Phnom Penh, Cambodia

---

Well Phnom Penh has defied all negative stereotypes. Coming to this city, I was actually worried that it would be awful since different travelers had told us really negative things about PP and Cambodia in general. After three days in the city, I haven't found any of the negative rumours to be true and would've loved to stay longer!

We arrived to PP in the night after our long, long boat ride. We crashed at whatever hotel they brought us to so I really didn't know where I was until the next morning. Our first day in PP we did what we do best - wander (we also spent our second and third day doing more of the same). We walked all over the place stopping first at the Russian market - an eclectic mess of tourist souvenirs and car parts interspersed w/ stalls of fake GAP, Gucci, Prada, etc. etc. etc. as well as massive collections of pirated DVDs. I bought two silk scarves that I didn't really need but at $5ea I just couldn't help it! haha One thing since being in Cambodia that I've noticed is that my bargaining and spending habits have become SERIOUSLY lax. It's a combination of a) I'm getting tired of bargaining over 25cents - I still bargain for sure but to a point. What's an extra dollar to me as compared w/ the silk scarf seller lady and her adorable, chubby one year old? b) We're getting near the end, so the space that I've been harboring in my backpack in my attempt to keep it light is now starting to fill up. Quickly! c) EVERYTHING IS JUST SO BEAUTIFUL IN CAMBODIA! The silks are to die for! I just can't help myself 😊

The bulk of our first day, however, was really spent exploring the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum (aka S-21). I knew very little about the Khmer Rouge before arriving in Cambodia. Visiting that museum was a very wide eye-opener. I won't go through everything that I have learnt about Cambodia's political history, but essentially, from 1975-79, the Khmer Rouge (KR), a communist faction ruled the country. The KR were bent on returning Cambodia back to Year Zero - the new Cambodia - by giving power to rural peasants and those without education and getting rid of anyone w/ suspected foreign influence (i.e. those who were educated, spoke a foreign language, held a professional tittle like teacher or doctor), anyone of Vietnamese or Chinese ethnicity or of ethnic minority groups or anyone from religious groups like Buddhist monks. Even ppl who wore glasses were persecuted. In April 1975, the KR forcibly evacuated PP, arrested anyone in the above category that were supposedly against "Angkar" and took them to S-21. Everyone else was sent to work camps in the countryside where families were completely separated and everyone, even small children, were forced to work in the rice fields or on irrigation projects. Collectivization was the goal.

At S-21, prisoners suffered from awful conditions and were held from weeks to months. Everyone was accused of being against the KR regime in some way and so prisoners were tortured in unfathomable ways and were forced to write false confessions. Then they were sent off to Choeung Ek, known as the killing fields (more to come on that later) or were beaten to death. If one person was accused, their whole families, right down to small babies and old men were also arrested.

S-21, the prison, was originally a high school, built in the '60s. Remnants of those days still remain - tiled floors, shuttered windows, courtyards, etc. However, the large classrooms had been turned into prison cells - either for large groups or individuals (0.8 x 2m for each individual cell). It was horrific and really creepy to stand on the inside of a cell, peering out of the small window in the door. It made me shudder with the thought of how people who had lived in this confined space had suffered. The whole experience was quite surreal. Exhibits displayed torture equipment used to cause suffering in inhumane ways (i.e. pulling someone's nails out while pouring on alcohol, hanging prisoners upside down with their head in a barrel of putrid water, as well as the usual beatings and electrocution).

The absolute worst for me was that the KR had been meticulous in their documentation. They photographed all prisoners upon arrival, as well as after they had died in the prison - usually by torture and beatings. Consequently, these images were displayed and I literally stared into the faces of hundreds of victims - men, women, elderly men & women and (I'm not exaggerating) toddlers and children. Their eyes held many different expressions. Some looked defiant and angry, others looked helpless like they had already accepted their fate while the majority either looked terrified or emotionless. Staring at those children's faces made me so angry and so upset. What could a 2 year old do to counter a political regime?! Argh. It's so insane.

Photographs mounted on the walls also depicted victims in the positions of their deaths. Eyes open wide, bodies contorted, blood all over the ground. Awful, awful, awful. I could barely force myself to enter each of the torture rooms. It was sickening and I couldn't stop crying. It all just made me feel sick that humans can be so incredibly horrific to each other. Some thousands of people were imprisoned here over 4 years, and only 7 survived.

The following morning, we continued our learning about the KR's destruction of Cambodian people as we went 14km out of town to the killing fields. Another silencing experience. Here, truckloads of prisoners from S-21 came everyday - unloading blindfolded prisoners to the hands of their killers. They were forced to kneel on the side of a large hole dug in the ground then were beaten to death with hoes, shovels, bamboo sticks etc. - their bodies falling into the mass graves. The KR didn't spare any bullets. Walking through the once longan tree orchard where the ground was riddled w/ depressions where mass graves had been (in the 1980s, many of the graves had been disinterred) was, again, very surreal. It was hard to wrap my head around the horror that had occurred where I stood. Graves held hundreds of bodies and many of them have not been touched and were roped off with signs saying "Please do not step on the mass graves". Bits of clothes and pieces of bone were scattered around. At the base of one tree - someone had placed a small pile of rib bones. Beside another mass grave that had held some 450 children and women was the horrific "Killing Tree" which had been used to kill children and babies by smashing their skulls against the trunk. A large white stupa, a memorial to the dead also displayed the horror of the genocide through some 8000 skulls. Looking closely you could see how brutally these people had died owing to the skull fractures on their skulls. It's all so unimaginable. Unfathomable.

Our tuk tuk driver, Peter, had been a child during "Pol Pot time" (as he called it). Separated from his family, he had been sent to the countryside and had been assigned to collect cow shit to be dried and used for fuel. He told us of how he, and everyone else, was severely malnourished. He once ate a wild banana and was caught - eating alone was against Angkar as was eating anything wild, which the KR deemed belonged to the state. He was punished by having boiling porridge poured into his mouth. His tongue shows proof of the story - deep, jagged scarring runs over the length of this tongue. He also suffered beatings that rendered him unconscious and told us that even the smallest mistakes like not working when you were sick, or talking in groups were punishable by death. The estimated grand number of deaths of 2 million was a gross underestimate Peter thought. He claims that it is probably double that due to starvation, disease and murder - killing fields and mass graves bear this evidence all over the country. Some 20,000 mass graves are spread across Cambodia. The ground in this country is full of landmines and dead bodies.

PP is a city of contrasts - the poverty and lasting effects of the horrific genocide, civil war and wars before that is apparent. However, there is also much wealth held by corrupt government officials as well as embassy and NGO workers. Walking around PP, I saw head offices of many, many NGOs. Lexus SUVs bear logos of USAID, UN, etc. Because of all of this foreign presence, there are gorgeous shops and delicious restaurants. I even found a Belgian chocolate store and ate truffles! Shops, upon shops feature gorgeous Cambodian silk products and many of them support charitable organizations or co-ops. Consequently, along w/ my lackadaisical spending, I wanted (and almost did) buy a ton of stuff! Combined w/ the justification that I was using my consumer power wisely and the fact that the handicrafts were exquisite, I managed to only buy a few things. Although - I have to be honest, I seriously, SERIOUSLY considered buying this gorgeous silk formal dress that was $180!!! hahahahhaha To understand this in SEAian terms, I live on about $20/day and usually refuse a 50 cent tuk tuk drive even in the dead of the heat because I'm too cheap. lol.

So, after three days of contrasts - eating and shopping in beautiful places while walking by amputees and beggars on the streets - I was actually sad to leave PP. I really am intrigued by this country, its history (no matter how confusing and horrific) and its people (who still are friendly and smiling which I cannot understand after so many years of upheaval). Now I wish I had more time to stay in Cambodia although I'm getting SO excited to come home and see everyone! The count down is on!

---