1/7 - Phnom Penh
Jordan and I arrived in Phnom Penh, Cambodia today after a 6 hour bus ride from Saigon. The bus ride only cost us $10. We had a free pickup from the hostel which includes free laundry, free wifi and sleeping mats on the ground in a room with 7 other people but it only cost us $4.50/night. We had chicken with rice for about $1.50for lunch. The Cambodians are much darker than the Vietnamese. We walked around the city to the National Museum. The building was just beautiful. And the sculptures of their gods were interesting. They had an old marble stone with inscriptions on it. The Cambodian writing looks like a whole bunch of wiggle marks to me! After that we walked to the Wat Phnom, a temple set above the town with a park surrounding. It was the first temple built in Phnom Penh around 1373. We stopped on the way home at glory jeans to spoil ourselves with a little coffee! That evening, we headed to the night market. Night markets are my favorite! We walked around all the shops and I got a cute top for $2.50. We bought dinner from the food stands and sat on the mats to eat with all the locals. Just had to remember to take off my shoes! I had steak, chicken, papaya salad and a water for $1.50. It was really fun and I am glad we got to experience it.
1/8 - Phnom Penh
We got a tuk tuk to breakfast in the morning. At breakfast, we were asked if we wanted breast milk or sweet milk with our coffee...habana! I think there was a translation issue there or at least I hope. Then, we went to the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum which was an old high school. When the Khmer Rouge took over in 1975 under Pol Pots lead the school became a prison. The S21 prison. I am embarrassed to say I knew nothing about the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. I am going to give a little history because it was such an eye opening experience for me and the fact that this only happened 35 years ago.
In 1975, the Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia implementing one of the most radical and brutal events a society has ever attempted. Entire populations were sent to the country side to work as slaves in the fields. Any reason to kill someone was accepted. This could have been just because you wore glasses. Once in prison, the people would be tortured until admitting to a crime. All this information was well documented including names, pictures, ages just like the Nazi Party in Germany. We got to walk thru the buildings to see the small cells, the shackles, the tools used to beat prisoners, the bar the would use to torture people on until they were unconscious and learn about this horrible period of time. Over the five years in operation over 20,000 people, not including children, were killed at the S21 prison. I got to read 4 stories from the 5 survivors from the prison that were rescued by the Vietnamese army in 1979. They were extremely heartwarming.
After the museum, we took the tuk tuk about 20 minutes to The Choeung Ek Genocidal Center or The Killing Fields. A little more history is that they killed off about half of the Cambodian population. They did not have room in the prison therefore sent tons of people daily to the killing fields. The killing fields included one grave site with over 450 victims, old Chinese graves, an orchard where people worked to death, survivor stories, a mass grave that included 166 victims without heads, glass boxes of clothing and bones that surface during rain events still to this day, a killing tree where women and children were beat to death, and a magic tree where they would play music as all these brutal acts went on. Even on the walking paths, I could see bones and clothing thru the dirt. Then, we got to walk in the Memorial Stupa. It was beautiful. It included a lot of the skulls and rose above the entire killing fields. On the skulls you could see how the victims were killed by the cracks in them and the spots were knifes had gone thru. They did not use bullets because they were expensive. It was very touching and just so hard to imagine this happened. The Vietnamese over took the Khmer Rouge in 1979. Almost 2 million people died over the four years of the Khmer Rouge. Cambodia is recovering and the people are making sure the people are educated and this never happens again.
This story makes me so grateful for my life and reminded me to count my blessings. I have been wanting to fly to Canada everyday since Gavin left. Experiences like this remind me why we have to travel and learn from others cultures.
That afternoon, I got an hour shoulder and head massage! Wonderful!
No comments:
Post a Comment