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Published: December 15th 2009
THE JOURNEY TO THE CAPITAL
The small mini bus collected us from our hostel just before lunch. It was ferrying us to the larger bus we had booked to travel the 310km journey South East to Phnom Penh ... or so we thought! There are no roads as such in Cambodia, more dirt and gravel tracks which cars use to travel between places and the driving here - well, I think they must have been having tips off the Chinese!! Overtaking on blind bends and peaks of hills compulsory and there are only two speeds; flat out or stopped! As our little minibus hurtled down the dirt track, it felt more like a Pleasure Beach ride than a bus transfer! Ten minutes past. Then Fifteen. We began to think the main bus station was much further out than we first estimated. The little bus continued at brake neck speed, weaving in and out of cars, scooters and bicycles all of which ride down the middle of the road, the wrong side of the road etc etc! So, we started to think that maybe the big bus had left and the little bus was trying to catch up to it?? Another forty
minutes past. We concluded this was our lot! The little bus was actually the bus taking us for the entire 6hr journey. We made ourselves as comfy as possible whilst bouncing around near the back of the minibus, we bounced so high most of the time that even I hit my head on the roof a couple of times and that's saying something! We couldn't stop laughing - a very memorable and entertaining journey!!
We arrived in Cambodia's capital city just as dusk was falling but even that could not hide the poverty and filth surrounding the streets. Siem Reap due to the mass influx of Western travelers visiting the temples had obviously been significantly improved so as not to offend. Most people, however, do not venture beyond the realms of Siem Reap and now we had we could see the true extent of the poverty in this neglected capital.
When the bus stopped, we were actually a little reluctant to get out but found ourselves slung out regardless. Before our feet had touched the street we were immediately surrounded by tuk-tuk drivers and hotel touts. We prized our way through and into the bus station office to
Scooter madness
Small child balanced on side!await our pre-booked pick up. It didn't arrive! I called the hostel and the lad was SO apologetic, he could not have been more lovely and said he was not his way to collect us immediately. Sure enough he was there within a few minutes, he apologised again and told us he had sent a driver to collect us and had just seen that driver playing chess by the roadside! Cambodians have different priorities than we tend to have - ha ha!
Ricky the manager of the hostel 'Me Mates Place' was the most lovely and friendly lad we could have been met by and he continually apologised for the no show on the pick up. He even grabbed our back packs before we could and carried them out to the tuk-tuk for us. I was mortified though as Cambodians are tiny and if anyone saw I bet they would have thought look at those fat lazy Westerners allowing that poor little Cambodian lad to carry all their luggage!! He was deceptively strong! When we got in the tuk-tuk, he dropped another bombshell. There had been a mistake on the computer when we booked and the room was not
Scooter Madness - Part 2
Small child balanced on front! actually available until the next day. However, he had arranged alternative accommodation in a better hotel down the road which he would pay for us and first thing in the morning we could go to his. Tired and hungry, we agreed. The tuk tuk took us to a fairly decent looking hotel, Ricky jumped out and started speaking to the lady. From the animated arm swinging and various stressed tones we concluded there was yet another problem. When poor Ricky returned to us, I thought he was about to pass out he was so stressed! Apologising even more profusely than before whilst continually bowing his head he explained the lady had forgotten to hold the room but he was going to find us a hotel, it didn't matter about the price he would cover it. He was really genuine and I knew we were not being scammed it was just a genuine mistake. However, by this time we had enough faffing and I asked to be transferred to another hostel I had read about on the opposite side of town. Ricky agreed and the tuk tuk whisked us off to the other hostel, Capitol. Driving through the town, if anything
the surroundings deteriorated even more.
We arrived at the hostel ... well, more like an old prison block actually, there were still bars across the windows and inside it was even more prison like, several different steel levels with walkways in cross link fencing leading around the different levels and cells, no sorry, I meant to write rooms off the walkways (all of these features were lined with bars. Despite this, the most important aspect and frankly all we cared about by this point was that the room was really clean. We decided to spent the night there and when it was morning and daylight see what else we could find for the following day.
ME MATES PLACE
The next morning, Sun 8 Nov, a message had been left for us at the reception. It was Ricky! Apologising again and promising if we would accept his offer there was a free tuk-tuk collection and transfer and a deluxe room at our originally booked hostel 'Me Mates Place' ready and waiting. I took one look around our cell, oh sorry I mean room and called him straight back.
Unlike me I know, giving a place a second
chance but the main reason for this was not only because Ricky was such a lovely person but because wherever we stayed we had to hand over our passports overnight in order to get a visa for Vietnam, subsequently, it needed to be someone you could trust and rely on. After the initial mess up I placed a bet he would do everything he could to make our stay enjoyable and hassle free as one poor review on hostelworld could significantly effect a hostels reputation and greatly tarnish a small business.
As the tuk-tuk pulled up outside 'Me Mates Place' it looked like a mirage appearing out of the grey, dirty, poor streets of Phnom Penh. A cafe styled like an American diner, all black and cream furniture greeted us, a small reception at the front, a well stocked and blue lit bar at the rear. The staff were SO friendly, they could not do enough for you and all came over to introduce themselves and to ask your name. The hostel was owned by an Australian guy and he had given English names to all of his young Cambodian employees - Ricky, Monty Python (he pronounced it Pyson),
Tony Montana, Sophie, Johnny 5, D and all others - very funny!!
We immediately asked Ricky about the Visa for Vietnam, as ideally we had only wanted to spend two days in Phnom Penh. It was now Saturday and we had spent one night here, however, we then discovered that it was not possible to get a visa over a weekend so we would have to wait until Monday. This Monday however, was Cambodian Independence Day so it did not look possible to be able to get a visa until Tues and then get the bus to Vietnam Wed - that put us miles behind schedule but at least if we had to stay for a few extra nights we were in a lovely place with friendly people!! Not only that but the smoothies and food there were absolutely gorgeous!!!! By the time we had finished the smoothies and had come up with a plan of action of the next few days, Ricky had disappeared and then reappeared, more excited and animated than before saying he would be able to sort our visa on Monday and a bus to take us to Ho Chi Min City, Vietnam Tues morning
... Turned out returning to 'Me Mates' was a good choice after all!!!
THE SITES AND SOUNDS OF PHNOM PENH
With now only one day longer than anticipated in Phnom Penh we decided rather than rushing through all the capitals sites, we would visit half on each of the two days. We opted for the Russian Market and the Royal palace first. We were a little disappointed at the Russian market, not long ago the market sold a variety of goods including guns and ammunition, now however, it was just a mixture of tourist oriented curios and stalls for locals and could not compare to the impressive markets in Bangkok. The abject poverty again being much more apparent. The Royal Palace and the Silver Pagoda were both very beautiful simple but ornate buildings and we spent a very enjoyable afternoon walking around although we were not allowed into the palace itself as a blue fly was flying which meant the King was in residence!
THE TUOL SLENG GENOCIDE MUSEUM (S21) AND THE CHOEUNG EK KILLING FIELDS - 9 Nov
Possibly the most educational and emotionally moving day we have ever spent on our travels!
WARNING!! THE NEXT
PART OF MY BLOG CONTAINS GRAFFIC DETAILS OF WHAT WE SAW AND EXPERIENCED IN THE GENOCIDE MUSEUM AND KILLING FIELDS IF YOU FEEL THAT THIS MAY BE DISTRESSING FOR YOU PLEASE DO NOT READ THE REST OF THIS DAY!!!
One of the main reasons for visiting the capital was due to my fascination with history and because of that I wanted to look round the Toul Sleng Genocide Museum (S21). Although never studying it at school I vividly remember reading about the Khymer Rouge, a band of communist guerrillas and their leader Pol Pot. The Khymer Rouge seized control of Cambodia in 1975, the majority of people cheered them in as they believed that new leadership would result in the longed for peace. Ironically, instead it resulted in the darkest period of Cambodian history. Pol Pot aimed to create a socialist utopia by transforming the country into an agrarian collective. The entire population of the cities, including the capital, were forcibly removed to the countryside to begin new lives as peasants working on the land. At the same time there was a mass extermination of intellectuals; educated people, teachers, doctors even anyone wearing glasses was deemed to be intelligent
- a crime punishable by death!
The Genocide Museum (known as 'S21' as the Khymer regime labeled it Security Prison 21) started out as a primary school but in 1975 the Khymer Rouge transformed it into a prison and interrogation centre. It was now a museum and monument to the thousands of Cambodians who were detained, interrogated, inhumanely tortured and executed there.
From the second you observe the corrugated iron and barbed wire around the perimeter and enter the complex an eerie silence and sense of foreboding envelopes you. The complex has been left nearly exactly as it was found by the liberating Vietnamese forces. We entered Building A where classrooms had been divided into individual cells for 'interrogation'. The windows were paneled with extra glass to minimise the sound of the prisoners screams. Fourteen victims, including one female, were discovered in this Building after the Khymer Rouge were driven out. Photos adorned the walls. They were horrific! Graph pictures showing tortured bodies, hideously disfigured and shackled to walls or the floor. There were still blood stains all over the walls and floor. It was dumbfounding!
Buildings B, C & D were constructed differently; the classrooms on
the ground floors were divided into small cells with either brick or wood walls - no more than one meter long by half a metre wide, the first and second floors were used for large cells where many prisoners were shackled together, the shackles were still fixed to the walls. Walking between the buildings through what was originally a playground was also a numbing experience. A wooden pole in the yard once used for the student's physical education had been turned into a machine for interrogation and torture.
The Khymer Rouge photographed every person before they interrogated and killed them. Building B's walls were covered in the photographs taken of the victims and four huge notice boards ran the full length of the middle of the room with even more photos - both men and women, all ages including babies. Some pictures showed the victims before, however a great majority revealed photos of them after having been subjected to horrific, unimaginable torture - it was the most stomach churning visual presentation I have ever witnessed.
Upstairs housed photos from the killing fields, where anyone who survived the prolonged torture at S21 was taken to and either beaten to
death, shot, beheaded or tied up and buried alive. Glass cases housed skulls which had been exhumed and it was possible to clearly observe the blunt force trauma which they had sustained.
The ground floor of Building D was full of art work, pictures and canvases actually created and drawn by one of the only seven survivors of S21. They depicted the types of torture utilised at the prison. On the top floor of this building at 10am they played a film which discussed the background and history to the Khymer regime. It included an interview with a lady whose son and wife had been separated by the regime. The regime separated wives from husbands, children from mothers, they did not believe in allowing love and marriage. This husband and wife had written letters to each other via his mother her telling of the suffering and the mistrust the regime created. The letters never made it to there destination. The letters were compelling. They told it from the point of view of innocents directly effected by the regime. You could sense the hope and strength of spirit in the initial letters, then as the years past, the language and
attitude in the letters changed from expressing a small morsel of hope and an increasing level of fear to no hope at all and an acceptance of their impending fate. It was an extremely emotional video, well structured and sensitive but clearly highlighting the brutally of the regime and the extreme suffering it caused.
From 1975-1979 (a mere thirty years ago) it is estimated over twenty thousand victims were imprisoned in S21 - there were only seven survivors. Over that period it is believed that over three million people were executed, that is over one third of Cambodia's entire population. It has left an uneducated and low skilled population. Every single person in Cambodia has somebody in there family who went missing during that period. It is inevitable that the terrible legacy of the Khymer Rouge will be felt by the Cambodian people for generations!
Straight after exiting S21 we jumped in our tuk-tuk and headed fifteen km southwest of Phnom Penh for Cheong Ek - 'The Killing Fields'. Over 130 mass graves were discovered here in 1980. A staggering 8985 bodies have been exhumed from 86 mass graves, the other graves have been left untouched. In
the centre of the fields is a huge white memorial with a hollow tower up the centre displaying thousands of unearthed skulls and piles of the victims tattered clothing. Walking round observing the hollows in the fields, reading the plaques of what was discovered and observing the memorial towering over the fields was a very sombering experience!
Despite the dark history the Cambodian people were some of the most friendly people we have met travelling. They are very inquisitive and take time to stop and talk to you in the street. The only down side really is due to the extreme poverty the streets and buildings are quite dirty and litter is scattered everywhere. Also there are a huge number of quite pushy, forceful beggars who try to bully you into giving money to them. You have to be quite direct and insistent in not handing anything over. The government is trying to work on this problem and does not want money given to beggars as it encourages more people to go out begging. It is heart wrenchingly difficult though, especially as a great majority of the beggars are also victims of land-mines. Cambodia is still the most densely
The staff & us!
From Left: Rich, Ricky, Sophie, Paul, me, Tony mined country in the world due to years of guerrilla warfare. There are over sixty million land mines in the country!
As a light relief after the intense but educational day. The staff at 'Me Mates' held a mini poker championship and cards night! They were SO lovely there - we knew it would be difficult to leave! However, at 11am the next day (Tues 10 Nov) the bus collected us from Me Mates place to take us to border. All the staff came out and gave us huge hugs and waved us goodbye - it was really emotional leaving there, it felt like we were leaving home!! From the border the bus would continue on to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam!
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Karen Pennington
non-member comment
Wow!
Hi, what a trip despite your 'rocky' start in Cambodia, it sounds as though you found a real star in Ricky. Your trrips out sound amazing and so vivid! Great to read your blog although it reminds me i should really be at Pilates tonight! Hurt my back on way home from Bangkok and have struggled ever since but hope to return soon! My tummy muscles need some stability! Have a great time in the remaining countries. Bye for now. Warmest seasons Greetings Karen Pennington