Fully recharged by the awesome Angkor temples and a few afternoons by the pool, the Ramblingmen +1 headed to Phnom Penh.
After our bus rides in Lao, the ride was an absolute delight. Our “VIP bus” was a coach with individual seats, which all had plenty of padding, leg room, and even reclined a little bit. In this luxury the 4.5 hours passed in no time at all.
We arrived in Phnom Penh a little on edge, having heard horror stories from the cities virtual lawlessness for the past few decades (a book Mike read described it as a city dominated by cheap guns, cheap drugs, and cheap women). As we stepped off the bus we were immediately confronted with an absolute onslaught of tuk-tuk drivers offering their services. They were by far the most aggressive group we had encountered to date. Mike, taking charge, pointed to one and we were on our way.
Our driver asked us how long we were in town (24 hours) and then proceeded to dictate our itinerary to us (for which he would be our driver). While perhaps a bit more forward than we generally like first dates to be… his plan sounded like a good one so we agreed.
In the afternoon he took us to the Royal Palace, which was not too far from our hotel. An impressive structure, reminiscent of the palace in Bangkok, we wandered around for a while and then it was on to dinner. The highlight of dinner was when all of a sudden all the lights surged and went out! A loud cheer went up from the assembled diners and assorted others…apparently this is not an all together uncommon phonomenon in Phnom Penh.
Having marveled at the splendor of Cambodia/Khmer’s early history while in Angkor, we spent the next morning being absolutely horrified and overwhelmed by its more recent history.
For a while late last year I was hanging out with a Cambodian-American, she had told me bits and pieces about her parents fleeing Cambodia for Arizona. One of the most striking thing about her stories was the fact that as hard as she was trying to convince her mother to come back on a trip, her mother absolutely refused. At the time I had some sense (based on my superficial knowledge of what had happened) of why she might not want to come back, but having seen what we saw that morning I have a much better understanding of how it could be almost unthinkable for someone to come back after going through such horror.
Our day began at Tuol Sleng, the primary prison and interrogation center of S-21 (Khmer Rouge security service). There were several variations on the translation of Tuol Sleng, but a generally accepted one was “the poison hill.” The building started its life as a high school, but was converted by the Khmer Rouge into a symbol of terror and unthinkable cruelty. Classrooms were retrofitted into prison cells and play ground equipment modified into torture devices.
One of the most striking elements was the exhibit of photographs and biographies of the inmates. While our understanding of the complexities of the conflict was somewhat limited, we were struck by the fact that the victims ranged from clear enemies of the regime, to peasants, to intellectuals, to members of the regime itself. The only pattern that emerged from the mix of victims was that no one was safe from the whims and wrath of those in control.
From the prison we took a 30 minute ride out to Choeung Ek, one of the primary and most infamous Killing Fields. The mass graves were mostly excavated in the early 1980′s shortly after the overthrow of the Khmer Rouge regime. The current Choeung Ek site, is dominated by a Buddhist memorial for the victims. Towering about 100ft above the site the stupa is filled with the skulls of victims that were uncovered during the excavation. While Buddhist belief dictates that the soul is seperated from the body at death, the memorial was built with room on each level for air to circulate in case the souls had been trapped since they were denied proper funerals. The memorial is at the same time impressive, horrific, and slightly overwhelming.
Choeung Ek Memorial (with the site of a mass grave that contained the remains of 400 people under the covered structure in the foreground):
Interior of memorial, one of many “shelves”:
The ghastly nature of the memorial is reinforced by the excavated grave sites which surround it. The rectangular pits have since grown over with grass, but the signs next to them detailing the number of bodies found within ensures their horror is fully appreciated.
This morning was by far the most difficult we have had on the trip. While a lot of SE Asian history (as with most other places) was shaped by conflict, the proximity in time and sheer scale of the Khmer Rouge atrocities made this an all together nauseating experience.
-sjp
