chilling memorial for those who died here and a stark and terrifying reminder of the dark side of human nature. Pol Pot died in 1998 and was never bought to justice for his crimes against humanity.

After this morbid experience we headed to the huge 'Russian Market' for some noodle soup and a browse around the stalls. It was possible to buy pirate copies of nearly everything here, CD's, DVD's, software and even books. We bought some films and Photoshop to make our pictures look even better when we get home.

We spent a further two days in Phonm Penh just relaxing by the lake and drinking beer. We found an amazing Indian restaurant near our hostel where we could eat as much as we liked for $2 each. We were further pestered by the children selling books and we managed to make one little boy cry. He saw us buy a book from one of his rivals and then came over and sat next to us and started crying, asking why we hadn't bought one from him. It was the same boy who had called me a 'smelly, bad man'. We told him that was the reason. We felt so bad we ended up buying a book we didn't even want to stop him crying.

On our final day in we met up with Sophie and Dale, a couple we had met way back in Rio de Janeiro, our first stop. After nine months our paths happened to cross so we went out to swap stories and have some drinks.

We really enjoyed our time in Phonm Penh, it is definitely one of our favourite cities and a strange and wonderful place to spend a few days.

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