Cambodia - Heartbreak, Horror and Hidden Treasures

And so to Cambodia.  This is the last country on the Odyssey trip that I have not been to and one, like Laos, that I had wanted to visit for a while.  It was only a short visit this time round but it took in 2 of the main things to visit in the country - the Killing Fields and Angkor Wat.  But first let's start with the border crossing.  It was one that we were all a bit nervous about as we had heard some dodgy stories about bribes having to be paid to border officials.  Indeed when we got to the border at the Vietnam side and were waiting to be stamped out, our passports were collected and added to a queue.  Then a number of passports that contained some cash appeared to miraculously get further up the queue than ours!  Still, it didn't take too long before our bribe free passports were stamped and we were officially out of Vietnam.  One side down - now for the Cambodian one.  It was a $20 US Dollar visa fee for each of us and we all had the correct money in case they said that they couldn't give us change (a ploy I had read out - a good way of them getting to keep the change).  However, we needn't have worried.  Very quickly all of the visas were issued, passports were stamped and we were off.  No need for any worries, it was actually a fairly simple border crossing.

So now to Phnom Penh, the nation's capital.  We had been advised that there was some protesting going on and there was evidence of this as soon as we hit the city, with streets closed off and thousands of police roaming the streets.  The roads to our hotel were closed and we had to leave the bus and walk for around 15 minutes to our hotel.

Riot police

 



After checking in to the hotel a few guys went out to try and find the Foreign Correspondent's Club for dinner but they were restricted in where they could go by the police.  Many of us stayed in and enjoyed the happy hour cocktails in the hotel bar..... :-)



 

Becs and Fi

Louise

 

 

Teresa, me and Jules

Simon, me, Phil and T

 

 

The next day we were off to the Killing Fields and the S21 Prison to learn about what had happened to Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge regime.  We had been warned to expect a difficult day but nothing could really have prepared us for what we were about to see and hear.  Now I confess I consider myself to be fairly well informed on a number of historical events and I had heard a bit of what went on under the Pol Pot regime but after visiting these sites I confess I was truly ignorant to the horrors of what went on in such a short period during my lifetime.

 

I will give a very brief summary here but I would encourage anyone reading this to take 15 minutes of your time to read a little bit about what happened - it will chill you to the bone.

 

In April 1975 the Khmer Rouge marched on Phnom Penh and took power.  Many cheered them as they marched as the country had been gripped by civil war and they thought that this would signal the end of this and they would now have peace.  How wrong they were.  For the next 4 years Pol Pot and his regime subjected Cambodia to a radical social reform process that was aimed at creating a purely agrarian-based Communist society. The Khmer Rouge forced around two million people from the cities to the countryside to take up work in agriculture. They forced many people out of their homes and ignored many basic human freedoms; they controlled how Cambodians acted, what they wore, whom they could talk to, and many other aspects of their lives. Over the next three years, the Khmer Rouge killed many intellectuals (if you wore glasses you were considered an intellectual!!) city-dwellers, minority people, and many of their own party members and soldiers who were suspected of being traitors.  In total it is estimated that approximately 2 million of the 6 million population were killed in less than 4 years.  It was only in January 1979 that the Vietnamese invaded to put an end to the regime.  Essentially Vietnam, who themselves were less than 4 years out of a war with the Americans, were the ones that came to the rescue of the Cambodian people.  What is also difficult to accept is that the Khmer Rouge were still considered the ruling party and retained their seat on the UN Council until the 90s.

 

That's a very brief history but please read more about it.  As for where we were visiting, we headed first to the Killing fields where mass graves were found after the Khmer Rouge fell.  It was chilling to walk round and hear the stories being told through the audio tour.  What was even more difficult was that as you walked round you could still see remnants of bones, human remains, jutting from the ground due to soil erosion.  The worst part though was the 'Killing Tree' where soldiers used to throw babies against to kill them - truly horrifying.  Here are a few photos.

 

Former Mass grave

Everyone listening to their audio guides

 

 

Prayers bracelets left by mourners at the killing fields

 

Next stop was the Tuol Sleng Genocide museum, or S21 camp.  This is where people were taken to be tortured and interrogated before eventually ending up at the Killing Fields.  The conditions they had to endure were inhumane to say the least.  However, for me the most chilling part was seeing on display the photographs of all the prisoners as they were admitted to the prison.  It really brought it to life as too did all of the pictures of the Khmer Rouge soldiers - many were only children barely 13 years old.  These boys were committing heinous acts on the prisoners as they were being told to by adults that they trusted and who, more importantly, were feeding them to keep them alive.

 

If the photographs on the walls were not enough to bring home the  full extent of what had happened, our guide helped too.  She had been 13 year old girl when the Khmer Rouge took power and was forced out of the city to work in the fields.  Her father and her brother disappeared during their rule and she still does not know what happened to them.  Awful.



 

 

 

 

So the warning was right, it was a difficult day but one that was well worth doing.  I suppose what makes it all the harder is knowing that stuff like this still goes on.  Look at Rwanda in the 90s and even Syria just now.  We just don't learn, do we?

 



 

Next stop on our whistle stop tour of Cambodia was Siem Reap to visit the hidden temples of Angkor Wat, considered by many to be the 8th Wonder of the World.  However, they are probably most recognised from the Lara Croft Tomb Raider movie! When we arrived we headed out there to try and see sunset but it was a bit wet and overcast.  Undeterred we made plans for 4am rises to see sunrise and then start our tour of the complex.  Unfortunately the weather once again thwarted our plans with no spectacular sunrise.  Nevertheless we had a good morning exploring the temple complex whilst also trying to imagine what it would have been like to come across them 150 years ago when they would have been covered in jungle!

 

James and Mahala enjoying the view

Becs and Pernille in Tuk Tuk

 

Having breakfast at Angkor Wat

Peek a boo

No climbing!

Owl hiding from us

Can you blame it, I'd be scared of this lot too!

 

Can you guess what it is yet?

 

 

Well deserved meal after being temple'd out

 

Well that's Cambodia over with and I'd definitely recommend it as a place to visit.  The last 3 countries have had difficult histories and it's been hard to deal with at times but I'm glad I've been and learnt a bit more about them.  Onwards to Thailand again for some beach time!

 

Oh, some more Cambodia pics....

Fried insect anyone?

Siem Reap by night

and again

 

 

Cambodian housing...

 

 

 

Monks in Phnom Penh

Frog or ants anyone?

Jo decidedly unimpressed with the menu