Relocating to Singapore means that travelling to other SE.Asian countries is relatively cheap and close, but with a huge variety of cultures and experiences, making it an endless list of places to go. To coincide with our first anniversary and Neil's birthday we decided to take on some history, together with a bit of TLC and set off for Cambodia and the Thai Islands.
I have been to Cambodia before, almost 7 years ago now, and was interested to see how it had developed in that time. Our first stop was a two hour flight away, Phnom Penh - Cambodia's capital city. Phnom Penh was the setting for the civil war and arriving there late into the evening, you could see the country is still fighting it's way out of the poverty it caused. In fact I was deeply shocked at how little it had developed in the better part of a decade. Sad to say, but the country is still very much an undeveloped nation (politically correct terminology for third world country*)
Cambodian Killing Cambodian
In 1975, an individual named Pol Pot teamed together with other like-minded individuals created a communist army called the Khmer Rouge. Pol Pot's regime wanted to remove classes and recreate the country from the very bottom. In order to do this, his army chased all educated, professional and foreign people out of the capital city (despite Pol Pot himself being highly educated) and killed almost 2million of the 7million population, in an attempt to cleanse the country. The war ran for 4 years, until the Vietnamese intervened. There is obviously a lot more to it, and there is an abundance of literature on the subject. But on a personal front, I still cannot get my head around the reasoning for this war or Pol Pot's philosophy.
The population of the country is young, which hasn't helped with pulling the country into the 21st century as a lot of skilled individuals were lost in the war. With such a sad history, it is almost confusing to see three wheel drivers, enthusiastically offering to take you to the Killing Fields or the S21 Prison, perhaps two of the most disturbing places I have ever been to. But in order for them to bring the country into prosperity they focus on their trade, and tourism is a significant one.
S21 Prison
As one of the biggest tourist attractions and a significant tool in the war, S21 was a school converted into a terror chamber for anyone thought to be a threat to Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge uprising. S21 was where prisoners went to die, and there were said to be only 11 survivors. Their survival was purely down to timing, as shortly after being captured, Vietnam over powered the Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot fell from power.
You can see the cells individuals were trapped in, as well as where they were tortured for information. In my previous visit there had still been evidence of blood on the floor from the beatings issued, although now this had worn away.
A survivor of the war took us around the prison, explaining the atrocities that happened in those blocks and even touched on the losses he had incurred in the duration. It added a scarily real edge to what could otherwise be perceived as a story that had just happened to someone else.
He had lived it, and shared fears of a Khmer Rouge revenge streak occurring in 2017, when the banished would be able to return to Cambodia. His personal account of the war, was probably the most interesting element of the tour for me, as he also couldn't understand the purpose of this war, and the barbaric deaths Cambodians inflicted on other Cambodians.
The prison is authentic, but in a strange way I feel holding Cambodians back from moving forward. Having it there as a museum to the war does bring awareness of all the wrong doings done by the Pol Pot regime, but going forward, I question how far they can develop with the tragedies of war still being their biggest asset.
Entry to S21 is $3, an audio guide is available if you chose not to take on an inperson tour, and costs an additional $3 taking roughly 90mins to complete.
Killing Fields
The killing fields were named as such as again this is a place that people came to, to die. Babies, children, men and women alike were killed in weird and sadistic ways, as the Khmer Rouge did not want to fund bullets, their bodies dumped in mass graves and left to rot. The one we visited, just outside of Phnom Penh is only one of 343 similar places in Cambodia, but thought to be the largest.
Perhaps the most petrifying visual image was a tree named the Killing Tree. Here members of the Khmer Rouge would swing a baby by its legs against the tree, smashing their skulls and then throwing them in a pit nearby.
Even though I had seen this before, the level of shock I felt was no different the second time around. No part of me can understand a human being doing that to another, especially when to this day bones of the mutilated dead are still being found in the ground. Dialogue from some of the Khmer Rouge soldiers claim they were too young to understand what they were doing, or too scared of the regime not to do it. All of which sounded worryingly like defence of their actions.
Walking around these fields is very somber and you can feel the despair in the silent air. A monument stands tall in the middle with 17 floors of the remains of victims found in the ground.
For me this whole experience opened many emotions and senses I didn't know I had. You somehow create a hatred for a man you know little about, and a deep pity for a country and its people after just an hour learning about their history.
Before returning to Cambodia, I read First They Killed my Father by Loung Ung, which follows the life of the author aged just 5 when the war began. It depicts her families struggles as an "affluent" family living in Phnom Penh is 1975, all the way through the war. I believe this helped me set the scene for what I was about to see and really made me feel the impacts of this war.
Entry is $3 and an audio tour an additional $3 (highly recommended as there is no guide option). The audio tour takes roughly an hour to complete.
There are many tours that do both S21 and the Killing Fields together. We signed up to a tour of both, and were charged $25 (for two) for transportation to both venues.
Food & Drink
1) Daughters of Cambodia
This institution has been set up to help young female sex workers integrate back into society. They have several businesses, including "Sugar & Spice cafe" on the riverfront and above the visitors centre. All staff are ex-sex workers learning new trades. The portions are very large and the smoothies are amazing.
- Avg for 2: around $16
2) Friends
A little away from the river, Friends is a restaurant training young Cambodians in the hospitality industry. The food was incredible, with a wide variety of tapas, including many vegetarian options, this had to be one of my favourite meals since leaving London. Again portions are big, and it's recommended 1-2 tapas per person depending on your appetite. The falafel burger, nacho salad and churros were particularly worth raving about.
- Avg spend for 2: $50 (including a $24 bottle of wine)
3) Foreign Cambodian Correspondents
Nice little rooftop bar by the river, very popular on the weekends for locals and travellers alike. Very reasonable priced drinks ($4.50 for a cucumbertini) but amongst the higher range of places to go.
Overall
Phnom Penh is a city recovering from a very sad history and there is still quite a lot of poverty. There are more and more institutions popping up which help give back to the society and are worthwhile visiting.
Aside from the somber history, there wasn't an awful lot to see and do in Phnom Penh, therefore for us a 2night, 1 day stay was just right. Also I'm not sure I had enough emotion to last any longer!
You Angkor What?!
Leaving the horrors of war behind we took a 6 hour coach (GiantIbis.com) to see another line of Cambodian history, the world famous temples of Angkor. The bus was ridiculously cheap ($5) and supposedly the best way to travel across country. The journey itself was very smooth, wifi on the bus (although we had a glitch with the wifi, in that it just didn't work), regular comfort stops, and reclining chairs.
Siem Reap is in complete contrast to Phnom Penh. Siem Reap has a feel that it is made for tourists. With the temples being a big draw to the city, locals have worked to make tourism their biggest trade and rather successfully at that.
Temples of Angkor
The main attraction, there are an infinite number of tour companies offering 1/3/7 day packages to the temples. There are also a lot of drivers offering you their services to the temples and back. In fact the driver who took us from the bus station to our hotel, spent the entire time trying to sell his service whilst slagging off his competitors and at one point all westerners.
He'd asked us where we were from, our response being Singapore (still taking some serious getting use to) followed with "good, because Westerners are all liars, especially those from London..." Eiiiip! We quickly decided not to take him up on his offer of services to Angkor.
Anyhow, we decided to book a day tour to the three biggest temples in Angkor: Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom and the Bayan Temples. We went though a company called Happy Bird, who picked us up at 5am (yes AM!) and drove us to the temples for the sunrise. In a group of around 12, our guide Vishnu, took us around and had us in serious stitches the entire time. He told us many tales of temple history as well as Cambodian culture.
It was interesting to learn that Cambodians find those with whiter skin most attractive and in Cambodian culture when a man wishes to marry, he would pay the woman's family for the right. Those with fairer skin would require a higher sum (somewhat like a dowry). Whilst telling us this story, he referred to some members of the party as beautiful, and others "not worth as much", which could be taken offensively, but it was clear he did not intend for it in that way, and his explanations were too hilarious to be taken badly.
During our 8 hour trip to the temples, we befriended some lovely Canadians and put to them our question. Would you rather be able to speak all human languages or speak to animals. This created a larger than expected debate with some real analysis and reasoning, but in the end we came down to a 3-3 tie. As such Vishnu was our decider, and voted for all human languages. Well I guess that would make complete sense in his line of work, but also he did say he pretty much eats all animals and didn't really want to explain to them why he was about to kill them...
Pub Street & Night Market
Pub street, as you may have gathered by the name is a road full of pubs (and restaurants and massage places) where draft beer is $0.50 and cocktails $2 a pop! There are also a lot of street stalls, who attach a speaker onto the side and blast tunes, turning into an absolute rave mid-street. There's a bar aptly named Angkor What! covered in graffiti messages left behind by their many customers.
Along with the drinks stalls, there's also food stalls, snack stalls (deep fried tarantula anyone?!) and clothes stalls. If that wasn't enough, every cuisine is available on this one road, and you can get a 30minute foot massage for $4! Plenty to keep you entertained.
This is what I meant when saying the place is built for tourists, cheap drinks, world foods, neon lighting and pamper parlours! The place whilst quite quiet during the day, really is buzzing at night!
Weird and Wonderful Questions
In my last blog I asked, would you rather:
- Be able to speak every human language in the world?
OR
- Be able to speak to animals?
J: Every human language, so that you could communicate wherever you went, and always understood what was going on around you, plus I am not particularly an animal person..
N: Speak to animals, so you could become the most powerful person in the world. Change the world we live in today. Understand and open new realms of possibilities between humans and animals. Also convince mosquitos to stop biting people.
Here's another question for you to ponder...
Would you rather:
- Always have to say everything on your mind?
OR
- Never speak again?
