Skulls and Bones

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Ho Chi Minh City is pretty incredible. We've been here a couple of days now and have had the chance to visit the National War Museum and today we saw the Chu Chi Tunnels, which is a couple of hours outside the city.

The food here is quite different from Cambodia, and I might be tempted to say I preferred it... but I haven't yet been physically able to sample some of the spicy food. About 5 days ago I awoke in the middle of the night with indigestion like no man has previously endured. My body felt as though all the worlds gasses had chosen to seek shelter within my digestive system in a vain attempt to avoid death through carbon emissions. I was sharing a room with my two travel companions and I quickly understood that any relief I received would be an immediate and noxious burden placed upon their shoulders/within their lungs.

I would like to say that I was the bigger man and took one for the team... but no, the pain was pretty unbearable so I made my choice. Unfortunately, nothing happened. So I sat there in the heat of a crowded room, body in agony - bereft of the benefit of a clean conscience to provide most needed relief.

I'll swiftly move on from bodily gasses, but the result of this was that 5 days later I still found myself struggling. Swallowing food became a painful chore and I only drank water to keep myself from dehydrating. I eventually broke. I saw a French-Canadian Doctor in the International Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City who explained to me that the Doxycycline tablets I had been taking for Malaria prevention had actually been wearing down my esophagus causing an increasing level of pain during the consumption of food or drink. This diagnosis and the relevant medication cost me $178 and almost my pride - I damn near soiled myself.

Doing a little better now and although every meal is basically Pin Soup, the medication seems to be doing it's job. As a result of all this I'm pretty tired, which is why this will be a fairly rambled blog entry.

The National War Museum in Ho Chi Minh... I found to be quite disappointing. I went to the museum hoping to gain a better understanding of the Vietnam War. Instead, the museum seems to be almost purely dedicated to highlighting the war crimes of the American Army. I can understand why the museum would hold a biased viewpoint... but in it's extremity it fails to translate the reality of what actually happened and why.

There are a few vehicles - tanks, planes, helicopters and artillery guns crammed into a small area in the entrance courtyard. It's interesting to see, but they don't really amount to anything. They could be any tanks of any army and it would give you the same emotional response. There was an incredibly graphic display of American G.I's alongside mutilated Viet Cong corpses. One of the photo's (which I will add later when I get a chance) is of an American soldier holding the remaining body parts of a Viet Cong soldier hit by fire from a grenade launcher. It's probably the most shocking picture I've seen... I didn't really know how to respond to it. I couldn't tell if the American soldier was trying to make a point... or if he was just a sick individual altered by his hellish environment. Two photographs either side of this one displayed two Viet Cong corpses who had been dragged to death through the jungle after being tied to the back of US tank. The final picture was of 4 US Soldiers sitting, smiling beside three Viet Cong corpses that they had just beheaded. The heads were placed upright by their feet.

This is probably a good time to backtrack and bring The Killing Fields and S21 up to date, as I haven't previously had time to think about it.

I was a little tired when I entered the Killing Fields. We paid at the gate, I think it was about $1 entry fee. I was vaguely looking at a large column just ahead of me trying to wake up and gather my thoughts. I couldn't quite work out what I was looking at... my vision was still slightly blurred and then I stopped dead in my tracks. Contained in glass casing, rising from the concrete to the very top of the monument were the remains of thousands of human skulls. That figure is difficult to meaningfully translate. If I had seen a single human skull it would have shocked me. Seeing thousands stacked up like books on a shelf - I didn't know how to react. I starred for a long time from where I had stopped. A Cambodian man beside me was asking me to buy some flowers for the corpses... I considered that it was perhaps a little late for flowers and declined. I don't think a token gesture from a tourist would make much impact on the horrors these people once endured. I took a closer look and tried to put faces to the skulls. I didn't feel it was enough to just gawp at the monument like an idiot, take my snapshot and then leave. I starred into the empty skull of a Cambodian girl around my age for awhile - I walked away from the statue thinking of all the petty little things I've complained about over the years and considered: "What would she tell me?"

It's embarrassing to think about.

Walking around the Killing Fields themselves is just as harrowing. There are bones that lay in the open beside trees and huge pits that once contained all the corpses that were discovered here. The Killing Fields were essentially a concentration camp designed for the intention of saving bullets. Anyone who threatened the power of the Khmer Rouge - traitors, political opponents, intellectuals (Pol Pot deemed anyone who wore glasses a potential intellectual and therefore a threat), women, children, the elderly were all sent here to be processed. There are signs next to the pits explaining what types of bodies they found in each and what various methods were used. Some were buried alive amongst corpses. There's a tree where guards used to beat children to death. There is a pit which contained the headless corpses of around 90 women. It's a difficult place to walk around and is a very strong starting point for visiting S21.

S21 is the Security Prison used by the Khmer Rouge in deciding who was a traitor and who wasn't. The place is called "Tuol Sleng", which in Khmer means: "Hill of the poisonous trees". It used to be a high school - the Khmer Rouge converted it into a prison and torture house. Cambodian's were brought here and tortured relentlessly until they signed papers stating that they confessed to whatever it is they were accused of. Walking through the first row of "classrooms" we came into contact with white rooms with tiled floors. They were empty apart from a single, black, metal bed. Upon this were implements of torture - axes, metal bars, ankle locks, knives etc. There were still bloodstains on the floor and on the wall was a photograph of a Cambodian man who had once lain here. He was dead at this point - he lay on his back, his face contorted in agony and his blood splattered all over the walls and the floor. It's not something people can see and rationalise in their mind. You can't understand it, so you just stare.

There were endless rooms like this and thousands of Cambodian's met this end. They were forced to give the names of their family members during torture and sign their own death warrants by confessing to ridiculous crimes they didn't commit. Those that survived torture were sent to the Killing Fields for processing. All of the methods of execution were horrifically brutal and often simply involved the use of blunt objects to save on the cost of ammunition.

S21 is still covered in the blood of the Cambodians that died or were tortured there. There is a series of photographs showing the documentation of the Khmer Rouge. There are photo's of the mugshots of the prisoners and then beside this is a photograph of their mutilated, disfigured corpse.

I think you can only see so much shocking material before it ceases to shock you anymore. On the third floor of the final building at S21 there is a room which makes everything you've seen suddenly feel very real. All the bloodstains splattered across the tiles and the broken faces of tortured prisoners begin to filter back through your mind and the reality of the situation begins to sink in. On every wall there are letters written by the families of the victims, survivors and the guards that worked at S21. Reading what these people had lost, and knowing the manner in which they lost them moved me to tears.

If you ever have the chance to visit Cambodia you should visit these places.

Back to Vietnam:

Visiting the Chu Chi Tunnels today was an interesting day out. Although it was still aimed at highlighting the war crimes committed by the Americans, it seemed primarily set to show off the tactics of guerrilla Viet Cong fighters during the war. It was pretty incredible. There are 220km of tunnels stretching around the area and a pretty cruel array of booby traps. The first one we saw looked to me like a normal pile of leaves. Our tour guide hit one side with a stick and a bamboo plank span upwards to reveal a pit-trap around 10 feet deep with razor sharp spikes jutting out at the bottom. There's also the opportunity to crawl through some of the tunnels, which are actually smaller than I had previously imagined. By the time I reached the end of the 30m stretch I felt reborn - I'm not a small creature and those holes were definitely not built for me. Overall, the place is far more organized than the museum and is more active and informative. If you have a choice between the two - definitely go for Chu Chi Tunnels. It cost us $5 and was a fascinating day.

We're heading to Mu Nei on the coast tomorrow to do some sand-boarding. It's 12:25am and now I desperately need to pack. I apologise if this has rambled on for a little too long, but I needed to get caught up as I've no idea when the next internet point will be.

I'd appreciate any comments or suggestions regarding the blog,

Let me know how you're getting on.

Chris

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Photos

Skulls
Skulls found in the monument at the Killing Fields.

Children Tree
Khmer Rouge officers beat children to death beside this tree before throwing their body into one of the many pits at the Killing Fields.

Tuol Sleng - Interrogation Cell
This room is one example of the hundreds of interrogation cells held at S21 - Tuol Sleng Security Prison. Laid upon the bed are instruments of torture and along the floor remain the blood stains of the torture victims.

S21 Torture Victim
On the walls of each prison cell hangs a photograph of the dead body of a torture victim. This is one of the least graphic images in the collection. There are pictures like this all over Tuol Sleng.

U.S GI
A U.S G.I holds the corpse of a Viet Cong soldier after being hit by a grenade launcher. I think the G.I and the photographer are trying to make a point with this picture - or it could be a twisted joke? I really couldn't tell.

Chu Chi Tank
This was one of the many American tanks disrupted by Viet Cong landmines. These huge machines of war were severely hampered by the dense jungle and many were rendered useless by subtly hidden landmines.

Comments

[jonathan keeling]

interesting read
chris i have been reading your blog with interest and am sorry to hear you have not been well but hopefully are on the mend now. saw Frances in the week and she is well keep writing !! ATB JONATHAN

[booyah]

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sounds pretty damn harrowing to me mate, seems a very unique experience. you'll have to tell me more when you're back. the blogs so far have been insightful and humourous (bar this one of course!), i thoroughly enjoy reading them. keep it up mammoth :)