30 October 2016 Battambang to Phnom Phen, Cambodia
We took a Tuk-tuk to the Post Office where we boarded the Post Bus. The post office runs a service between various towns primarily to deliver mail, but has extended their service to use mini buses and offer seats to passengers. It’s a little bit cheaper than the commercial services ($7US for the six hour journey).
Unfortunately, they allocated us seats 1 & 2 which are the front two seats by the driver. One was a normal seat, but the other was a horrible narrow, high seat in the middle. We set off with Glenys perched on this middle seat. After twenty minutes, we realised that there was a proper, comfortable empty seat in the back, so after a lot of hassle, we managed to persuade the driver to pullover, so we could change seats.
Despite grabbing proper seats, it was an uncomfortable six hour journey along some roads in very poor condition and we arrived in Phnom Pehn after five o’clock. We took a Tuk-tuk to the Grand Palais hotel, arriving just before the heavens opened and it threw it down. It rained hard for the rest of the evening, so we couldn’t be bothered to go out for a meal and instead shared a fabulous burger and pizza in the hotel bar.
31 October 2016 Phnom Phen, Cambodia
Today we focused on the genocide carried out by the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s. We first visited the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, which is also called Security Prison S21, where 20,000 people were imprisoned, tortured and, after they had confessed, were taken to an execution centre and murdered.
The Khmer Rouge started as a communist group fighting a bitter guerrilla war with the Cambodian government forces. Having gained power in 1975 under the leadership of the notorious Pol Pot, they began a radical social program to change Cambodia to a ultra-communist Agrarian (farming) society. A ruling council called the Angkar dictated the life (or death) of the Cambodian people. Over 2 million people died during their four year reign - half died of malnutrition and disease, while the other one million people were physically killed by the regime.
The Khmer Rouge emptied the cities and forced people into labour camps in the countryside. The people were forced to work long hours, with meagre subsistence rations. Anyone deemed to be against the regime was sent off to one of the 20,000 prison camps, tortured and killed. Intellectuals, previous government workers and various ethnic races (Vietnamese, Thai, Chinese) were targeted and imprisoned.
Even the wearing of spectacles or being able to speak French was a sure sign that you were an intellectual and you would be carted off. Hypocritically, most of the Khmer Rouge leaders were university educated. Pol Pot in particular was educated in a Paris university, spoke French fluently and had a love of French Literature. Son Sen, who oversaw the Party's security organisation and was ultimately responsible for Prison S21, wore glasses.
The thing that most amazed me was that until 1993 the UN and most of the western world recognised Pol Pot’s Kymer Rouge government in exile as the official Cambodian government and they held a seat on the UN - it was an incredible 12 years before the world recognised the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge genocide.
We spent two hours walking around the Prison S21, listening to an audio guide, which gave a very good history of the place with some heart-breaking accounts of people who survived the terrible times. There are thousands of photographs of victims displayed in the rooms used to hold prisoners.
The officer in charge of the prison, Comrade Duch, was fanatical about keeping records of each prisoner and would only approve the killing of the victim after a signed confession was extracted by torture. There were even rules that victims had to obey while under torture including “While getting lashes or electrification, you must not cry at all.” It was all very depressing.
We continued on to the Choeung Ek Genocidal Center, one of the better known Killing Fields. This place has 129 mass graves, 86 of which were excavated and 8,985 corpses were exhumed. The largest mass grave was a grave containing 450 corpses. The government has built a large stupa containing the skulls and other bones of the 8,985 victims, which are displayed behind glass panels - it’s a very sobering place.
Once again we used an audio guide, which was excellent, guiding us around the site passing mass graves and even a patch of ground which has been partially excavated revealing human remains. One of the worst spots is the Killing Tree where, in order to save bullets, the soldiers killed children by bashing them against the tree and then throwing their bodies into a pit at the side of the tree. It’s very hard to understand the evil brutality of the soldiers who did the killing.
Back in Phnom Phen city, we went for a stroll in the afternoon, down to the river where it’s very touristy with lots of budget hotels, bar and restaurants. As we strolled along the riverside, we were approached by a bald man in saffron robes, who put bead bracelets on our wrists and blessed us. He asked for a $2 donation, which seemed a bit odd, but by this time I was off balance and didn’t want to upset a Buddhist Monk. I gave him $2US, then as he walked away, I realised that he wasn't a monk and I’d been conned – I sulked for a couple of hours - it's not the money, it's the principle of the thing.
1 November 2016 Phnom Phen, Cambodia
After having a quick look around the central market, which is full of tourist souvenirs, we walked to the river front. It’s a challenge walking down the street here – the pavements are packed with motor bikes; food stalls; people sitting about; and any objects that the shops feel like dumping there. Consequently, you either weave your way through the bedlam on the pavements or risk death on the road from motorbikes, tuk-tuks and cars.
The traffic is chaotic – probably even more so than in the other east-Asian countries that we’ve visited. They drive on the right and the motor bikes and Tuk-tuks are constantly weaving about. At a crossroads, it appears to be a simply a game of chicken – no giving way here.
One strategy that motorbikes adopt is that when turning left, instead of crossing traffic approaching from the left, they turn left immediately, hugging the pavement against the flow of traffic and then when a slight gap appears they dive across the road. This is very disconcerting at first and a hazard when crossing junctions because motorbikes can attack from any direction.
At the river, we found that there is a small community of people living on long-tail boats. Doing some research, I found that there are about 100 families living in the Phnom Phen area on these 10 metre long narrow boats. They eke out a subsistence-living by fishing in the muddy, fast flowing river and selling a small number of fish in the local markets. There’s pressure from the government to remove them from around Phnom Phen and their consequential lack of access to the market will make their way of life unsustainable.
We were hoping to visit the Grand Palace, which is the official residence of the King of Cambodia, but it was closed for some official occasion. Instead we visited the National Museum, which was okay, but very small. We couldn’t face another Cambodian lunch of curry and rice, so we bought a baguette and a tin of tuna and retired back to hotel room.
In the afternoon, we went to a bar called “The Empire” that has a small cinema upstairs where we watched “Killing Fields” which was very moving after what we saw yesterday. The film was made in 1984, just five years after the Kymer Rouge were kicked out of Cambodia. Again, I cannot believe that western governments continued to allow the Kymer Rouge to hold a place on the UN council until 1993 - did they not go to the cinema or read newspapers?
The bar is run by an English guy who has a range of western meals, so I took the opportunity to have my last Pork spare ribs before we return to Muslim Malaysia tomorrow.
2 November 2016 Phnom Phen to Admiral Marina, Malaysia
We caught a Tuk-tuk to the airport, battling through the chaotic traffic. I found being in Phnom Pehn very frenetic and I’d become weary of being hassled every time we stepped onto the streets, so it was a great relief to walk into the calm, air-conditioned, blandness of the airport.
The two hour flight was on time and pleasant. We grabbed a cab and were back at the marina by 15:00. Thankfully, the boat hasn’t sunk; or been overrun by ants; or been hit by lightning; or spontaneously burst into flames. We plugged in the air-conditioning, had a few beers, a sandwich and had an early night.
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