We arrived in the capital and largest city of
Cambodia after a fairly short (4-6 hour) bus ride from Siem Reap. Phnom Penh is
a beautiful city… very French, from its architecture to sidewalk cafes, bakeries
and more. The city is located along the banks of the Mekong River and walking
along the river at night with Travis reminded me of walking along the Seine in
Paris. One day we will walk along that river hand-in-hand as well and maybe
think of the Mekong and Phnom Penh.
Of course, with its' beauty came its' history…
a very brutal side to such a beautiful and once again thriving city. After a
day or two of walking around the city, enjoying happy hour at the FCC (Foreign
Correspondence Club— today a bar/restaurant/hotel… in the 70’s it was a hub and
a home from home for the journalists and photographers who were capturing the
sites and stories of the Vietnam war and subsequent years), we went to The
Killing Fields.
There are a number of sites in
Cambodia where large numbers of people were killed and buried by the Khmer
Rouge regime. The regime’s rule of the country lasted from 1975 to 1979. Of
course visiting a site like this is incredibly gut and heart wrenching… and
extremely painful. It was hard to know that where we stood and walked was where
so much fear was felt and such brutality occurred. You can see I posted some of
the pictures.
We also visited the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum (a former
high school used as a concentration camp by the Khmer Rouge). You could tell it had once been a school.
There were still some chalkboards on the walls and it was easy to see what were
once classrooms had been turned into small cells, detention and torture
chambers. The building now houses exhibits, paintings and many photographs of
the victims… there were rooms after rooms filled with pictures of anonymous
victims. It was devastatingly overwhelming seeing the faces of so many men,
women, children, mother’s holding their babies—knowing what happened to them
and how frightened they must have been. In many of the pictures, most of them,
you can see the fear in their eyes… also confusion. It was horrible.
The hotel we stayed at while we were in Phnom Penh, The
Europe Guesthouse, is owned by a man named Seng and his wife, Mey. Seng’s
family fled Cambodia for Paris when he was a little boy to avoid the Khmer
Rouge. After 30 years in France, Seng came back to visit Phnom Penh for the
first time about 10 years ago. He met his wife on this vacation. We didn’t get
the chance to meet his wife or two little girls as they were away for a family
wedding, but saw pictures and they’re just gorgeous! Seng told us he would love to move back to
Paris… he misses France terribly (his family and friends are all still there),
but with a wife who only speaks Khmer (and has no want to leave her country or
family), two young daughters and a flourishing business, Seng will most likely
remain in Cambodia for awhile longer. I have a feeling they will move back to
France one day. Meeting Seng was certainly a highlight of our trip.
