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Published: February 16th 2015
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We arrived in Phnom Penh airport after a slightly bumpy flight with Vietnam Airways and jumped in a remorque - the Cambodian equivalent to a tuk tuk. It has more padding and we quickly realised why - there is only one rule of driving in Cambodia, and that is that there are no rules. Cars, remorques and motorcycles come from every direction possible, with no use of indication and certainly no courtesy to each other. It seems you have to be pushy otherwise you would never get anywhere, but even so, scenes reminiscent of Super Mario Cart should remain on the computer console!
Our hotel was only two blocks from Tuol Sleng, a former high school which was used as the notorious security prison 21 (S21) by the Khmer Rouge between 1975 - 1979. Pol Pot's aim was to create a classless society when they overthrew the government that had sided with the Americans during the Vietnamese war. They imprisoned intellectuals, the rich, religious leaders and even those with soft hands - torturing them and ultimately eliminated them. Of the estimated 20k prisoners in Tuol Sleng only 7 are known to have survived. During their 3 1/2 year in power,
Pol Pot and his communist brotherhood killed between 2-3 million of their own citizens - over a quarter of their population. Unfortunately Pol Pot died without any retribution and only one of his senior command has so far been found guilty of genocide - the rest have never admitted killing or ordering the killing of so many innocent Cambodians. Whilst Mike was happily running around the playground in Loyola, the world didn't appear to have a clue what was happening in Cambodia - it's crazy that it was such a short time ago.
We also visited Choeng Ek, the most famous of the Killing Fields, where mass graves were found after the Vietnamese soldiers ousted the Khmer Rouge from Phnom Penh. We found it a place of quiet reflection, which is extraordinary considering the atrocities that went on there. The audio guide was excellent and gave you a true insight into what happened - but nothing I feel I could write here as it was just too horrendous.
Phnom Penn is a pretty cool city actually. I was a little apprehensive about coming here, as in 1998 when I went to Vietnam I heard of how many fellow
backpackers had been mugged in Cambodia and how dangerous it was! But we felt pretty safe and the Cambodians were a lot more friendly than those from Laos. It certainly feels geared up for tourism and we loved strolling in the parks, watching outdoor aerobics sessions and families playing badminton or hackey sack.
We then took an "interesting" 7 hour bus journey to Siem Reap - the gateway to Angkor. The roads in Cambodia are notoriously bad with a journey that used to take 4 hours by road now taking 7 due to pot holes galore. It was a great bus though with aircon and wifi.... So we were kept amused. Angkor is amazing. It is one of the seven archeological wonders of the world and is the largest monument in the world. Temples were built from the 9-14th centuries by a multitude of Kings with Jayavarman VII being the most prolific temple constructor. There was a mixture of Hindu and Buddhist architecture during this period so it was interesting to the see the differences from temple to temple.
Our guide was super knowledgable about the area and had a degree from Phnom Penh university in history and
also a survivor from the Khmer Rouge days having lost 100 members from his extended family. Unfortunately for Mike he was an Arsenal fan but also had an unhealthy hatred for Jose Mourinho so he scored a few more points with Mike. He also disliked Chinese tourists more than us. Angkor was the capital of Cambodia until 14th century, but due to its close proximity to Thailand and also the fact that the water supply was poor, they moved to Phnom Penh and hence it became "lost" until the French re-discovered it in 1860. Only 6 years later the French colonised Cambodia and shipped over a multitude of archeologists and started to restore some of the main temples. Restoration has been going on since then and thankfully it has been a World Heritage site since the 1990s, but it takes years to puzzle the temples back together. Even so, the jungle has ruined some of the temples beyond restoration and some trees are so entwined with the temples that it is now not possible to cut them down.
We only had 6 days in Cambodia and it was pretty fantastic - emotionally and physically. Their history is chequered and
so tragic and something that, to a certain extent, has the feeling of being swept under the carpet. As mentioned, our guide Sopanha lost roughly 100 members of his family under the Khmer Rouge, and yet felt it is best to simply draw a line under the past and move on. Having never experienced something so horrific, it is impossible to say whether I could ever be comfortable with that stance. The fact is, Cambodia does seem to be moving on as a country and is one that we would certainly recommend to visit, and one perhaps we will return to, though next time in the rainy season - the very best time to visit Angkor Wat.
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