Pearl of Asia

Our bus to Phnom Penh was scheduled to leave at 11 AM. So we got to the station at around 10:40. We waited with Scott, Andrea, and their tuk tuk driver until about noon when they finally started loading up. We waited on the bus for about 20 minutes before we finally rolled out of the station. A few minutes later, the bus stopped to pick up more people. Why those people couldn't have just walked to the bus stop, and how they knew the bus would be driving by at that time, I don't know. We stopped in front of someone's house to pick up a package. We drove around town for an hour making all sorts of stops - Jordi and I had no idea what was happening. We finally left Battambang somewhere around 1 PM, and were barreling along the road. The bus didn't slow down for anything, not the cars in front of him, nor the oncoming traffic. Throughout the journey we made several other stops, sometimes so the driver could get out and go to the bathroom, sometimes it was a roadblock and some guys would get out and go sit down and chat with the police for a while before climbing back on. Sometimes the bus would stop and certain people would get off, and get back on again a bit later. I wish I knew what everybody was up to!! We were entertained the entire time by Cambodian Karaoke music, as well as a classic Kung Fu movie. Although the TV up front was held together with tape, the surround sound in the bus almost exploded my eardrums! We finally made it to Phnom Penh at about 6 PM. It was raining, and we had no idea where we were. Luckily, the Swards tuk-tuk driver had a friend in Phnom Penh whom he called to pick us up from the station. So he was there with our names on a piece of paper, and it was really nice to know we could trust him and not have to pick from the dozens of drivers who were vying for our business. He took us to a guest house near the center of the tourist district on the river. We checked into our room, which was fine but moldy. I told Jordi, "It's really moldy. I'm going to get sick." I wasn't complaining, just stating the facts. Jordi didn't seem to mind, and I didn't feel like finding a different room, so we stayed there for two nights. (And I got sick.)
Our first night in Phnom Penh we walked through the night market, and then found a little restaurant to have dinner. We walked along the river for a bit, and then showered and went to bed and had moldy dreams.

We spent the next morning booking bus and plane tickets that we needed, until our tuk-tuk driver came to take us around. In most capital cities, the touristy things to see are river walks or parks, palaces or cathedrals, government buildings and museums. Although Phnom Penh, once known as the Pearl of Asia, does have all these things, what most people go and see are the Killing Feilds and Tuol Sleng, a high school turned into a prison/torture chamber. In many countries, you can see war memorials, statues, and monuments. In Phnom Penh, the city itself is a war memorial. Just over 30 years ago the entire city was evacuated, bombed, its people mass murdered or herded to the countryside. It was a little bit depressing walking around this city, the proudly delapidating French architecture along the Mekong River giving glimpses into what I could imagine was once a beautiful city.
We only had one full day in Phnom Penh, and we chose to see the Killing Feilds and Tuol Sleng instead of the historical museums and palaces because we thought it was important to know where these people were so recently coming from. Almost all Cambodians have been affected one way or another by the war. Most have lost numerous family members, and something like 70% of the population is under 30 - many of them born in refugee camps. Our tuk-tuk driver (30, and born in Thailand) took us first to see the Killing Feilds. This is probably one of the worst places i've ever seen in my life, a horrible attribution to the absolute cruelty of man to man. I've seen the bloody temples of Tikal and the ovens of Auschwitz, but the horrible thing about this was its absolute base-ness. It's a small field outside of the city where they drove truckloads of prisoners. Within this small field are dozens of "holes" which were actually mass graves of hundreds of people. They found almost 9,000 bodies in an area of a small park. They killed the people (who were already tortured at Tuol Sleng) with bamboo sticks and iron rods taken from oxen carts, rarely "wasting" bullets on them. Sometimes the killers were as young as preteens. (One of the men on trial for crimes against humanity is in his early 40's!)

It was a very disturbing and sad trip, and I appreciated that they had a good informative museum explaining the politics etc, as well as a wall around the field keeping out beggars and preserving peace and solemnity. My dad told me the first time he went to the KF, there was nothing out there - no wall, museum, or anything, it was super eerie. The second time he went, it was like a zoo with everyone trying to sell him stuff while he walked around. So I think they have done a good job finding a balance.

Our next stop was Tuol Sleng, a high school in the middle of town. It looked like a nice high school, with tile floors, corridors, breezy stairways, and a courtyard. I could easily imagine high schoolers in the 60's and early 70's going to class and doing their thing. Blink, and a nightmare has arrisen. The buildings are covered in barbed wire, the shuttered windows have bars on them. The classrooms are turned into torture chambers, with medieval torture devices. Upstairs classrooms have walls built into them, fitting 30-40 prisoners per room in solitary cells. Out of the tens of thousands of prisoners kept here, only 7 survived.

We walked along the river that night, they are redoing the river walk, putting in a great big sidewalk with palm trees in the middle. It will be really nice when it's done! I see the progress Cambodia is trying to make, and I wonder how it would have been had they not gone through such calamity. Cambodians are yearning for change, better lives, a place in the world. With the Prime Minister himself an ex-Khmer Rouge and in power for the last 30 years, we can only pray!

We ended our night at a restaurant called Friends, part of an organization that takes street kids and teaches them restaurant and customer service skills. The best food EVER and really great decor. For anyone thinking about going to Phnom Penh, this restaurant is a must!

I am glad I got to see everything we saw, if only to have a greater understanding and appreciation of Cambodians past and pain. They are some of the sweetest and most polite people I've ever encountered, and I look foward to visiting the country again.