Day 12 – September 29 –Phnom Penh – Siem Reap

We woke up to a gray sky, packed our raincoats and left for the day. We took a tuk-tuk to the Killing Fields about an hour outside of Phnom Penh city center.

I’ll give some background on the Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot. In the early 70s, the US bombed Cambodia in conjunction with the Vietnam War, causing immense anger in the local peasant population. Cambodia was in the midst of a civil war pitting the nominally democratic Lon Nol government, backed by the US, against the Chinese backed Khmer Rouge lead by Pol Pot. In 1975, as the US withdrew from the region, the Lon Nol regime collapsed under the Khmer Rouge army. Pol Pot, educated in Paris and of privileged upbringing, instituted drastic changes across the country, purging the capital of Phnom Penh, and in fact the entire country, of former Lon Nol officials and supporters. Banks, schools and any industries not related to agriculture were destroyed. Families of these Lon Nol officials were killed, also, so as not to allow resistance or revenge to fester. But the old regime wasn’t the only target. The Khmer Rouge also wanted to remake the entire country in the image of agrarian subsistence farming, eschewing cities, family units and industry. The capital of Phnom Penh was emptied of 2 million inhabitants, families were broken apart across the country and the entire population was forced to move from their homes. Hundreds of thousands died in the forced marches or from malnutrition. Pol Pot feared another civil war, and decided to expand the purges. Soldiers within his revolutionary army where tortured and killed. People who refused to leave their homes were massacred. And anyone with an education was put to death. Most were tortured at the S-21 prison, eventually making false confessions to stop the torture. After, the victims were put on buses or trains and taken to various killing fields across the country to be murdered. An estimated 1.4- 2.0 million Cambodians were executed or died of starvation during Khmer Rouge rule.

We visited the Killing Fields outside Phnom Penh. Since the late 80s, more than 8,000 bodies have been found in various mass graves. After arriving at the center, the people were forced to dig their own graves and then murdered with various farm equipment: axes, machetes, hoes, or clubs. Children were not spared, and the smallest ones were taken to a Killing Tree, held by their legs, and swung into the tree’s trunk, head first, until their skulls collapsed. Mothers were killed with their babies in their arms. Acid and DDT were thrown on the bodies to speed up decomposition and hide the smell of rotting flesh from the neighboring communities. No one knew what was going on in the area. The soldiers running the camp had a “Magic Tree” where they would hang a loudspeaker and blast patriotic music, to muffle the cries of agony from the dying. This went on until the regime fell in 1978. The people of Cambodia built a stupa for the dead when the site was uncovered in the 80s. The stupa is a massive glass and concrete pagoda which houses thousands of skulls, bones and clothes from the victims of Pol Pot’s genocide. In the Buddhist tradition, the dead are respected by building a temple, or stupa, above the bones or ashes of the deceased. This stupa was built by the federal government to respect the dead. It was an incredibly moving experience. If anyone is interested in reading more about the Cambodian genocide, or genocide in general, Samantha Power has written a fascinating book on the subject called America in the Age of Genocide.

After, we visited the National Museum and the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda. The National Museum was actually quite interesting. I didn’t know if this was going to be a tourist trap, but it ended up having an impressive collection of statues from across Cambodia, with a particular concentration from the temples at Angkor Wat. The statues concentrate on Hindu and Buddhist subjects, like Vishnu and Buddha. It was really interesting walking around the museum. We left and moved on to the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda. We enjoyed the grounds, with glittering towers and a variety of spectacular temples. I was underwhelmed by the Silver Pagoda. It had become more of a museum for gifts given to the royal family. There was also a scale model of Angkor Wat that I enjoyed, at least for the photo op. We will be seeing Angkor Wat tomorrow, a place I am incredibly enthused about seeing.

On our way to the airport we saw a sight I was waiting patiently for, ox carts on highways. Yes, I finally saw it, buggies drawn by oxen on a large highway. I know, why would that excite me? No reason, I just like the image of scooters and SUVs zooming by ox carts. At the airport, we got on our flight early. The reason was clear, there were only 5 people on our flight, including Robin and me. The other three were Kiwis. We thought it was funny when the airline crew repeated all the instructions in Cambodian… unless you are doing it for the sake of regulations or training, no one can understand a word you are saying, so save your breath.

We landed in Siem Reap, got to our hotel, booked the following day’s tour to see the temples and left for dinner. We ate at a place called Khmer Kitchen, which was excellent. The food was traditional Cambodians, we both had curries. It was spicy, which was great. As we finished dinner, it started to rain. The beginning of Typhoon Ketsana. We settled the bill and walked back to the hotel, arriving just as the heavens were really opening to drop buckets and buckets of water on us. Tomorrow’s visits should be interesting!