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Angkor Wat Sunrise
Angkor Wat is most beautiful in the minutes just before the break of dawn..When most people think of Cambodia, they usually think of either the archaeological wonder of Angkor Wat or the horror of Pol Pot's brutal regime of terror, killing and unbridled lunacy that was the Khmer Rouge's domestic policy during the 70's. What they don't know about are the tremendous people that lived through some of the most horrific times known to man, and have come through that experience with full hearts, compassion and the will to help those that need it.
Arriving in Phnom Penh after an all day bus journey from Saigon, it was evident that the Cambodian capital was years behind Vietnam in it's process of modernization; first impressions were of a dirty, potholed city with numerous buildings in various states of disrepair and lots of shady looking characters squatting hunched by the roadside. What you find after a couple of days in this once great capital is that beneath the veneer of seediness and grime there lies a great culture built by a proud and stoic people that, although brought to the brink of destruction by decades of warfare and genocide, have not yet given up, in spite of the abject poverty experienced by most of the
population.
After a couple of quiet beers on the banks of Tonle Sap (during which we saw an elephant ambling his way through tuk-tuks, bicycles and cars at peak hour), we headed out for a walk around the city and after strolling around several construction sites along the river decided to go and visit the city's main temple, Wat Phnom (after which the city was named). The temple, while nothing special as it has been rebuilt several times due to the many wars, was interesting because it mixed the design of a typical buddhist shrine with modern elements like a multi-coloured flashing neon halo that rotated behind Buddha's head!
That evening we headed out to a great restaurant called "Friends" which in addition to having really good food at decent prices, also helps the local community as it takes in street kids and teaches them a trade related to hospitality or tourism. All the waiters, waitresses and cooking staff were either former street kids or teachers and I can honestly say that eating for a cause is something I am more than willing to do. The following morning we headed out to visit the Royal Palace and Silver
Pagoda - beautiful structures, similar to the Thai style, that somehow managed to avoid destruction by the Khmer Rouge in their quest to cast Cambodia back to the Stone Age.
Later that day we set off to visit two of the most important and poignant sites in Cambodia, if not all of SE Asia (or the world) - the S21 Security Prison (now the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum) and Cheuong Ek Killing Fields. While both of these were "highlights" on the itinerary, we set out with some trepidation as we knew that it was likely to be an emotionally grueling experience. As I knew very little about the Khmer Rouge's rise to power, I'll summarize it here for you - essentially what happened was this - during the American War in Vietnam, Cambodian King Norodom Sihanouk attempted to declare Cambodia's neutrality to the war raging on her borders, but the US was not comfortable with the cozy relationship Cambodia shared at the time with China and General Lon Nol (a US supporter) overthrew King Sihanouk in 1970 and created the Khmer Republic. With Lon Nol's support, the US began carpet bombing the Cambodian countryside, particularly the area near the
Ho Chi Minh trail, to flush out the Viet-Cong. Of course, this was unpopular with Cambodia's peasants so they formed an army which was later called upon by King Sihanouk to win back the country; this army was nicknamed the Khmer Rouge and it was led by a former teacher called Pol Pot.
In April 1975, Khmer Rouge soldiers stormed into the capital armed with machine guns and herded the people out to the countryside to work in labour camps - Pol Pot reset the calendar to "Year Zero" and tried to create an agrarian Utopia. Unfortunately, in the process he also felt it was necessary to execute 1.7 million of his countrymen, simply because they were educated, had relatives that were educated or wore glasses. The result of this psychotic dictatorship was a society of fear where family members and friends turned on each other and people were forced to commit horrific acts in the name of self-preservation.
Walking into the grounds of the Security 21 (S-21) Prison, a former school, was one of the most intense moments of my life - our local guide (who had lived through the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge himself) had
Monk, Riverside Phnom Penh
This monk came and stood on the footpath while we were having breakfast at a cafe and we couldn't work out for ages what he wanted. Eventually I went and spoke with him and gave him a donation so I could take his photo not even started speaking, but immediately I could feel the horror that had taken place on those grounds. Standing near the entrance, seeing the graves of the 16 "VIPS" (Very Important Prisoners) whose faces had been removed just before the Vietnamese army arrived, I had to turn away from the rest of the group to get control of myself.
Wandering through the hallways of these depressing cinderblock buildings (eerily similar to a couple of classrooms from my primary school days), you need little imagination to picture what it was like there - barbed wire covers the entrances; cells barely big enough to stand in fill the room and faces from the 17,000 victims that passed through the prison stare at you from old photographs where the fear in their eyes is as palpable as it was thirty years ago. Our guide, who had lost two brothers, his father and an uncle to the Khmer Rouge, related several blood chilling stories that illuminate the depths that man is capable of - babies and young children that were "bagged" and then beaten against trees or thrown in the air and speared with bayonets to save bullets; people that were left to
Grand Palace, Phom Penh
A reminder of the country's greatness before the dark days of Pol Pot hang by the arms for days and constantly beaten until they "confessed" and those who were convinced by their interrogators to name educated colleagues on the basis that they and their families would be safe; only to be summarily executed once the information had been given.
Perhaps the most perplexing story of all was the one about Pol Pot's child soldiers - many of those who committed the worst atrocities were teenage children, forced into the army and then brainwashed to the point that they no longer knew good from bad, right from wrong and were capable of carrying out heinous acts, even against their own families. At some point, Pot's paranoia and delusions became so bad that he didn't want anyone to "know too much"; therefore every year a new group of fresh recruits was trained and as their final act of "training" were ordered to kill the previous years' intake of soldiers!! How bizarre is that? Surely killing your own soldiers is a sure fire way to erode your ability to stay in power?
After an hour or so we left and headed out to the Killing Fields of Cheuong Ek - this is where the
Stone Heads, Bayon
The stone faces of the Bayon are one of the striking features of Angkor Thom 17,000 'prisoners' that passed through S21 met their fate as they were executed and summarily dumped in one of the many mass graves that litters this otherwise unremarkable field. Today the site is adorned with a large, white tower; a memorial to the victims that is filled with their skulls and bones unearthed from the mass graves.
Walking around the "Field" was an eerie experience as we could hear the sounds and laughter of children playing at a nearby school while our guide told us tales of abject cruelty and horror - the juxtaposition of the two just didn't gel. While walking around we could see areas where bleached white bone and faded, ragged pieces of cloth were poking out from the surface of the dirt - our guide informed us that what we could see where the bones of the victims, still in their original clothing, that had not been removed from the mass graves, but rose to the surface after the annual monsoon.
Needless to say, the bus ride back to Phnom Penh was quiet as we all contemplated the extent of the trauma that this country and its people had suffered through in very recent
"VIP" Cell, Tuol Sleng
There were 16 VIP cells on the ground floor of Tuol Sleng prison where ex-ministers, intellectuals and others were tortured repeatedly, left in appalling conditions and finally killed...when the Vietnamese finally invaded they found most of them with their faces scraped off by spades...before they died history.
That evening we had the opportunity to see the 'brighter' side of humanity - we had dinner at a restaurant run by Mr Lay Neth, a guy who suffered at the hands of the Khmer Rouge, but has dedicated his adult life to running an orphanage and using the restaurant to provide those orphans with a trade and a livelihood. We were lucky enough to be at the restaurant on Mr Lay's birthday; at one point during the evening a group of about sixty staff and children emerged from the rear of the building singing "Happy Birthday" and carrying a cake - the outpouring of love from the orphans Mr Lay had saved was obvious, heartwarming and a great antidote to what we had seen earlier in the day.
After an early morning flight, we arrived in Siem Reap a tourist town completely geared towards servicing tourists visiting the amazing ruins of the Angkor Temples. Following lunch, we headed out to climb the hill of Phnom Bakeng to see sunset and view the temple of Angkor Wat from above. A short climb later, we arrived at the top of the temple and found it crowded with other
Tuol Sleng Prison
This is the most awful place I've ever been. Walking through the gates I had shivers all over - you can feel the souls of the dead lurking about. travelers - amazingly they were all facing in the opposite direction to Angkor Wat so I was able to sit and take photos of one of the most famous religious structures in the world at leisure.
The next morning we arose before sunset and made our way via tuk-tuk to the entrance of the most famous temple in South East Asia - Angkor Wat was built between 1113 and 1150 by King Suryavarman II and is considered to be the supreme masterpiece of Khmer architecture. Having seen the Pyramids, Taj Mahal, Machu Picchu, the Great Wall and Petra I can certainly say that Angkor rates as one of the most impressive structures in the world.
While in Angkor, I made the most of our time and visited the temple twice at sunrise, once at sunset and once while it was lit up during the evening. We also visited the temples of Ta Phrom, Angkor Tom, Preah Khan, Banteay Srei and the Bayon - all were amazing and my highlight was the Bayon (stone faces staring at you from every angle) and Preah Khan (a temple slowly being reclaimed by the jungle).
Our final day in Cambodia was
Ex-Pol Pot Soldier, Turned Prisoner
This boy had been a soldier of the Khmer Rouge (after being indoctrinated and tortured); after a couple of years of service an intake of soldiers is taken prisoner and later tortured and killed by the following year's recruits filled with a bumpy, uncomfortable twelve hour bus ride back to Thailand where we would spend our last few days in SE Asia before heading to Australia.
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Will Elston
non-member comment
Respect for history -
My goodness what an incredible historic and cultural this area delivered. WOW! Very scary to think the power that leaders have over population. I am so please to hear you both are still of good health and carrying on adventuring the world........nothing in the business world has unfolded that would replace this trip....outstanding. Well done. Vancouver is still trying to shake away the raining winter spring......i must dig deep for patience....i think i am destined to live in a warmer dryer climate further south. Take care of each other and keep those updates coming i really enjoy them. Best. Will