After our two day jaunt down the mighty Mekong we arrived starving and tired into Phnom Penh and into our hotel room at the strangely named Velkommen Inn. After dumping our bags we were off out again to an Italian restaurant that we had spied earlier in the evening that according to some reviews, was as good, if not better than a restaurant actually in Italy. We ordered a stone baked pizza and a lasagne to share and also had our very first wine of the trip, more than 2 months in! I'd have to say that this was probably one of the best Italian meals we have ever had and made such a change to some of the more traditional meals we have had in our time in Asia so far. I know it was only pizza and lasagne but it was homemade and tasted as fresh as possible, especially on the hot and sticky streets of Phnom Penh! We also had chilled red wine for the first time too, not conventional by any means but tasted delicious! Think I may copy at home.
Anyway, rising the next morning we knew that today would be 1 part interesting to 2 parts depressing as we hopped on the tuk-tuk to take us to three destinations. A giant pagoda that represents the city's spritual past, the infamous high school-turned prison of death and torture, Tuol Sleng (otherwise known as S-21) and the truly horrific killing fields fifteen kms outside of town.
The Pagodas were a nice sight, surrounded by lush and manicured lawns but all around you could see the harsh reality of Cambodian poverty as children seemingly as young as three and four begged on the dirty floors. You see, you have to try to be cynical in these situations because if you let your emotions take over, and they really try hard to do so, you would want to give every bit of money and possession away that you possess. Unfortunately, common sense must prevail. On the one hand if you give to one child, sure enough you would have another fifty swarming around you expecting the same thing, you can also never know if the children are part of a syndicate, led by a boss overseeing his 'employees', which has been suggested by some. On the other, a small amount of money could go an incredibly long way to ensuring this child eats today, which reverbarates around your head as soon as you start to walk away.
From there we headed through the dusty streets to Tuol Sleng, a place I've been interested in seeing for a while due to learning about the Khmer Rouge's barbarity a few years ago. The place, converted from a high school in 1975 is appalling. In fact everything that we would see and experience over the next five hours would be truly horrific. All you can do is shake your head in misbelief at the fact that man has the capability to inflict these atrocities on his fellow man but also the fact that this was all so very recent. Not some medieval form of barbarism that you maybe visited on school trips as part of your history lessons but thirty years ago, about the time when people were mourning the death of Elvis or watching Jaws in the cinema. Unlike the Nazi's or Stalin's Soviet purges the Khmer Rouge perpatrated these murders in a very swift two year span which means, killing just short of two million people, men, women and incredibly thousands upon thousands of children in a matter of months.
I won't go into gory detail but if the prison opened your eyes to the barbarism that unfolded here then the killing fields completely underlined it. No one knows the true figures but these half dead people, some as young as nine, who had been tortured beyond comprehension were then blindfolded and packed into vans which shut on all sides, squeezed in until they couldn't move an inch. Once at the killing fields they would be marched one by one to mass graves where they would be executed in the most brutal way imaginable. In fact as bullets would be too expensive, the Khmer Rouge, much like the SS would find other, cheaper methods to execute in vast numbers. Most executors in fact would use blunt instruments or farming equipment. Imagine all of this whilst Communist propoganda music is blurted out of speakers to cover the screams and you can just imagine, maybe only slightly, what the last few moments would have felt like. This truly is a terrible place but one that has to be witnessed, much like Auschwitz, to both pay your respects and also to acknowledge that this must never happen again.
Once we had navigated the busy and very dusty roads back into town we needed cheering up so decided to make good use of the 1 dollar margherita's at a Mexican place round the corner! Just to add to the confusion and errr, fusion?, we ordered the Cambodian sharing platter and were amazed that the food was incredibly good. We ate chicken Amok, Khmer curry, Morning Glory and an assortment of other tit-bits. What made things even more surreal was that in this Mexican restaurant, eating Cambodian food, surrounded by Americans, Newport County were playing Shrewsbury in the FA cup on the big screen. Once again, you just have to pinch yourself to make sure this is all going on! What we did decide over dinner is that we would like to go to Mexico when we are in the States, so making good use of more free Wifi, we did some research and found some cheapish flights! Awesome!
So, the following day we would be off to Siem Reap and Angkor Wat! That night the noise was unbearable! If it wasn't for the fact that we both have amazing ear plugs I would have gone downstairs and started pointing wobbly fingers. Thing is, the hotel is above a pub, which in itself is on a very loud street full of perverse old Western men with suspiciously young Asian girls, not the nicest place! In fact. let's be honest here, you want to throw hot gravel and wasps at these old bastards....
So there we go, Phnom Penh was supposedly a mellow place full of colonial architecture. Although I think we saw it at it's busiest (they were celebrating a national festival) it wasn't the place I think we thought it was. Saying that, the people seem fantastic, a lot more open than in Vietnam but viciously poor. It is definitely the poorest place we have been to. Still, despite the chequered history, we had two fantastic days here, the tuk-tuks are mental!
I hope that wasn't too depressing, I'm re-reading it but I don't want to leave anything out though! I can only say that my words will never do the history side any justice and if you have some time to check out the websites dedicated to the carnage, you must. That is all.
Muchos love, Tommo xxxxx
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