Arriving in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh, late as ever, we jumped in a tuk-tuk to a cheap hotel. Whilst a little strange, the hotel room was clean and quiet, with a balcony overlooking the street and a granny perpetually sat at the bottom of the stairs (?!).
Whilst in Phnom Penh we had planned to visit some of the Khmer Rouge sites, not easy places to visit but we were keen to find out more about this terrible period in Cambodian history. Our first stop was the S21 prison, a former primary school located fairly centrally in the city. Walking into the leafy courtyard it was difficult to imagine the atrocities which occured here between 1975-1979. During the Khmer Rouge period the school was hastily converted into a series of tiny cells and torture chambers. It was highly fortifid and insulated to prevent the few people left in Phnom Penh from hearing the screams of the prisoners. Most of the inhabitants of the city had been forced out into the field to work for the Khmer Rouge's distorted view of a utopian society. What struck us the most and angered us was the hypocrasy of the leaders: most had been educated to degree level in France, subsequently returning to murder anyone seen as intellectual, wearing glasses was a simple enough reason for you to be killed. Poets would have also been persecuted, as were painters...however, it was very important that Pol Pot's image was recreated as many times as possible and several of the 7 survivers of S21 did so by producing portrait after portrait of Pol Pot (what a twisted egotist this guy was).
We decided to then visit the killing fields outside Phnom Penh to complete these emotionally draining sites in one day. Once again, walking into the Killing Fields it is hard to imagine now what crimes were commited here in the peaceful countryside. We listened to an incredibly well presented audio tour, narrated by a survivor of the killing fields. He talked us through each of the harrowing sites, explaining what went on at each. Prisoners were oftern bludgeoned to death in front of their own graves to save ammunition and were trasported for execution at night whilst loudspeakers blared out party slogans and songs, once again to hide what was goin on. The most horrific part was the large tree growing next to a mass grave....this was where the soldiers would swing babies and young children against the trunk in front of their mothers before tossing them into the grave. How the Khmer rouge leaders currently on trial in Phnom Penh can deny any knowledge of these atrocities is beyond us. It is a tragedy that it has taken this long to start the lengthy process of bringing them to justice. We both feel angry that Pol Pot died without facing trial, although perhaps the knowledge that his "ideals" had failed so abysmally caused him some sort of pain. Perhaps the most poignant and dramatic demonstration of what occurred was the memorial stupa, built in elegant Buddhist style and housing over 8000 skulls of those who were murdered here.
The next day was much more cheerful.....we visited some temples and the Royal Palace, with its beautiful ornate gardens and Silver Pagoda. We also seemed to find ourselves in the middle of a Sunday festival with families strolling along the promenade, eating sugar cane and floating decorative candles down the river (some of which were being intercepted by some local kids, keen to extract the offering of money within!).
Penom Penh was a bustling city which we enjoyed more than we expected....once we developed sufficient courange to cross roads (best method is to walk out slowly and at a consistent speed allowing the barrage of mopeds to adjust their course and avoid you). Crossroads had to be seen to be believed....there were no road markings and no traffic lights; no-one had right of way and everyone had right of way but somehow it seems to work!
We saw the usual array of strange foods whilst walking around the streets including a lady setting up her bug stall, carefully pouring thousands of differently sized, crisply-fried beetles and crickets into containers.
