We caught a bus to Phnom Penh which was pretty uneventful but long. The roads here are pretty horrific and have a lot of traffic so the pace is slow going.
We had heard Phnom Pen was the emerging jewel in Asia’s crown so were pretty excited. We arrived early evening and were staying pretty central to the nightlife and river. As soon as you walked out of our accommodation you were asked constantly by the tuk tuk drivers if we wanted a lift and then if that didn’t work if we wanted to buy drugs. Although being repeatedly asked does get a bit annoying as you walk down the road they were not pushy and after a polite ‘no thanks’ left you alone.
The next morning we headed out to the Royal Palace. We should have been able to walk through a nice park on the way but that and a lot of the river promenade was under construction. After navigating through all the tuk tuk drivers looking to sell us their services we entered the palace. The buildings were decorated in traditional Cambodian style. The Khmer were known for their beautiful architecture and talented artisans and the style heavily influenced the Thais and Vietnamese.
The area was very spread out and rather than one giant palace the complex was made up of smaller buildings with beautifully manicured gardens in between. We were allowed a glimpse into the building that housed the throne and several other buildings used as temples. Another building of note was the Silver Pagoda that has a silver tiled floor, which is mostly covered by carpet to protect it but you can see a little of it around the edges.
Just around the corner was the National History Museum that was housed in a beautiful terra cotta building which surrounded a central courtyard. The artifacts were mostly statues of deities from either Hinduism or Buddhism showing Cambodia’s past duel religious beliefs. We didn’t linger here as although lovely there was very little explanation and very little substance to the museum.
We realised our day’s plans had been completed before lunch and were feeling pretty energised so after a brief break enlisted the services of one of the tuk tuk drivers loitering outside our hotel and went to the Tuol Sleng Museum of Genocidal Crimes to learn more about the Khmer Rouge and its leader Pol Pot.
The Vietnam war affected the Cambodians greatly with the Viet Cong using Cambodian territory to fight the South Vietnamese and Americans which promoted the US to heavily carpet bomb the area. Causing the people to flee and head to Phnom Pen which caused massive housing and food shortages. In 1975 Cambodia had a revolution where the Khmer Rouge took over from the government.
The people at first thought it was going to be a positive change but within days Pol Pot’s forces started to evacuate Phnom Penh and sent everyone including the elderly, sick and infirm into the countryside to work the land. They destroyed all modern technology and reverted back to traditional farming techniques. Anyone who was educated which meant anyone who not only had a degree but could speak a second language, had glasses or soft hands were killed, along with their families. They destroyed most of the religious temples and reset the clock to year zero.
From 1975 to 1979 up to 3 million people were suspected to have been murdered. In the S-21 prison which was where the museum was and at least 12,000 people were systematically tortured until they confessed to colluding with the enemy and were then shipped off to the killing fields where they were executed.
The museum had hundreds of black and white photos showing the prisoners who went through the prison and some of the rooms which were used for torture after all these years still had dark stains covering the floors and walls. You heard some of the prisoners’ stories and what they endured. Unbelievably the ones who escaped death to tell their story were spared due to their skill with machines which was why they were there in the first place.
I knew it was going to be harrowing but what I wasn’t expecting was the sheer anger I felt. Such senseless killing for a so called Utopia that just didn’t make sense. At least with common Communism the idea is a sound one even if it doesn’t work in real life. This idea was just idiotic.
What made me even more angry was finding out that after the Vietnamese liberated Phnom Pen and Pol Pot fled to Thailand, the US and their allies recognised the Khmer Rouge as the legitimate government because they didn’t want the Vietnamese and their Communism spreading. They even had a seat at the UN.
To finish the tour we headed out to the Killing fields where a memorial stupa has been erected and more than 8000 skulls of those that have been exhumed from the mass graves have been stacked and are visible behind glass. Walking around the area you see the depressions where the mass graves have been dug up. It’s a horrible sight to see. Especially when you find out that these people were not killed quickly but rather bludgeoned to death or had their throats slit as bullets were too expensive. There was a mass grave for mothers and their babies as well. We were given more details but I shall leave it at that.
The final message from the two museums were that they have been preserved so the story of this genocide shall never be lost and humanity will not forget and history will not repeat itself. Regrettably we have heard this before at Auschwitz with the extermination of The Jewish People in WW2. This happened in 1979. S
The palace at Phnom Penh
The Silver Pagoda, would have been nice to walk on the silver floor but alas not possible due to the carpets covering it.
The street outside the hotel and a typical street scene in the area.
The motorbike is definitely king here.
The museum was beautiful if not containing much substance.
The genocide museum which was once a school. Not a place where we took too many other photos but unfortunately we saw images we will never forget.
The memorial at the Killing Fields.