Hi All,
Phnom Penh
We didn´t get off to a good start in this city.We had booked a guest
house the previous evening only to be told on arrival at the guesthouse
that they had made a mistake and were full.They had however graciously booked
us into a similarly priced guest house just down the road and around
the corner so back into the tuk tuk we climbed only to discover upon
arrival at this guest house that our room was no longer available.It
was nearing 40degrees with 80% humidity so consequently we were a
little hot,a little tired and as you can imagine by
this stage a little annoyed .Fortunately for us there was another
room available at a
substantially increased price.We were so overwhelmed by their
generosity that we left. Our tuk tuk driver turned into our savour and
he
suggested that we go to another guesthouse.We stop in front of a
building which looked pretty bleak from the outside but the driver
assured us that inside we would find a safe and clean refuge. The
grumpy room inspector and bed checker dismounted the tuk tuk and
sidestepped two naughty monkeys that were in the process of stealing
the offerings from the mini temple outside of the guest house and
entered the guesthouse seemingly anticipating the worst.A few minutes
later the room inspector returned and announced that it was as
promised so we unloaded the backpacks and took a business card from
the tuk
tuk driver.The Porter aka Room Inspector carried the packs up the
stairs then tossed the backpacks on to one of the two double beds as
we started to explore the dungeon´s (windowless room) electrical
appliances in the room switching on
things as we located them : air-conditioner was set to 16dgreesC;
Cable TV tuned into Discovery Channel and the refrigerator dialled to
near freezing. Amazingly even the wifi worked so things
were looking up.
After cooling down and rehydrating we decided that it was time to start
exploring.In comparison to tranquil Thailand Phnom Penh is dirty
chaotic and extremely noisy as everyone is beeping their horn for
whatever reason .The streets are choked with motorbikes,scooters,tuk
tuk drivers,pedestrians ,street vendors and the odd car all weaving in
and out of each other.Footpath access is non existent as that it is
used by street vendors,motorbikes,beggars,tuk tuk drivers blocking
access at virtually every corner,street barbers and mechanics stripping
motors.It makes for interesting and challenging walking indeed.
Once the site of horrible crimes against humanity, Cambodia is a
beautiful country with a rich culture and people who, in spite of the
tragedies of only a generation ago, are warm and extremely friendly
.Despite two decades of landmine clearance programs,Cambodia remains
one of the most heavily mined countries in the world Recent figures
released by the Cambodian authorities show that 243
people were killed or injured by landmines and leftover explosives last
year(2009) which apparently represents a 10 percent drop from 2008,
which was itself down on the number of casualties in 2007.
Unfortunately the Cambodian tourism industry is in its infancy and
there is very little infrastructure in place for travelling safely off
the
beaten path and with the estimated millions of landmines still lie in
Cambodia’s soil maybe it is a country that isn´t ready to be explored
yet.
In Phnom Penh we undertook the obligatory sightseeing circuit.
First
Stop -Tuol Sleng (S21)Genocide Museum-A former High school which was
converted
into a
security prison on orders of Pol Pot on 17th April 1975.Inmates at the
prison were held in tiny brick cubicles and systematically
tortured,sometimes over a period of months,to extract the desired
´confessions´,after which the victims was inevitably excuted at the
killing fields of Choeung Ek which is 16km outside the city Phnom
Penh.S-21 processed over 17,000 inmates in a 3 year period of which
only 7
people were said to have survived.It is difficult to imagine that this
was once a place
filled with smiling happy hopeful children because today this places
which remains in much the same state that it was in when the Khmer
Rouge abandoned it in January 1979
feels nothing but evil.Words can not adequately express what it feels
to like to be within the grounds and buildings of S21...........Three
decades on there is still evidence of the atrocities that were
committed with the walls of S21 A single rusty
bed, a pair of leg shackles,plastic gas containers for urine and
faeces and a disturbingly gruesome black and white photograph
is all that
adorns some rooms but in others black stains are evident on the
checked tile floors and we can only assume from their locations and
from
what we have seen in the photographs that they are from large pools
of
blood that have permanently stained the porous tiles.It is extremely
difficult to visit this museum,watch the documentary and see the
thousands of photographs of victims that stare back at you without it
affecting you but I
think that it is important for us to understand Cambodia´s dark past in
order to understand the Cambodia of today.
Killing fields of Choeung Ek
Encased in a white stupa are 9000 human skulls.
We walked around the killing fields and were surprised that we
initially didn't see many bones. A longer walking loop around a pond
led us back to the same area and we suddenly started to notice bone
fragments in the ground near a tree then realised that we were actually
walking on bone fragments for much of the way. Not all of the mass
graves were exhumed so more bones come to the surface after the water
from each wet season washes away more soil. It was a moving and
sensitive area so we felt quite annoyed when we came across some
Americans discussing the best coffee places in the world. Focus. Maybe
this attitude is why people of many nations say 'never again' yet it
keep on happening? People were murdered here and all these people can
think about is coffee!
