Around the World (Again) Siem Reap to Phnom Penh and the Killing Fields

The Museum and the road to Phnom Penh and beyond.

I had arranged to be picked up just after breakfast and taken to the museum, I had passed it on quite a few occasions and it is located in a very modern and impressive piece of Architecture.

I find that buildings say a lot about what to expect, with very few exceptions, if a country houses its historical artifacts in an impressive building it shows that they actually care about their history and culture.

This building is built around an atrium, the bottom being a pool and a steadily rising slope brings you through three levels, ending in the modern day, very impressive and exceedingly well done. The only photo that I took was of the pool, as I took no photos (as requested) inside or of the exhibits

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But my Tuk-Tuk guide and by now companion asked how long would I need, I said I had no idea, as I had been known to go into museums and not come out for weeks, he laughed and said “I will just sleep in the sun then” (you will see all Tuk-Tuk drivers doing this while waiting for their clients).

One thing about here in Siem Reap, the mornings can be quiet chilly and you will need a jacket, body warmer or fleece, but by mid-morning you will be down to your T-shirt, as you will have noticed on quite a few photos (you will be able to see what time of day they were taken).

I actually spent about 4 hours wandering from gallery to gallery level to level, it was then that I realised I had done things arse about face. I should have come here first and then went to the temples, as here it explains everything in great detail, it was a smashing museum. As I was nearing the end my Tuk-Tuk driver came looking for me, he thought I may have got lost.

It was well after midday, when I emerged into the bright sunlight, I was then taken back to my hotel and I paid the ferryman so as to speak, as that was the end of my need for transport and a tour guide I paid him $75 well-earned dollars for the 3 days. I thanked him sincerely as without him I would not have seen half as much nor had half as much fun. We had bonded well in the three days and this you cannot do on a tour bus or with a tour guide.

That afternoon was spent at the market just wandering around taking photographs and chatting, mainly they were doing the chatting, "you buy, very very cheap" and I was saying "no thank you" but always with a smile, they are after all just trying to earn a few cents.

At one of the many fish stalls I watched as a woman removed the back bone from small fish and then with amazing dexterity and speed, scraped the flesh into a paste, putting it into a plastic bag, on inquiring, I was informed this was the prime ingredient of the fish balls that went into the soups or grilled on the bbqs in skewers.

There were tortoises and not kept for pets, these are meant for the pot, I know that to westerners with a built in abhorrence for things eaten that are kept by them as pets, this is repulsive, but to the peoples of other parts of the world they are food and very tasty at that.

Most of the fish was still alive

or had been but a few seconds before, it just doesn't get any fresher.

The plastic containers filled with shellfish and river produce of every description.

Dried cuttle fish and squid

In the meat stalls of course true nose to tail butchery, every thing is sold and eaten.

Of course there are the sacks of dried shrimps, jars of the shrimp paste and rows upon rows of fresh vegetables and piles of chicken and duck eggs

On leaving the market, I decided on some grilled squid, there is no better way to eat it, crisp outside and melting soft inside

The evening spent packing and then out for a bite to eat, walked through the melee of  tourists and street vendors.

I had spring rolls and Amok Fish a Khmer specialty, little knowing I would be meeting this again in a few days.

I had a  a few beers, listened to the group at Molly Malones.

Then it was into bed as the next day it was off to Phnom Penh.

I had originally intended to do the trip down the Tonlé Sap lake and river to the Cambodian capital, but first my Tuk-Tuk driver had warned me against it, I didn't quite believe him, but then when I made inquiries at the travel shops, the all said the water level was too low and that meant at places too dangerous in the rapids, in fact they actually transfer you to buses. So it was a coach all the way and I left Siem Reap for the last time heading down towards Kompong Thöm before turning towards Phnom Penh.

Good Bye Siem Reap

This wasn't too bad as it was a pleasant day and the company on the bus mixed about 50% locals and 50% backpackers, a lot of the locals not going the whole way but would alight at various towns, villages or in the middle of nowhere. I was seated next to a fellow backpacker, a young German called Felix, we chatted most of the way and at stops he would jump off and buy fruit which he devoured in great quantities. I had set myself a fast day so just looked on longingly.


We passed through villages, rice paddy fields, rice drying and water buffalo's wallowing in the mud, we at last crossed the Tonlé Sap and headed towards the Cambodian capital.

We eventually arrived in Phnom Penh, the bus drops everyone off in the middle of Backpacker land, this is a very central area bordering on the river, the area is wall to wall with restaurants and bars. I on the other hand had chosen a hotel quite a distance away ($3 Tuk-tuk ride) in China Town. Though I didn't mind and this hotel also ran bus trips etc., it did mean always a tuk-tuk ride into town. Here again I hit lucky with a young Tuk-tuk driver called Ping, he became my personal driver always waiting for me outside the hotel, except the last 2 days when his colleagues said he had “too much New Year” (we have all been there haven’t we).

I said I was wondering about getting a sim card, no bother he reached under the awning and pulled out a one, took my phone inserted it, went around to a phone card shop (they sell everything from mobile phones to lottery cards) $1 buys you a scratch card with a pin and you are all loaded up and ready to go, much to Linda’s delight.

My first tour with him was to the terrible prison SO1, that the Pol Pot regime had set up in a high school once they had cleared Phnom Penh of ALL of its inhabitants, the internees were considered dissidents, but in fact were no more than the countries intelligentsia, doctors, teachers, professors in fact anyone that was not a worker, the city dwellers got off lightly they were driven out of the cities like cattle and made to work on the land. The Cities became no go areas, only the Khmer Rouge were allowed in and their political prisoners, but for those there was no leaving, out of all of the prisoners that passed through the prison only 7 survived, this only because they could either make a very good likeness of Pol Pot as a sculpture or a painting.

The rest, after days, weeks, or even months of inhumane incarceration and torture were taken to an old Chinese Cemetery on the outskirts of the capital and killed. Young or old, male or female the only escape was death.

Not with a bullet, no, nothing so humane, they would be made to kneel down on the edge of a pit bend their head forward and be clubbed to death.

Little babies would be wrenched from their mothers and have their brains smashed out against a tree, I am not ashamed to say I openly wept at that tree.

The prayer bands left by visitors on the tree of horrors

Though it was horrific, I am glad that I came, for two reasons, one this bears testimony to the horrific crimes, but worse the Western World and the UN condoned this and allowed the murders back into their fold, shame, shame, shame we should all hang our heads shame and beg forgiveness from this peaceful population. But why, did it happen, another legacy of colonialism, the Khmer Rouge fought against the French and when they left Cochin Asia after decades of vicious repression, the Khmer Rouge came to power, they just carried on where the French and their vassals had left off, do not forget that Pol Pot was educated in the West (as a teacher, though he failed his exams, may be this was the reason for his hate of the intelligentsia) before setting up the Khmer Rouge movement.

The graves of the last victims, killed as the Vietnamese troops entered the city 

One of the chambers where the Khmer Rouge carried out their terrible works

The gallows, not for killing, but the prisoners were hung head down in vats of excrement, then revived and the process repeated, again and again

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Some of the prisoners that ended up in the killing fields

The piles of leg irons, the prisoners wore these day and night while fessled to the iron beds

A picture of the killing field pits and there gruesome contents 

The old High School is peaceful now, but it still echos of the sad, sad, past

one of the beds, but the prisoner found no rest here

I actually visited the prison and the killing fields on two different days, but believe that they belong together so had welded them together.

The Cambodians have built a Stupa, a monument in this place of horrors; it is filled with the skulls of the dead tier upon tier of them, even today after the monsoon rains soften the clay and iron stone, new pits are disclosed and skulls, pieces of bone, scraps of clothing are washed to the surface, it is a true place of horror.

I left this place of death willingly, but we drove back into town in silence something like this takes a lot of digesting, I have visited quite a few German concentration camps and always the same question goes through my mind, why, why, why? I just do not know.

I must say the same question goes through my mind about the mass bombing by our friends (sic) and allies the Americans about their mass killings in Vietnam and the adjoining counties in the 60s and 70s, their use of chemical weapons and many other weapons of mass destruction on a civilian population. Not one of these villains, mass murders or killers of civilians has been put on trial in the Haig or been killed and their bodies thrown out of an aeroplane over the ocean.

I am glad I demonstrated against their incursion into SE Asia, to save the world, but what did the western governments do? Nothing, nothing, not a dammed thing.    

WE ARE GUILTY AS ACCUSED!

On the way back we went into a part of town to the Russian Market (no one could explain why it is called that, but I saw no Russians about) as I needed some new shorts, a couple of shirts and a pair of sandals, these I got here (cheap, cheap but very good was the cry), I also had lunch at one of the stalls inside of the market selling noodles in chicken broth, I think this was about all I could stomach at the moment.

I then went to the Royal Palace, alas the King has lunch between 11:00 and 14:30, I wonder if he works Sundays to make up for his extended lunch breaks?

So we drove along the river, just below the palace, the Tonlé Sap joins the mighty Mekong as it turns to the East on its way to Vietnam and the mighty Mekong Delta.

We were heading for the Wat Ounalom one of the most lavishly decorated Buddhist monasteries in Cambodia, the others being the Silver Pagoda adjacent to the Royal Palace, but the monks here kept the same hours as the King (I never did get inside of either) and Wat Phnom that gave the capital its name. Though I did photograph from outside.

In this area is the old French colonial area, some of the buildings that had fallen into ruin have now been repaired and renovated by various international organisations.

I spent time inside of Wat Ounalom, no monks but free (by paying a few bob) to enter.

At various times during the next few days I visited this area on many occasions (it was handy to use the free WiFi of places like the FCC and Paddy Rice Bar), the food and beer at both are of a very acceptable quality and as they say the price is right.

Chinese New Year was approaching, you get the feel of this when they start burning imitation paper money in the street. On the final day and the following days, most places shut in China Town.

I was lucky, just around the corner was a large Chinese Restaurant, I decided to chance my arm and pop in on Chinese New Year’s Eve, I was the only non-oriental there, no matter, I look on this as a good sign. The charming boss lady came to me showed me a table right beside the bar (do I have a red nose?), she brought me a western menu, this is a one with pictures in it. I ordered 3 dishes, thinking they would be small portions, yep got it wrong again, I wondered why she repeated everything twice, they were massive and then the rice and the sauces. I was a disgrace, I couldn't finish them, I tried, but alas I failed. They all tasted fantastic, the crispy pork belly Szechuan style being my favourite but the fantastic chicken and the sticky BBQ’d pork ribs not far behind.

But to crown it all she insisted on me eating two of the very rich New Year’s cakes, I can tell you, I was sweating profusely as I rolled around the corner to my hotel.

Getting up early next morning, I popped down stairs and had a cup of coffee, then decided to walk (much to the annoyance of the Tuk-tuk drivers) to the Vietnam Airlines office just a couple of streets away to arrange my flight to Ho Chi Minh City (from Hence forth called only HCMC), here I thought I would get the best deal, wrong, better go to one of the bucket seat operators and fly with a never come back airline, or better still get your visa in advance or letter of introduction to one of the land border crossings and travel by sleeper coach, ah! well stupidity has its price. The flight ticket paid ($200), I then decided to head off towards a cookery school that I had seen advertised. I had decided to fill in my last full day doing a cookery course, but needed to find it first. I had found it on the map, that is actually the easy part, but searching the streets for it is another matter, but I eventually found it booked and paid for it, had a nice cool beer, even here in a none Chinese restaurant there  were offerings to the Gods.

All this for the Gods!

In China Town nothing was moving everything was shuttered and barred, this is the day that they celebrate with their families and everything closes. I therefore went down to the river, bought some postcards, wrote them, went to the post office (obviously not run by Chinese) and posted them to the lucky few (better than winning the lottery getting a card from me). I then walked to the river, to the place that the Mekong and Tonlé Sap river cruises left, there were some actually leavibg but in which direction I haven’t a clue, it was time for a coffee.

I then went to a nice café that I had discovered called the Purple Pumpkin and lunched on a nice filled baguette and a flat white (this was my breakfast even though it was getting on 11 O’clock). I then decided to cross the road and watch the fully laden barges (if they have a Plimsoll Line then it is below the water line), the decks awash, these barges are carrying hard-core rubble up the Tonlé Sap for the new road between Siem Reap and Phnom Penh which is being built with Chinese Aid. In the opposite direction they are passed at great speed by empty vessels heading down towards the Mekong to pick up new cargo of hard-core.

I chatted with a Law Student,  (about football, everyone in SE Asia knows about the Premiere League and will watch it and know what team is where in the league). He offered to take my photograph with the river as a back ground, this was done and we sat in the very hot midday sun and chatted for a while, before he headed off to do whatever students do when not studying.

I watched the goings on at an adjacent Chinese shrine, the lighting of Josh sticks, giving off offerings, the praying, all very interesting stuff, but it now being Midday and the sun was well over the Yard arm, in fact it was well over the topsail now, I headed to Paddy Rice’s for a cooling pint
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I watched the traditional lion dance at an adjacent Chinese establishment.

I then got a Tuk-tuk back to the hotel (haggle and during the day you will get it for $2) and had a siesta, always a good thing to fill in the afternoon and get you out of the heat, it is either that or you stay in the bars and get drunk, it is no use going to the Royal Palace as they are having their Royal Snooze (or may be in a bar getting drunk as a lord).

That evening after a shower, I grabbed a foreign Tuk-tuk, my young driver nowhere to be found it was then that I was told about him having too much Chinese New Year. Terrible, absolutely terrible what are the young Tuk-tuk drivers of today coming to! I went to FCC and sat on the open balcony and watched the antics in the street below, it was full of Chinese parading up and down in all of their finery, in the middle of the promenade a Zumba group was dancing to the rhythm of the beat (this happen each evening just after sunset). I had a nice couple of beers and then got a Tuk-tuk back to my hotel.
Tomorrow would be quite a different day, I was sure of that.