Once entering onto the soil of Cambodia, a wave of relief swept
over us. Instantly, we noticed the people were different. Very different. They
were all so nice! REALLY nice, to the point where we were very suspicious at
first. Then we would get embarrassed when they'd apologize and thank us over
and over for the smallest things.
We started out in Phnom Phen with a brand new couple, Brad and Trish whom we'd
met along the way. We settled into our very expensive en suite room, over looking
the lake, for a ghastly $4.00 a night! Ha! We loved Cambodia already. The area by the
lake was amazing. There was a strip of bar restaurants along the water that
were so chilled out, but to us were expensive. A whole $3.00 for a meal! Ludicrous!
: )
The next day we hired a tuk tuk driver for the day to take us around to a
number of sites. Our first stop was S-21, an elementary school taken over by
the Khmer Rouge when they gained power, which was turned into a prison and
torture building for four years. Since that was only about 30 years ago, our
guide lived through it and told us his own horrific experiences. The prison has
been left exactly how it was and we were shocked to see dried blood still on
the cell floors. Hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians were taken here
and killed just for being educated. We didn't think that things could get more
gruesome after the War Remnant Museum
in Vietnam,
but it got much, much worse. On our way out of S-21 there were dozens of
severely burned and disfigured people walking around like zombies, begging
outside the gates. It was very sad and very disturbing.
From there we went straight to the killing fields. Yes, it’s a movie.
Definitely see it. The killing fields used to be an orchard, then the Khmer
Rouge started killing off hundreds of civilians a day and burying them, some
still alive, in mass burial sites. Almost the entire ground in a quarter of the
orchard has been excavated with small paths to walk between the large ditches
that remain. Over half is still not excavated and hundreds of thousands off
bodies still remain under the earth. Shocking, was the large monument in the
middle of the fields with layer upon layer of human skulls, categorized into
sex and age. It was overwhelming to say the least. What was even more horrific
were the human bones with rags still attached to them, sticking out of the ground,
which we noticed as we walked around. Actual human skeletons sticking out of
the ground! Things you would never see in the western world. Two million
Cambodians were killed in that four year period and Cambodia's population went down by
a full quarter. It is said that there is nearly an entire generation missing.
How incredibly sad. A really good book that is the personal account of a little
girl recruited by the Khmer Rouge, and one of few to survive, is called, First
They Killed My Father. It is an amazing true story and I highly recommend it.
Well, our day continued to be disturbing. We went to a shooting range where you
can shoot anything from a handgun to an AK-47. I wasn't into it, but of course
boys like to shoot things. In the end no one ended up shooting anything, but we
did find out some very troubling information. The military has realized how
much money they can make from western sickos coming over, wanting to destroy
things. So, on a menu that isn't outright advertised, anyone can order a
chicken, a pig, or a cow, to blow up as their target. How disgusting is that?
Phnom Phen has such an incredible history and you'd think with everything they
have been through that they would be very angry people. During the reign of the
Khmer Rouge, many of the people who were banished into the country had their
residency permanently changed. After the Khmer Rouge were driven out, they
tried to return to the city only to find out that they were still not allowed
to work, so doctors, lawyers, pharmacists, etc. are living in the city
illegally and are forced to scrape by driving tuk-tuks and doing other
comparably low paying jobs. The whole situation is so sad.
The few days in the city had brought our moods down a bit and we decided to
head up north to Siem Reap to see Angkor Wat. This is something some people
wait their whole live to see!
