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Published: November 14th 2007
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We decided against the obvious option of taking the bus from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh in favour of a 6hr fast-boat down SE Asia's largest fresh water lake, the UNESCO listed Tonle' Sap, which we'd read as being "one of the unique geographical wonders of the world." Quite a claim and not without foundation. It was extremely different and very, very cool to blast over these waters down to Cambodia's capital city where the river meets the giant Mekong River.
It's such a massive expanse of water that you'd think you were at sea apart from the fact the water is so calm. The compelling side of the ride was looking at the floating villages that would appear now and again on the way and it was fascinating to wonder how the folks there live their lives this way in this place.
When we arrived in Phnom Penh, we plucked a tuk tuk driver from the hustling horde available at the port and asked to be taken to "No Problem" backpackers which was a recommendation from one of Trung's mates back home. When we got there, we saw the view from the decking at the back which overlooked the Bangkok Lake and we snapped up a twin room for $5 a night. As we were handed our keys by the owner, we were offered a bag of Cambodian grass as casually as a hotelier back home would ask if you'd like a wake-up call in the morning. It was also a strange and ominous sign to find a spent rifle cartridge lying on our doorstep, but like I say, we were sold on the view... (We later found out from Belgian Thomas that some tourists were robbed at gun point in the same street two nights into our stay there.) It turned out to be a great place to stay though, all very chilled and relaxed with excellent folk working there and a great bunch of travellers staying over. Most nights we played poker with three English dudes which ended up paying for our room costs there, which was satisfying as I've never really played poker before and these dudes were talking a lot of talk beforehand. When we werent taking their money at cards, we were winning beer from them over the pool table, all in good spirits : )
On the culture and seeing
Kids at the Killing Fields
The rascal on the left appears to be giving us the bird in some sort of mixed up, inverted 'Peace' gesture - I think. things side of Phnom Penh, we really experienced vast extremes. On our first day around the city, we decided to hire a tuk tuk to take me to buy a new camera and then onto the Killing Fields before visiting S-21 prison, both historical and horrifying genocidal landmarks once used by Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge regime back in the 1970's. Before the visit, I knew only the basic facts of the atrocities that occured here so the weight of it really stunned us. The first thing we saw at the Killing Fields was the memorial, a beautiful white building - a little pagoda-like - with tall glass windows around all sides. When we got closer though, we realised that the memorial contained high shelves holding thousands of skulls of the victims that were found in mass graves at the fields. On the floor under the skulls was a pile of the victim's clothes that left us feeling shocked to our souls. It was very strange to leave (practially speechless) and have the tuk tuk driver enthusiastically try to get us to go to the shooting range which is practically next door. We thought that was totally inappropriate and disrespectful to
To Britta
I think he's reached 'Level 1'... ; ) the victims so we went on to S-21 prison with the aim of doing the sad touristy checkpoints in the one day.
S-21 was, predictably, as attrocious as the Killing Fields. Formerly an old high school, it was turned into a sort of detention centre for people/prisoners seized by the Khmer Rouge. When Pol Pot and his army walked into Phnom Penh, they cleared the city (i.e. made everyone living there leave) and then embarked on a deranged policy of ethnic cleansing that concluded with the grim statistic of one in five Cambodian's loosing their lives. I won't go into it too much as its pretty heavy but I'd recommend checking this stuff out using Wikipedia as its important that people are aware of what happened here, only thirty years ago.
The prison was a very haunting place and we were shocked throughout our time there as we wandered around the cells (old classrooms) where people had been tortured and killed. It was particularly frightening to see equipment and graphic pictures of the cells as they were found on the day that the city was liberated by the Vietnamese Army. Even more shocking though, was the ghostly gallery
Gallery Of Prisoners at S-21
Men, woman and children from all walks of life in Cambodia. 7 left the prison alive. of mug shots of all the victims who arrived at the prison, just normal people who were rounded up and sent there to the satisfaction of a lunatic. What a tragic place and what a horrifying reminder of man's capable cruelness towards fellow human beings.
Thankfully, the cheery ambience of the hostel relieved us of mulling over the traumatic thoughts of the day too much at night. Nevertheless, I still felt apprehensive (and now quite annoyed with myself) about visiting the shooting range the following day. So many other travellers had been banging on about it, that curiosity got the better of us so we went off to shoot some AK-47's. We declined the offer of Russian grenades and a shot of a rocket launcher for $200. We also declined the option of live targets (chickens) and I was shocked to find out that folk using the bazooka were offered cows as cannon fodder. It was perversely intriguing to "see what its like" to fire an automatic assault rifle but I left the shooting range feeling disappointed with myself that I'd paid to support this business and instantly realised that I'd conciously created my first big regret of the
trip.
Overall though, Phnom Penh was a very interesting stop to make and I doubt we'll find such extremes of emotional experiences elsewhere. Aside from the Killing Fields and S-21, I took a trip to the Royal Palace which was pretty nice and relaxing to walk around.
On the last day, we left for the bus station to follow in the footsteps of Pvt Chris Taylor, Sgt Elias and that scumbag Sgt Barnes from Platoon - we're heading deep inside the perimeter and it's time to don the camo-shorts. "Gooooood Morrrrrning Vietnam!!!"
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We have just spent a few days in Phnom Penh, and your blog totally captured our feelings and emotions on Tuol Sleng / S21 and the Killing Fields at Choeung Ek. In only hope I can write ours in a way that shares as much emotion.