Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Our final stop in Cambodia was to be the capital city of Phnom Penh. Compared with our previous 2 stops in the country, this was like a metropolis, relatively-speaking! In our S.E. Asia travels, Alkesh has been quite jumpy about the crazy traffic antics seen on the roads - no such thing as 'safe stopping distances' or lane control - no, no, each man for himself! In fact, funnily enough, the Lonely Planet book says that motorbikes here 'won't stop for you, but they'll try and miss you'! Wonderful! Anyway, traffic-mayhem aside, Phnom Penh had it's share of roundabouts and monuments, shopping malls and large hotels... no major skyscrapers but still clearly a commercial hub.

Our hotel was well located, close to some key tourist attractions as well as the well-developed river front. This area had a wide promenade and opposite the river was a long row of bars and restaurants to suit all tastes and budgets. We spent most of our evenings here, sampling happy hours and different cuisines. We found a great Indian restaurant serving hot pakoras which were delicious! This morning we had a real English fry up with Heinz beans no less. Other cuisines we've eaten have of course been Khmer, pizza, Mexican etc. We also have spent some time with a fellow traveller who came on the boat with us from Siem Reap to Battambang. Since leaving Australia, we've mainly stayed in cheap hotels / guesthouses and we're somewhat missing the social aspect of hostels where it's easier to meet and chat with fellow travelers.

Having traveled for some time now, and learnt what tourist attractions we like, and what we don't like, Alkesh and I had a select list of sites we wanted to visit whilst in Phnom Penh: a mix of harrowing recent history from the Khmer Rouge regime with the seeming opulence of the current Cambodian culture!



National Museum
The only museum we have visited in Cambodia, this one was set in a lovely location with manicured gardens and ponds and beautiful Khmer architecture. The big collection mainly consisted of precious elements from the Angkorian temples - elements that had they been left alone in the temple would surely have been damaged or stolen. We saw impressive statues of Buddha and Vishnu, fighting monkeys, ornate lintels and pediments. There were also fine examples of the ancient Sanskrit / Khmer inscriptions.



Royal Palace and the Silver Pagoda (a.k.a. Temple of the Green Buddha)
Perhaps a little unnecessary, but surprisingly we quite enjoyed seeing the grandeur and opulence of the Royal Palace (still in current use). Tourists were allowed to roam round some of the buildings. Amongst well-maintained gardens, large buildings with the characteristic Khmer pointy roofs and ornate gilding surrounded us. The Silver Pagoda is so named because it's floored with 5000 silver tiles, each weighing over 1 kg. It is also known as Wat Preah Keo which means the Pagoda of the Emerald Buddha, thanks to a Buddha statue made of Baccarat crystak. There is also a life-size gold Buddha, weighing in a 90kg and decorated with 9584 diamonds, the biggest of which was 25 carat!
Alas, no pictures were allowed in side the magnificent Silver Pagoda.



After the soothing day of light tourist sites, we braced ourselves for a far more hard-hitting second day as we sought to find out more about the atrocities carried out during the Khmer Rouge regime.

Some background for you first of all:

• In March 1970, Cambodia's then Prime Minister Sihanouk was overthrown by General Lon Nol.
  
• Sihanouk took up residence in Beijing, China from where he set up a government-in-exile that allied itself with an indigenous Cambodian revolutionary movement, dubbed as the Khmer Rouge. Violence engulfed many parts of Cambodia.
• In the following years, Khmer Rouge recruited many rural Cambodians to join it's forces as 'combatants'.
• On 17 April 1975, the Khmer Rouge took Phnom Penh. Khmer Rouge ruled from 1975 to 1979 - it's leader was Pol Pot.
• During the regime, Khmer Rouge implemented one of the most radical and brutal re-structurings of a society ever attempted. It's goal was to transform Cambodia into a giant peasant-dominated agrarian cooperative.



• Within days, the entire populations of Phnom Penh and other provincial towns were forced to march into the countryside and work as slaves for 12 to 15 hours a day.
• Well-educated intellectuals (who threatened the concept of an agrarian society) were systematically wiped out.
• Under Pol Pot's rule, Cambodia quickly became a vast slave labour camp.
• Finally Khmer Rouge rule was brought to an end by the Vietnamese, who liberated the almost-empty city of Phnom Penh on 7 January 1979.
• The exact number of deaths during the regime (3 yrs, 8 months and 20 days) is still unknown - most accepted estimate is at least 1.7 million people perished at the hand of Pol Pot and his followers. Some believe the number is as high as 3 million.
  

Tuol Sleng Museum - Security Prison 21 (S-21)
Once a centre of learning, Tuol Svay Prey High School was taken over by Pol Pot's scurity forces in 1975. They transformed the classrooms into torture chambers, renaming the facility S-21. At the height of it's activity, some 100 victim were sentenced to death every day.
As we walked around the eerily still grounds of the former school, we felt sick at learning about the atrocities that took place here. Babies were killed because their crying was too noisy.



Children were killed because the Khmer Rouge feared that they may seek revenge when they grew up. Men were tortured daily for up to 6 months, interrogated for information of traitors, before being killed - many died before that due to starvation and slave labour. Families of intellectuals were kept in small rooms, packed together in groups of 50-60 per room. The Khmer Rouge had devilish ways of torturing their victims - I cannot bring myself to write them here.
It was a sombre visit - so much destruction. The whole of Phnom Penh has been re-built in the last 30 years; the mean population age is just 21 or so because so many of the older people were killed during the Khmer Rouge regime. It's amazing to see how the country exists today, with such a dark and bleak recent past.



Killing Fields of Choeung Ek
Most of the 17,000 detainees held at the S-21 prison were executed at Choeung Ek, some 14km southwest of Phnom Penh. Prisoners were often bludgeoned to death to avoid wasting precious bullets. Victims were buried in mass graves, some with hundreds of corpses.





During the Khmer Rouge regime, 167 Security Prisons were set up and so far some 343 killing sites have been discovered. Over the past 3 decades since the end of the cruelties, over 19,440 mass graves have been uncovered.
It was a sad sight. Alkesh and I are shocked to think something this terrible could happen in modern day - in our lifetimes.


And so that brings us to the end of our time in Cambodia. It has been very interesting but we've seen so many different facets of Cambodia: from the ancient Angkorian temples, to modern day rural Cambodian life; from the delights of current Khmer art and religion to the sickening events from the 1970s. Amongst all of this, the people of Cambodia remain strong, positive and happy. Incredible!