Monday was a normal day at school followed by a lovely evening with Jordana and mummy jordana who was in fukui visiting the gizzard. Mami, Yoshimi and Jill were also there. It was a really fun evening in a nabe restaurant. The food was delicious! On Tuesday I went to school and then I packed my bag in the evening, yay!
21st December-
Meagan and I took the train down to Kansai airport straight after school on Wednesday 20th. I had been beyond excited all day at school and this was heightened by the fact I had no lessons and so I sat around wishing time would go quicker. But as it always does, time passed and we were in the deserted airport at midnight. We flew at 1.25am and arrived in Bangkok 5hrs later. We then had a small wait there before our one hour flight to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. All the trains and planes were on time which was a miracle and we arrived in Phnom Penh early on Thursday morning. Blue skies and a cool but nice breeze greeted us in PP and I was very excited! We took a taxi to Capitol Guesthouse which was mentioned in the holy book- the lonely planet, and much to our delight they had a 3 person room for 6 dollars a night, bargain. Obviously it was a bit of a hole and turned out to be a tad noisy, but I was chuffed to be spending so little. We wanted to start our adventures as soon as possible so after a quick freshening up session we were on our way out on a lawn mower, I mean tuk tuk. Our first place of visit were the Choeung ek genocidal center or the ‘killing fields’. We decided to do something depressing first to get it out of the way. This was a site were thousands of Cambodians were brought to be murdered by the Khmer Rouge during the 1970s. Men, women and children from every walk of life were killed in order to pursue the Khmer Rouge’s Eugenics movement where they aimed to eradicate the Cambodian population and create their own society. They wanted to create a society where people would live a peasant communist life. In order to do this they had to get rid of those who couldn’t be moulded. Hence children were used in the Khmer Rouge’s army, as it was hoped that they would be the first generation of their society.
The killing fields was a sight a few km from PP. It has a large building in the middle of the sight that is filled with bones, skulls and clothing which was found when the site was excavated. It was horrific. It was difficult to actually understand what I was seeing. Human lives ended with such ease and atrocious violence. This building was then surrounded by grass which had hollowed out areas- where the bodies had been found. I didn’t like walking around this area at all. Clothing was still visible sticking out of the ground and the trees still stood which had been used by soldiers to beat children against until they died. Words cannot really describe. And these events are still so relatively recent. Every Cambodian has a story to tell about how the Khmer Rouge killed someone they knew or members of their family. And the details are still so clear. In such a short amount of time I had already learnt so much about Cambodia and Cambodians. It was astounding to see smiles on faces and recognize the strength people have to overcome what has happened to them, and build fruitful lives.
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22nd – We basically did nothing the previous night due to tiredness. But we were now ready and refreshed to see lots of PP. first we had breakfast at a place close to the hostel. We then walked to the National Museum which holds many ancient Cambodian treasures. The artifacts were interesting- well those I understood anyway- but the best feature of the museum was the garden in the middle of the museum. It was beautiful. It contained pools, bright flowers, bushes and a few Buddha statues. We sat for a while basking in the sunshine and contemplating the history of Cambodia. .JPG)
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After this we took a stroll to the nearby river which was aligned with many national flags-although we failed to spot the British or American flags! This stroll along the river was not as leisurely and tranquil as planned due to the vast number of beggars and vendors waiting for their prey. We ended up buying fresh fruits- of which I tried my first lotus fruit- and we tried the national delicacy of spider! Cambodians eat many fried insects such as beetles, grasshoppers, crickets and big black poisonous spiders. So after I watched Aleema and Meagan survive the experience of eating a spider, I submitted to peer pressure! It was fine. It just tasted of oil and spices.
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Seeing as the spiders hadn’t sufficed our appetites, we went out to dinner after wandering the streets of PP. We chose to visit a tapas restaurant run by street children from the city (therefore the shame of not eating Cambodian food was erased). It turned out to be some of the best and biggest tapas I have ever eaten! It was a fun evening too as we chatted to two Australian women who had visited Cambodia many times, and so they imparted many ideas and facts to us. After dinner we had a little rest before deciding to hit the night life of PP. I wasn’t too keen as I was pretty tired, but we ended up going to quite a lively western style bar with the dubious name, ‘the heart of darkness’! The music was suitable for dancing and the cocktails were suitable for consuming. Hence a good night was had.
23rd- today was really busy for us. We hired a tuk tuk for the whole day for the costly price of eight dollars between us.
first we visited Wat Phnom. It wasn’t as interesting as I expected, but the garish spatangle of the disco lights and colours in the temple were pretty funktastic! This was also where I caught a glimpse of my first monkey!
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Second- a quick stop at the friendship monument and the independence monument which were in a well kept area of the city close to the palace.
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Third- we drove south to the Buddha factories. During the khmer rouge religion was banned and all religious items were destroyed. Thus Cambodia lost a lot of their precious and sacred monuments. Hence the reproduction of these statues is pretty symbolic and shows Cambodia getting back on track. There was a little alley lined with statues painted in the brightest gold paint ever. The statues themselves were made of concrete, so a little of a let down!! Whilst in this area we were told by a local to go and find the temple to the rear of the alley with the Buddha statues. So we walked around some very simple houses, and locals looking at us with bizarre expressions. But we did stumble across the temple. To our surprise it was a newly decorated and lived in temple! There were monks asleep in the temple when we arrived. A guy who works at the temple, Lonh, said it was ok for us to go in and have a look, but I felt a tad uncomfortable as im not sure how I would feel waking up to 3 foreigners gawking at me! I must admit however that alongside my feeling of awkwardness, I was intrigued by what the monks were doing and the way that they lived. We saw their orange robes being washed and dried, their plastic crockery piled up, their fold up beds, a blackboard with English on it from a previous lesson, a big gold statue and a pc in use. The temple had been decorated with the brightest murals depicting scenes from stories of Buddha. The light that streamed through the windows of the temples bounced of the colours with such vigor. It was interesting to hear Lonh talk about life as a monk too. It appears as though being a monk is a short term thing that most men go through. The number of years that a man is a monk can enhance his prospects of finding a wife. Being a monk also provided shelter and food to men wanting to pursue their studies. Most of the men staying in the temple were temporary residents whilst they completed an education program, and it seemed as though many would finish being a monk as soon as they finished their studies! This was a little saddening as it defaced the image I had had of monks!.JPG)
Next on the agenda was lunch. Our tuk tuk driver, Swatley, took us to a local haunt where we were served up food of some description. It turned out to be very flavoursome in fact. The lunch was also of interest because of the conversation with Swatley. He spoke great English and told stories about living in Cambodia, the struggles he faced and how his own family had been affected by the devastation caused by the khmer rouge. His father and brother never returned from being assigned to helping the khmer rouge.
Which lead us rather well (although somberly) into our next stop, the Tuol sleng museum. Before 1970s this had been a successful school in Phnom Penh. However when the Khmer rouge took control of the country, they transformed this place of education, aspirations and innocence, into a place of torture, nightmares and barbaric deaths. It became a prison for people the khmer rouge were opposed to their aims. The headteacher of the school became the main chief of the prison. Basically this place became home to anyone the khmer rouge decided to move there. Whether they had any connections with ‘the enemy’ or were revolutionaries was irrelevant. Children, women and men were all piled into the buildings of this site and kept in dirty, miniscule and inhumane conditions. They were chained, barely fed, had no light or ventilation, beaten, raped and had to live by unimaginable rules (for instance, asking to move or asking to go to the toilet in their cell). The museum was the most horrifying place I have ever been to. The killing fields were bad, but for many reasons this place was ever so much worse. The buildings looked like any school in the world but the events that had taken place in them were as far removed as possible from what one would expect in a school. The shabby cells still with torture instruments and chains inside, the beds that men were tied to have extreme pain inflicted on them, the large vats where men were drowned, the boxes where poisonous insects were placed alongside humans, all were visible. There were also displays of the pictures taken of each and every victim who ended up in the prison, and also pictures of the soldiers who the khmer rouge had recruited and used to inflict their atrocious crimes against humanity. Soldiers of twelve years old who had had no choice in their actions. Soldiers who were now grown and had their own families, but also had very real memories of their past. I didn’t blame the soldiers but it was understandable to see graffiti over these pictures. After 28 years no one has ever been brought to justice for what happened under the khmer rouge’s regime. In fact some of the main leaders are alive and living pretty normal lives considering. Some of the main perpetrators have died of natural causes and allowed to die as normal human beings without conviction. This includes no. 1 of the khmer rouge, Pol Pot. It is sickening to think that for 2million lives lost, no one has been declared guilty. If people are not brought to justice, what is to prevent this happening again and deterring others from carrying out such acts? Words cant really describe the emotions I felt whilst at this museum.
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Whilst sitting outside trying to understand all that I had seen in the museum, I was approached by a monk. He was probably only a few years older than me. He had incredible eyes and good English. He was extremely inquisitive about my life and England! It was really interesting to talk to him and hear about his opinions of Cambodia and what he thought of my country. He asked about football, why their were no rice fields, whether there were lions, elephants and tigers and about schools and healthcare. He said that he will be a monk for 5yrs whilst he trains in PP and then he will return home to his village. I could have chatted to him for hours, but the sun had set and we were the last ones in the museum so we were asked to get out! But it was exactly what I needed to stop my emotions and thoughts from boiling over after walking round the museum.We still hadn’t finished our day! We went some distance out of town to the Apsara Arts Association. We were going to watch traditional folk music and apsara dancing. But we arrived quite early and so decided to investigate the school across the road which appeared to be having a party… we walked over and were straight away accosted by the head teacher who warmly invited us in. The children (who were obviously from better off families- dressed in modern clothes, cleanish skin and cool hairstyles) were extremely excited and interested in their new guests! We were given small gifts, made to dance and sing and covered in talc (I guess it represented snow at this xmas time?). The girls tried to teach us to dance Cambodian style, but we(I especially) we rubbish! But we had such fun interacting with the children and having a glimpse into their lives. But we had to leave to go to the dancing which was really worthwhile. The dancers were training with this NGO which is trying to revive and maintain Cambodian arts and culture after the khmer rouge destroyed most of it. The dancers ranged in age from 4ish up to men and women in their 20s. They were all beautiful and smiley, and wore traditional costumes. The dances were delicate and intricate. I felt mesmerized. The music which was played on instruments I had never seen before, was quite high pitched but very rhythmic. It was a fantastic display.
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This performance was followed by a brief dinner and beer with Swatley! He took us to another local hangout where we shared fried prawns, and a jug of Angkor beer. He discussed anything we wanted to discuss which mostly focused upon Cambodian politics and his life experiences. I discovered that Cambodia is run by a corrupt and ‘hardly democratic’ government called the Cambodian People’s Party (CPP). There are two other parties that exist too but the CPP has predominant power. There is also a monarch who is not completely trusted. Some believe he is a khmer rouge supporter and a bit of a fruit loop.
So this was the end to an incredibly long but interesting day in PP.
24th- we were off on a bus for a 6hr journey to Siem Reap. The bus left from outside our guesthouse and was pretty comfortable! There was even a movie on the coach- although it looked very slap stick with atrocious acting. When we arrived in siem reap it was very hot and we were bombarded with people wanting to take us in their tuk tuks. We went with a guy Swatley had informed us about (who turned out to be a loser). After 3 failed attempts, we found a guesthouse which was cheap and comfortable. Once again we wasted no time. We were soon washed and out the door on our way on a tuk tuk to the landmine museum.
Cambodia is one of the worst affected places with regards to landmines. Every day people are maimed and killed by landmines planted by the khmer rouge predominantly. There are said to be six million mines still underground all over the country. They are difficult to spot and so the people that are hurt or killed are normal citizens. The landmine museum had been created by a man who was once responsible for planting these bombs. But now he solely goes into the countryside to seek and destroy such mines. He also employs, gives an education and trains many children who have been injured by landmines. Hence we saw many children with missing limbs, quite shocking. But these young people were incredibly brave and strong, they carried on their lives when they were close to death or had other members of their families killed. There was even a story of one person treading on two mines. Luckily with the same foot, so the second time he only blasted off the artificial limb from the first time. I had never really seen a mine or bomb up close before and I had no idea how they actually worked exactly. So it was interesting to have a child at the museum show us around and explain things in detail. He explained where the bombs were made (America, china, Russia, korea, vietanm),the damage they were capable of and their mechanics.
That evening we visited the market near to our guesthouse. Crowded, dark and bad smells. We also ate some market food which was …. Ok.
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