PHNOM PENH

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Tuesday 8th March

Narith is waiting for us as promised and he speeds us off on his tuk tuk towards the Ankor Watt Museum, a temple styled building which holds many artifacts and treasures uncovered from the Ankor region in the North of Cambodia.
Theres beggars loitering around the entrance and we just about got past without to much fuss as they are quite persistent.
We walked around the large halls of the Museum looking at the many different types of jewellery, ornaments and statues, some of which date back from as far as 2000bc. There's lots of information about the Ankor region and its temples which helps us to grasp a little bit about the origins and history of the area as we will be visiting Ankor later on this week. Its quite a small museum but interesting enough it has lots of Bhuddist shrines along the way where we are offered incense to burn and pray to Bhuddha. It seems rude not to so we are shown the proper way to pray without offending anyone and it seems perfectly normal after a few times. Outside Narith awaits and as we cross the road we are approached by a poor wee soul with no arms as they have been blown off by a mine when he was younger so we popped a dollar in his bib and he thanked us with a big smile before heading off towards some other tourists.

It was my mission to come to one of the many gun firing ranges in Cambodia and Narith kindly took us to an old warehouse where we were handed a 'menu' of various guns for hire alongside prices for bullets. You can hire and fire anything you want here. The3res small handguns, colts, M16, M20, grenades, sniper rifles, tommy guns and even a RPG rocket propelled grenade launcher which was £200 for one grenade!!!
Ive gone for the AK-47 which is a selective-fire, gas-operated assault rifle first developed in the Soviet Union by Mikhail Kalashnikov.
I sit down at a table and given the gun and immediately im amazed at how light it is.
Ive paid about 20 pounds for a magazine clip with 30 bullets in it. The targets been set away down the shooting alley about 20 metres away. The barrel of the gun is laid on a rest for me to hold on to whilst firing. Earphones are mandatory and then the magazines popped in and then im told to fire when im ready. Im expecting a massive kick back on firing the first bullet but in fact theres hardly any kickback and the noise was like a large ballion being burst, even with earphones on. Pop!........Pop!....Pop!.Pop! Pop! Im confident enough now to switch to full automatic..four or five bulllets coming popping out within seconds and its a strange feeling. poopopopopop! poppoppop! then.....click, click. That'll be my magazine emptied! The adrenaline is pumping through me now as I stand up and wait for my paper human taget sheet to come back from down the alley. At least ive hit the target 27 out of 30 shots which is pretty good considering theres bullet holes in the roof from people switching to automatic to quickly!!
Jills now standing with her small handgun in hand and is now in a standing position facing down the shooting range and has 6 bullets. She's coping not too bad as it looks much harder than my machine gun as she has to hold the gun at shoulder height and fire in a standing up position. Three bullets hit the ground in a puff of dust and the remaining bullets end up near the target. Phew!
Ok what next i wonder.....ummm...the rocket launcher would be fun but I opt for a M16 machine gun which was the main gun used in the Vietnam war and Cambodian war.
As expected the M16 had more kick and more bang than the AK47 and felt a lot more powerful as I tore through the clip and emptied it into the target once more. The heat of the spent bullet cases and gun barrel is intense as i felt the heat on my hands. We watched the guide head off down the alley to collect the target and picked up a couple of empty bullets which are still pretty hot.

We're ready to move on now and headed towards Choeung Ek where the killing fields are found.
The Killing Fields are a number of sites in Cambodia where large numbers of people were killed and buried by the Khmer Rouge regime, during its rule of the country from 1975 to 1979, immediately after the end of the Vietnam War. Analysis of 20,000 mass grave sites by the DC-Cam Mapping Program and Yale University indicate at least 1,386,734 victims. Estimates of the total number of deaths resulting from Khmer Rouge policies, including disease and starvation, range from 1.7 to 2.5 million out of a population of around 8 million.In 1979, communist Vietnam invaded Democratic Kampuchea and toppled the Khmer Rouge regime and Pol Pot.
We hired a proper guide in the park to take us around the site and we hardly spoke a word as we visited the mass graves and unexcavated areas as he spoke about the history of the Khmer Rouge and the Mass genocide.
The memorial park has been constructed around the mass graves of many thousands of victims in Choeung Ek. The utmost respect is given to the victims of the massacres through signs and tribute sections throughout the park. Many dozens of mass graves are visible above ground, several which have not been excavated as of yet. Commonly, bones and clothing surface after heavy rainfalls due to the extremely large number of bodies still buried in the area. It is not uncommon to run across the bones or teeth of the victims scattered on the surface as you tour the memorial park. The main Stupa monument in the centre of the park contains hundreds of skulls recovered from the graves and its very saddening trying to imagine the pain and torture the Cambodians mustve went through in the late 1970's. Nearly 2 million killed is mind boggling when you think that was 25% of the population wiped out.

As we drove off we are still dumbstruck at the sheer gravity of it all as its far worse than you could imagine and things stayed on that level of sadness at our next visit to the genocide museum at S21.
The Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum is a former high school which was used as the notorious Security Prison 21 (S-21) by the Khmer Rouge communist regime and was used to torture people before sending them out to the kiling fields.
We walked around trying not to imagine the scenes back then when this building was being used as a torture house. Theres literature to read as we pass through the buildings and theres also photos of many of the Cambodian victims posted around the rooms which is sad as theres many women and children of all ages.
From 1975 to 1979, an estimated 17,000 people were imprisoned at Tuol Sleng. At any one time, the prison held between 1,000–1,500 prisoners. They were repeatedly tortured and coerced into naming family members and close associates, who were in turn arrested, tortured and killed. In the early months of S-21's existence, most of the victims were from the previous Lon Nol regime and included soldiers, government officials, as well as academics, doctors, teachers, students, factory workers, monks, engineers, etc.
We've walked through the small cells and took it in turns to stand inside and it put the shivers right up us and we hurriedly moved on through and out into the courtyard. We headed for the exit where Narith was waiting for us with a very welcome couple of cold beers which settled the tattered nerves.

It was time to get some bounce back in our step so we headed downtown and stopped along the way to view the presidential palaces and temples which looked lovely in the bright sunshine. Narith took us to to a fine restaurant where we had some traditional Cambodian Curry which was fantastic. On the way home Narith took us to a cafe where we had a few more beers and talked a bit about the Cambodian history. It turns out Narith lost seven brothers and sisters during the Cambodian war as his family home near the Vietnam border was bombed by accident by American forces. His mother and his other three brothers survived and its was a compelling story as he told us more about growing up during the wars and what it was like living under the Khymer Rouge regime.
Narith has two Children, 5 and 8 years old, whom both go to Cambodian school as well as English classes. He works to pay for his childrens education and its a shame that in Cambodia you have to pay for decent education for your children which is roughly about ten pounds a week. It might not sound a lot but the average wage is around thirty pounds a week and if you have two kids then its tough going.
Narith phoned his cousin in Siem Reap who owns a hotel there and got us booked in for our visit before taking us home to our hotel. We said farewell to Narith and thanked him enormously for showing us around Phenom Penh and helping us to understand the history a bit better as its good to hear it from someone who actually lived through that era.
We paid him double the money as we knew that it would ensure his kids education for a month at least. The delight and gratitude on his face made our day and felt just as humble as he did to be fair. He told us to keep an eye out for his cousin in Siem Reap and promised we would be well looked after.

Wednesday 9th March

We a long haul to Siem Reap today and its a six hour bus North through some beautiful countryside. We stopped once for food at a roadside cafe where the flies covered most of the food on offer to which we refused and settle for a safe bag of crisps. We woke up on the outskirts of Siem Reap and as we hopped off and collected our bags we could barely move for the large amount of people hanging around the bus stop. Touts and tuk tuk drivers are trying to offer us tours and rides into town and we needed to get our bags out the back of the bus before it took off again. Out of the blue a young man approached us with our names written on a large piece of paper. It turned out to be Nariths cousin which was a blessing as he grabs both our bags and plumps them on his tuk tuk before whisking us away from the chaotic bus stop.
We arrived at the Siem Reap Villa hotel which was as we expected. Its very clean and the private rooms are huge with en suite and Tv which is not bad for £15 a night. Thanks again Narith!
We are being picked up in the morning to begin our first day of touring the Angkor Temple site.

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Photos

Choeung Ek - Killing Fields
Mass grave of 450

Choeung Ek - Killing Fields
bones showing through the ground.