Phnom Penh
Trip Start
May 08, 2008
1
4
25
Trip End
Ongoing
Phnom Penh,
Phnom Penh,
Cambodia
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
The border crossing went fine except for being totally ripped off on the price of the visa. We thought it would be about $20-25 (it varies at different crossings for some reason) but we were hit with a charge of $35 which was ridiculous but there's no arguing with it as it seems to be the official price. We had no choice but to go with it but that petty theft, and that's what it amounts to, is really annoying and greedy even if it comes from the government. If they said a couple of dollars more it'd be fine, call it a service charge or whatever but there you go. Maybe its just the price you pay for a smoother border crossing than elsewhere but surely a visa to enter a country should cost the same wherever you enter.
Feeling tender from that incident we refused to pay the extortionate fees demanded by the taxi drivers and we eventually ended up on the back of a motorbike driving the 12k to Koh Chang. That's right, two of us, driver, two rucksacks, two day packs on one motorbike. Not sure I'd so it again with that load, although its actually fine when its just people, but it made a lot of sense at the time. At least by this time the rain had stopped, otherwise it would have been unbearable. From the town of Koh Kong we arranged a shared taxi to the capital Phnom (note: the p is not silent) Penh which took a fair bit of negotiating on my part. Our choice was to stay in Koh Kong overnight and take the only daily bus at 8 the next morning or go by taxi arriving at night (not our preferred option) but still at least waking up in the place we wanted to be. So having discussed options and various prices with the driver through an interpreter whose English was only just passable we paid $15 each for the back seat of the cab with one other person. Are you confused? I was a little too, especially when the driver thought I was ready to go and two others jumped into the cab. That was a surprise for me but they assured me that everything was fine and they were to be my fellow passengers. "Okay", I said to them "but there's those two, me and Maria, 4 in total and there are only to be three in the back seat". Yes yes was the response, so I went back to where Maria was waiting and we took the decision to leave there and then. So off back to the taxi stand where we loaded up, us in the back with a Cambodian gent. Then 2 lads piled into the passenger seat. Different we thought, but they're tiny and its not like there's traffic police to make any trouble for them. Then the driver sat in...only for a fourth lad to sit in beside him...and off we went. So there were four in the front with the driver operating from somewhere to the right of the steering wheel (left hand drive) with three in the back. We slowly realised that this was one of the classic "8-seater" Toyota Camry share taxis that operate all over the country, four in the front and four in the back, so our price was actually paying for 3 normal seats!. A standard Camry saloon is an MPV here...brilliant. The journey passed off without any problems at all, only 5 hours to the capital with a stop for some delicious food on the way (putting our misgivings at leaving the incredible Thai food behind at rest). The road seemed to be fine, good nick, no potholes, regular signs telling how far to go.....better than many parts of Ireland.
So Phnom Penh, the alliterative capital of Cambodia was a bit of a pleasant surprise. Relatively clean, good roads, farily modern and well kept. Nice. We stayed directly across the road from the site of so many Khmer Rouge horrers, Tuol Sleng, formerly the site of a high school, subsequently transformed into S-21, the main prison of the regime where thousands of people were tortured for months before being taken to the killing fields and brutally killed. Its a pretty grim place as you can imagine, looking for all the world like a school from the outside but with the implements of torture still lying around, the beds they were strapped to for torture, the old single cells where prisoners were kept, everything. Most of them had committed no greater crime than talking to the wrong people, being related to the wrong people, or just simply looking the wrong way. There are mugshots of thousands of the victims maintained there, simple, ordinary people. As I say, horrifying.
Just quickly about the Khmer Rouge (KR): A radical communist movement along the Maoist lines they came to power after a long and brutal civil war from 1970 to 1975, taking the capital on 17 April 1975 although they effectively ruled large parts of the country from as early as 1972. Immediately the cities were evacuated, ostensibly to protect the locals from American bombings. Lies. They were evacuated with hours notice, never to return, instead being relocated to the countryside to grow rice as part of the regime's master plan to start from scratch as an agricultural nation, moving to industrialisation over the next 10 years. Families were arbitrarily separated and sent to opposite ends of the country, urban life was considered bad, being educated a death sentence. Even wearing glasses marked you out as educated and you stood to be killed for it. All ethnic minorities, mainly Chinese and Vietnamese were considered impure and killed or forced to leave the country. There was only one problem with the rice growing plan, exports of which were to sustain the economy....the planned level of production was 3 times what the country had produced in the previous years and with a population severely weakened by civil war such an increase was pretty much impossible. So when the shortfall was noticed, regional commanders sent too much to central for export and left the people with too little to eat. Between the forced labour and the lack of food and executions, between 1.75 and 2m people are believed to have died out of a population of almost 8m. Unbelievable. One of the more ridiculous ideas of this new communist stae was that private eating was banned and everyone in each village had to eat together in huge mess halls, with all cooking utensils, pots etc now owned by the state! Madness.
Okay that was a simplified history lesson for you, hope it wasn't too confusing. After that horror and a little while to contemplate how lucky we really are we took in a couple of more typical tourist sights, namely the Royal Palace and the National Museum. Very standard and non-horrific, beautiful examples of the ancient stone statues adn lintels from the many ruins around the country dating back over 1000 years.
Overall a pretty decent city really, the food was good too in the end, even if its still nowhere near the standards of the Thais and far far more expensive. Small complaint really. One other minor bugbear was the fact that almost everything official (museums, sights, embassies) closes from 10.30 or 11 am until 2 or 2.30 pm. Irritating when you've walked 20 minutes and found that its closed at different time to everything else! Anyway from here we were off to Battambang in the northwest of the country for a little bit of smaller town life and a little bit of sightseeing.
