Cambodia

After spending a night in Bangkok, we took a bus to the border which took about 4 hours.  At the border some people are running a scam where they pretend to be border control and hand you forms to fill in, and take you to an office and tell you it is THB1200 to leave Thailand, which is totally untrue as it costs nothing!  Nicola has been here before, and we were reading up on forums online so we were a bit clued up on this and refused to part with any money, took our passports back off of them, and walked out of the office to the border post, where there was a sign saying do not pay anyone money to cross the border to exit Thailand!  There was a load of other people in there though who even though we tried to tell them to come with us, I think they stayed and paid up!!  We entered Cambodia where we did pay $20 US,  got our visa and grabbed a taxi to the hotel in Siem Reap we wanted to stay at, which was another 2 hour journey!

The hotel was full, so our driver took us to another place called Bliss Villa, which was cheaper and seemed nice and friendly, so we checked in, showered, organised a driver for the next few days to take us sightseeing and went over the road for dinner.

 

The next morning our driver turned up to take us for our first day sightseeing around Angkor Wat Temples.  We bought a 3 day pass for $40 and off we went in our little tuk tuk!  We start our tour at Angkor Thom, a complex of temples and structures, and then onto a few other stops and temples before settling with a beer at Pre Rup temple to watch the sun go down!

We settled in for an early night as we had an early start the following day!

We were up at 4am today to watch the sunrise over Angkor Wat, the 8th Wonder of the World!!!  It was a beautiful sunrise, well worth getting up for!  I then spent a few hours taking it all in and enjoying the carvings on the walls, depicting the story of the beliefs of the people, the idea of heaven and hell, and reincarnation etc as well as the everyday life of the people.

There is quite a bit of restoration work going on at the temples to preserve them and stop some parts from falling down.

We then moved onto the famous tomb raider temple, Ta Prom, where a lot of the filming was done for the movie.  It is like a maze, must have been splendid in its time, but was crumbling around us, there was a lot of work also going on here too to help restore some of it, but it had so much character with all the trees wrapping their roots around the temples and walls and merging as one!

It was still early when we finished, and we asked our driver to take us to the floating village.  This is a village out in the mangroves built on stilts around Lake Tonle Sap, which by the way is huge, especially at this time as the rains have finished recently!!  I felt like we were at sea it was so big!  The village however is on the waterways around it, where village life seems chilled out to say the least.

There was a police station, a school, temple, restaurants (mainly for tourists) and houses, on which children were playing, jumping off the steps and into the water, people swimming, washing, eating, working, fishing, selling, just carrying on with their daily routine of village life.  People here seemed relaxed and happy, smiling and waving, even the dogs were having fun, swimming and playing!

We stayed for a while and enjoyed lunch at a home stay of some Amok, a local dish, like curry, and watched village life unfold.

We then took a small rowboat and floated into the mangrove forest, it was so peaceful and relaxing, and we had all chilled right out.  Our boat then picked us up and took us out onto the lake for a look around at the views and then we headed back.  The tuk tuk driver took us through another local part of town, where there was a lot of water wells at the houses donated by people for the villagers.

We arrived back at the hotel ready for a nap before our big night out!!  We had a free day tomorrow so decided tonight we would hit the town, or Pub Street anyway!  A good night was had by all and we staggered home at about 2am.  I was so sick but not really sure it was the drink as 2 days later am still not feeling quite right :(  The night scene here is similar to Thailand, same, same but different!!!

The next day I remained in bed as was still throwing up in the morning, tried to make it to breakfast, got about 2 mins down the road and had to go back as started spinning out.  Luckily we had booked the room for the day as we were getting the night bus to Phnom Penh at midnight, so I stayed in the room and slept and watched movies all day!  Counting down the hours until I had to board that bus, I so hoped I would feel ok by then!!!

The bus arrived and I was feeling a bit better now and had even managed to eat some rice so all good, and keep it down!  The 6 hour journey went by without incident, I lay in my bunk gazing out the window at the stars as we drove onwards.  It was pitch dark outside and the night sky was so clear, you could make out the constellations easily as they were shining so brightly!  I was hoping to see a shooting star, but no such luck.  After a while I dropped off to sleep and before I knew it we were there, 6am ahead of schedule!

We found Lee a tuk tuk driver, or should I say he found us.  We loaded our stuff and he found us a hotel.  We slept for a couple more hours until a more sociable time, and Lee picked us up at 10.30am to tour the Killing Fields and Tuol  Sleng Prison S-21.

We knew this was going to be a very difficult and sad day, but we owe it to all those who died here not to forget them, and to learn from the mistakes of others to make sure something like this is never allowed to happen again!  When I was a child, I remember seeing pictures on the news of the famine in Cambodia, back in the 80's, and I always thought it was in Africa for some reason.  Cambodia is such an amazingly beautiful country, when you see it you could not imagine that something so tragic and heartbreaking, and on a scale so big could have happened here, under those circumstances to these warm, friendly smiling people who make this place so special.  How anyone could perform those atrocities to these people is beyond comprehension, especially when you learn it was Cambodians killing Cambodians!!  Uneducated, brainwashed, scared people forced to commit crimes they will have to live with for the rest of their lives and possibly longer by educated leaders who ruled by fear and preyed on these vulnerable people who were still reeling from the effects of being bombed continuously through the Vietnam war!!  And still they have come through this, still smiling through the sadness, a new generation of youth who were not alive through the bad times, and only remember through the stories and what they are taught, lest they ever forget!  Through the years of the Pol Pot regime of the Khmer Rouge in the late 1970's which wiped out a quarter of the population of Cambodia in the killing Fields and prisons, about 3 million people, to include the famine of the 80's, they have picked themselves back up, dusted themselves off and got on with rebuilding a new Cambodia, one of proud people who will always remember, but have come through hell and back and survived unlike so many others before them!

The Killing Fields of Choeung Ek was where we visited.  It was well set up for tourists to learn about the atrocities which happened there by way of an audio set which you could take around and listen to at your leisure, taking time to absorb everything you were hearing, as unbelievable as it was. Most people, including me, were just walking around, or sitting on one of the many benches placed there and crying, until they could compose themselves enough to move on to the next number.  The tour started by telling you about how the prisoners were bought from Tuol Sleng prison, S-21 as it was known, and told they were being moved to new accommodation, handcuffed and blindfolded in the back of trucks.  These people were not criminals, they were the educated, doctors, lawyers, professionals, infact even speaking another language or wearing glasses was enough to put you there, as they were seen as a threat to the new regime, who wanted uneducated people who would not cause trouble or ask questions, to rule over.  There was even some foreigners who had got somehow caught up in all this mess amongst the dead!

The prisoners were offloaded and taken one by one to the pits where they were placed on the edge and bludgeoned to death with whatever was to hand, bamboo, agricultural tools like hoes etc, they would also use sharp leaves from the tree to slit their throats first so they could not scream.  The people did not always die and so a chemical was spread over the pit once full of bodies to finish them off and stop the smell.  Bullets were too expensive so this is how it was done!  At one point about 100 people were being executed per night and at this time a holding room called dark and gloomy detention was used where they might remain for a night.  Music of the revolution was played by loudspeaker in the trees to drown out any sounds of people screaming!

We then moved onto one of the mass graves where 450 bodies were found.  The most surprising thing I found about the place was how beautiful, calm and peaceful it was here!  Like a summer meadow, there were flowers blooming, an orchard, birds singing and butterflies everywhere, hundreds of colourful butterflies, fluttering around you as you walked.  It was like the spirits of all those poor tortured people at peace at last!  I can't really explain it any differently, that is how it felt to me!  I have never been to a place of so much contrast in my life as I felt here, the horrors of the past and the beauty and peace of the present merging as one in memory of those less fortunate who perished here!  The emotions I felt were pain and sadness, but also joy and happiness, it was surreal!!

I then went for a sit by the water to take it all in, and listened on the audio player to some stories from eye witnesses to events which took place at this time, a woman who lost her baby to starvation, a witness to a murder of a woman accused of stealing 2 bananas, who was innocent, a rape victim, and an escapee who fled to America through Thailand by foot, all still suffering from the trauma of what occurred here.

Around the Killing Fields, as far as the eye can see there is just rice paddies, the river and farmland, it is a very scenic setting to say the least!

The audio then guided me to some glass boxes filled with the victims' clothing, and bones and teeth and then a tree, called The Killing Tree.  This was used to smash the heads of children and infants against to kill them, often in front of their mothers, as depicted in the picture above!

 

I then finished at the Stupa, a memorial built, which houses thousands of skulls of those found here before taking a quick look around the museum, which had more information on what is happening to the people responsible for these atrocities and the truth of what went on here.  Pol Pot is now dead, and his allies are still on trial I believe, but they are all old now and have had their lives, not much justice, although the former prison director of S-21 Duch as he was known has confessed and apologised and taken responsibility for the deaths of all those who died there, which may give some comfort to the families of the victims.  Upon visiting the Killing Fields during the trial it is said he broke down and  confessed to what happened there. The others on trial are still in Denial of any responsibility.  How they can live with themselves is beyond me!!

 

We stopped off to regroup and grab some lunch, all still feeling dazed and sombre before heading to Tuol Sleng S-21 Prison, which before the Khmer Rouge took it over was a school, hard to imagine now!

What once were classrooms, had now been converted into cells and torture chambers for the use of the Khmer Rouge.  Thousands of innocent people perished here under torture, disease, sickness and starvation, forced into false confessions under torture of being allies of the CIA or the KGB, or plotting against the dictatorship, and once confessions were obtained, usually from methods like beatings, electric shock, hanging and dunking into water, pulling out nails and constant questioning until they could take no more, and as they were not guilty they would just make up stuff for the torturing to end!  They were taken to the killing Fields and slaughtered there.  20,000 is the estimated figure, as the official figures do not include the children.  Can you believe they even killed babies and children in fear of revenge in the future by them for the crimes carried out against their families.

 

The killing of all these innocent people in itself is horrific enough, but what they endured before that, the pain and suffering of being slowly starved and tortured, living in fear for an average of about 2-4 months before they were killed, in these cells, alone and in fear, tortured and broken, until death would have been a release!  Barbed wire was even put up to stop them from committing suicide, by jumping from the top of the buildings.  Their stance was better to kill an innocent, then let an enemy of the regime live.

The haunted faces looking at you through the pictures, as they were all photographed as they entered the prison, and records were kept of everyone. Out of 20,000 people who entered only seven survived to tell their story, picture directly above.

Some of the other pictures on display there showed slave labourers working the fields, and it always amazes me that children despite everything, will always be children, and even in hard times still had the spirit and innocence of childhood and were smiling and laughing during their daily tasks!

 

Another fact I found hard to believe was that these mass murderers responsible were representing their country at the United Nations while the rest of the world let them be welcomed as if they were respected decent members of society!  I guess maybe the truth of what happened here had not been fully understood then!  After such a chilling day I was feeling emotionally and physically drained and just wanted to chill in the room and write this up while it was all fresh in my memory, not that it will ever be something I will forget seeing!

Bloodstains in the cells!

It is the people that make Cambodia what it is!  A warm, happy, relaxed place full of smiles, a place with a horrific past but a bright future, and at present I couldn't think of a nicer place to be!  I Still find it hard looking around now to believe this was once a place no one would ever have wanted to be, a living hell, and to see all the food being grown here, rice paddies everywhere, and the richest source of freshwater fish in the world, to fathom the disarray this country was in after it was liberated to have entered into a state of famine, as the population tried to piece back together their lives and find their loved ones, most of whom would never be found!  Everyone we have met here has made us feel welcome and can't do enough for you, and I know they rely heavily on tourism for money, but it is more then that, they are sincere and you can feel that in their presence!  Cambodia sill has issues, as most countries around the world does, money, power and greed are always going to be there in corrupt people and governments, but today the people are positive and hopeful, and today this is a good place to be for future generations to come!!

Today, on a lighter note we will see the palace and silver pagoda, before catching the bus to Vietnam!