Pete & Rach's Big Trip: Phnom Penh: 12-17 Nov 2013

Follow the Yellow Brick Road...
Outside the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh

Pete says:

To get to Phnom Penh we took a 6 hour luxury bus from Saigon with the very good "Mekong Express" bus company, a Cambodian group. The bus was not the newest but did have a toilet and they gave us snacks and water and, most importantly, dealt with the visa and border crossing hassles for us. This was the first time either of us had crossed a land border and it was much like I imagined, except that the bus company did all the hard work and told us where to queue and get our passports stamped and that was it. I had expected some searches but our bags remained on the bus and no-one checked them.

As soon as we got into Cambodia the landscape changed to be much less jungle-like and much flatter and open. It looked a lot like the fens at home apart from the occasional palm tree. It was very obvious that Cambodia is far poorer than Vietnam and there was no development outside the cities, just farmland and
shacks on stilts.

On a ferry on the journey from Saigon to Phnom Penh

Our hotel in Phnom Penh was the Homelands Guesthouse and was a nice place run by Snowy and her family. It was here that we met Marije and Evelien who were from Leeuwarden in The Netherlands. They were also on a long travelling adventure and we got to know them, mainly because they spent most of each day sitting at the same table outside the hotel. We liked their attitude to relaxed and slow paced travelling. Most people we met would say things like "You can do Phnom Penh in a day" and would seem to be on a high speed tour, spending as little time as possible in each location, just visiting the notable sites and moving on, so they could tick it off their list. Marije and Evelien shared our idea that you don't really know a place until you have spend a good few days sitting down, talking to people and watching the world go by (and drinking the local beers).

The streets of Phnom Penh

Rach says:

We learnt a lot about the horrifying history of the country at the Tuol Sleng "S-21" prison and the Killing Fields. Here is a summary of what we learnt.

The Khmer Rouge held power in "Democratic Kampuchea" between 1975-1979.
A period of 3 years, 8 months and 20 days.
During this time, 2 million Cambodians - a quarter of the population - were killed or died of starvation and disease.
20,000 people were imprisoned and tortured in S-21 and of these, only 7 survived.

When Khmer Rouge took power, many people were glad thinking that the end of the civil war would bring peace. Within 48 hours schools, factories, hospitals and police stations were closed. Within 3 days, the cities had been emptied and the people sent to the countryside to begin forced manual labour. Money and all personal possessions were banned, except for a black uniform and a rice bowl.

Pol Pot had a deranged vision of a pure agrarian society. He ordered rice production to triple with forced labour morning until night with at most 2 scant bowls of rice soup per day. Millions died from exhaustion and starvation. Anyone who couldn't contribute was killed. Anyone who could undermine the regime was killed, including intellectuals, teachers and even people who wore glasses or had soft hands (as it showed they were not a manual labourer), despite the fact that Pol Pot himself was a well-educated teacher.

"Traitors" (who had mostly done nothing) were taken to the S-21 prison, a converted school, only a 5 minute walk from our hotel. It is hard to comprehend the evils that were carried out there. Two Australians who were on a boat trip and strayed into Cambodian waters were also imprisoned there (the world was unaware of what was happening, being absorbed with the Vietnam War).

Up to 300 of these "traitors" would be taken to the Killing Fields each day in later years. I found the Killing Fields very upsetting due to the excellent and very informative audio guide, which meant that we learnt a lot more detail about the history than we had at S-21. Despite this, I felt a strange peacefulness at the site, which I had not felt at S-21.

Mottos of the Khmer Rouge:

"To keep you is no gain, to lose you is no loss"
"It is better to kill an innocent by mistake than to spare an enemy by mistake"
"To get rid of the grass, you must kill the roots"

Throughout our time in Cambodia, we would be looking at everyone over about 40 and saying: "They remember those times... They lived through all of that suffering." It was quite mind blowing. We would wonder what each individual's story was, but of course could never ask. There are noticeably few elderly people in Cambodia as a result of the genocide.

Enormous Trousers

On a brighter note we also visited the Royal Palace, where I had to wear some comedic massive hired trousers and big white t-shirt (my shorts were considered immodest). We met up with Stacey and Neil again later that day for food and drinks.

Titbits:

US Dollars is the most widely used currency in Cambodia - only small change is given in Cambodian Riels.
We thought 3 on a scooter was a lot until we went to Cambodia, where they pack on up to 5! Now one person just looks lonely.
Dodgy Cambodian electricity...if you're having a shower, make sure you turn off the aircon first - unless you want to be plunged into darkness.
It was the hottest place we have been so far, 34 degrees and 90% humidity. Too hot to do anything much aside from sit at a table and drink.
The open sewer in the city (like a big canal) stank like nothing we have ever smelt before!