Harrowing Scenes of What the Human Race Can Do to Their Own in Phnom Penh

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Phnom Penh, it always has a sinister notion to it that T can’t describe but is a really pleasant place! We rocked up at mid-afternoon and the sun was searing down, we decided to stay at the lake side in a mini ‘Khao San Road’ style section of the capital. We sStayed at guesthouse number 10 with a terrace on the lake, now the word lake is vastly overstated and pond/ mosquito breeding factory would be more apt. Now this guesthouse cost $4 US per night and it was slightly reminiscent of a prison cell but for 4 bucks what do you expect???? So all is good until bedtime and we turn over the pillow and spy a couple of those horrible bloodsucking cretins - bed bugs! So we hid in our silk sleep sheets (bugs can’t nest in silk!) and with our feet off the end of the bed have a horrendous night’s sleep. The next morning we set off round the corner and stay at Simons 2 Guesthouse, this was clean and welcoming and had a massive tall ceiling and cable TV for $10 US!

Our itinerary was to potter around the city, visiting various sights such the National Museum, which was pretty good although no really T’s cup of Tea and the Royal Palace, and the next important task was to get our Laos Visa. We spent the day pottering around the market and along the river and had an early night watching a movie in our room.

We set off early to the Tuol Sleng Museum better known as the Security Prison 21 (S-21). This used to be a school in its original format, but after the 1975 revolution which brought Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge to power is was quickly turned in to a torture and detention centre where enemies of the state and countless thousands of innocent men, women and children we detailed and tortured. In the centre of the museum next to the ‘hanging bar’ is a sign instructing detainees of the rules of regulation and number 6 stipulates: ‘While getting lashes or electrification you must not cry at all’ it’s a horrific thought and one assumes the punishment would intensify if the victim let our an instinctive sob. The museum is set in four blocks; block A, was the torture area and the remaining 3 blocks where holding areas, and as you walk around the former prison an eerie feeling does linger. In the remaining 2 blocks are photographs of all victims of S-21, the Khmer Rouge similar to the Nazi’s were record keepers and they documented every last detail. This camp was the holding area before the detainees were taken by truck 15km outside the centre of Phnom Penh to Choeung Ek better known as the ‘Killing Fields’. Incidentally, when the Vietnamese liberated Phnom Penh from the Khmer Rouge in 1979 only 7 prisoners were found alive in S21, it is believed that since 1977 S-21 claimed a 100 victims per day.

The Killing Fields of Choeung Ek was next on our agenda, this was where the victims of S-21 where sent to be executed. It is here where there is a large field where the remains of 8,985 people many blindfolded and bound lie. In the centre of Choeung Ek is a mausoleum which stores 8,000 skulls of the victims, segregated by age and sex. You can plainly see if the victim was shot or beaten to death. As you walk around the site you approach the killing tree, this is what looks like a massive oak style tree and there is an exhumed grave next to it, what the Khmer Rouge did here was to pick up crying children or babies by the ankle or leg and swing the poor mite at the tree, upon impact they simply tossed them into grave and buried them dead or alive, this method of execution was preferred with children to save on bullets! As we continued around we noticed items of clothes mixed in with the soil and bits of human bones that have been unearthed by nature over the years. We then arrived at the ‘magic’ tree as it was so named by the regime, to quote the exact description of why it was called the magic tree: “Magic tree…. The magic tree was used as a tool to hang a loudspeaker which make sound louder to avoid the moan of victims while they were being executed”.

We left feeling slightly upset and where uncharacteristically quite, this is a tragedy that happened within our life time and it is something schools in the UK have alluded to teach. Incidentally, we have just learnt that the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek has been sold to a Japanese Company, it seems preposterous that Cambodia could sell its tragic history and disgusting that a foreign corporation would export that fact that this is poor.

After our sombre morning we headed back to our guesthouse and decided a trip to the post office was in order as our bags had become so heavy with G’s souvenir purchases and numerous guidebooks from the last couple of months, at the counter as we were putting the stuff into a box a local chap was ever so impressed with T’s Tiger beer can helicopter he had bought in Vietnam. After shelling out $50 US on the shipment we headed to see Wat Phnom.

Wat Phnom is perched high on a hill and is currently having a face lift, so we walk up paid our tourist dollar and walked around and quite frankly is was rubbish, so we headed down to be met by some energetic monkey’s and really cute and small baby monkey trying to climb a tree.

After quite a full day we headed back and enjoyed some beers whilst we waited for six pm and the arrival of our passports, with only a couple of dollars left between us we were relieved to read that the tourist agency with our passports cashed Pound sterling travellers cheques. We picked up our passports but they actually didn’t cash cheques. So T went off in search of a place to cash them. He stumbled on a shop and when asked, the man behind the counter said no but he knew somewhere that did that was open till 9pm and instructed T to jump on the back of his bike. After 10 mins of driving through the dark street’s of Phnom Penh, T started to get a tad worried about where he was being taken too. To T’s relief he arrived at the said shop where he got some cash before heading back to where he left G in the pub. Not once did this chap ask for money and he certainly didn’t need to take T, so there are still some genuine people in the world. Because of this, T dropped him a couple of dollars for a few beers. Incidentally, our bank in its wisdom cancelled our cards due to a fault and luckily we had enough money in travellers Cheques to see us through. Just so you know there are loads of ATM’s everywhere, and if this ever growing problem with bank cards should happen you can get your cards sent to your embassy, you then collect them on presenting your passport. There are also plenty of places to cash in travellers cheques, so do what we have done and take both!!!!

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