25/52 - Phnom Penh

Week 25 of 52
Phnom Penh
Cambodia

Two weekends ago (yes, I know I am a bit behind in my blogging these past few weeks) I met up with some friends in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.  You may recall that last year Alan and I spent a few amazing days in Siem Riep wandering around the temples and eating great food.  I have heard mixed reactions about Phnom Penh but have always wanted to make the trip so took the opportunity to meet up with friends as the perfect reason.

A bit about Phnom Penh...is the capital and largest city in Cambodia...sits on the Mekong River...was colonized by the French way back when...was the home to the S-21 prison camp during the Khmer Rouge genocide in the 1970s...is a bustling, crazy traffic, good food, nice people, kind of city.

I only had two days to see the area so the first day was spent touring around.  We started at the Royal Palace which is right in the middle of the city and near to most of the hotels and good restaurants. 

The grounds and building of the Royal Palace are quite beautiful.  And apparently the sitting king and his family actually still reside at the palace unlike many of the other countries in Asia.  However, I must admit that these buildings have become sort of 'standard' looking to me now.  When I first came to Asia I couldn't take enough photos of the palaces and temples and everything but now they actually seem pretty normal...my how my perspective has shifted.  One thing that I never get bored with are the beautiful colors in these places...

After the Royal Palace we walked down to the National Museum.  We ended up opting to not tour the museum itself but I did enjoy the short walk over...

One of the main forms of transportation around the city is via tuk-tuk.  Most tourists take them but also many of the locals.  We saw one tuk-tuk with two guys on the back and a normal sized refrigerator!

There were signs like this all over the city.  The week prior was the celebration of the king's 90th birthday.

Nothing special about this building...just shows the French influence.

From here we wandered to the Russian Market.  I didn't take any photos of the market itself but it was one of the nicer ones that I have been to in Asia.  The aisles were relatively wide, the market was clean, and there was a nice selection of goods.

The next bit of our touring in Phnom Penh was focused on the genocide of nearly 3 million Cambodians by the Khmer Rouge.  While it is not a pleasant topic to read about or experience I feel strongly that it is important to learn about even the horrible things in our history for no other reason than the hope that by being educated about it they not be repeated, ever again.

We started at the Security Prison or S-21.

What was once used as a high school was turned into a prison by the Khmer Rouge.  People were brought here and immediately lost all rights and any level of humane treatment.  People were crammed into small rooms, given very little food, beaten, tortured, chained up, etc.  Upon entering the compound you come across these rules...

1. You must answer accordingly to my question. Don’t turn them away.

2. Don’t try to hide the facts by making pretexts this and that, you are strictly prohibited to contest me.

3. Don’t be a fool for you are a chap who dare to thwart the revolution.

4. You must immediately answer my questions without wasting time to reflect.

5. Don’t tell me either about your immoralities or the essence of the revolution.

6. While getting lashes or electrification you must not cry at all.

7. Do nothing, sit still and wait for my orders. If there is no order, keep quiet. When I ask you to do something, you must do it right away without protesting.

8. Don’t make pretext about Kampuchea Krom in order to hide your secret or traitor.

9. If you don’t follow all the above rules, you shall get many lashes of electric wire.

10. If you disobey any point of my regulations you shall get either ten lashes or five shocks of electric discharge.

Inside many of the now empty rooms are rows and rows of pictures of the people who were imprisoned here.  Hundreds of faces of male...female...young...old...healthy... who had their pictures taken upon entering this horrible place.  Many looked scared, however, every so often there were some who looked a bit pissed off...which I had to appreciate...despite the fact that they had been stripped of everything else they were able to own and portray disdain toward their captures.  The entire time I was walking around this place all I kept thinking was how it could go from being a place that holds the hope of the future as a high school to someplace that represents the worst of the human race.

After touring at the S-21 museum we headed out to the area referred to as the Killing Fields.  As the name implies, the Killing Fields are an area outside of Phnom Penh where the Khmer Rouge took prisoners, executed them, and then buried them in shallow graves.  As horrible as it sounds it was worth the trip to walk the land where such a horrible thing took place.  The tour itself was well done.  They give you headsets and you walk through a guided tour that is narrated by some of the survivors of the genocide. 

The building above is what you see when you enter and exit the Killing Fields.  Inside are seven floors of skulls of victims of the genocide.  It is haunting to see so many skulls in one place and to know that they are only a small portion of the people who were executed.  I stood outside it just before entering and all I could do was say "I'm so sorry this happened to you"...  How could anybody do such a horrible thing?  And how could they do it to their own people?

The last stop on our tour around Phnom Penh was to the temple of Wat Phnom...