Capital of Cambodia
Trip Start
Mar 15, 2008
1
44
86
Trip End
Jul 15, 2009
Phenom Penh,
Cambodia
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Cambodia.......Humbling to say the least. The poorest people I have ever seen and the nicest. They are still trying to come to terms with their past. The echos of genocide are still apparent, the Khumer Rouge started their "Utopian" society only 30 years ago. The perpetrates still openly walk in public and they are still deciding whether or not to prosecute, though Pol Pot has already died. In 1978 after winning a civil war they started their plan. They marched into the capital and ordered every citizen to leave the capital because the Americans were going to bomb the city, this wasn't true. All citizens including hospital patients were forced to leave the city, most died over the next week during their walk into the countryside. They began killing all people who worked for the government, intellectuals, teachers, people who wore glasses
main street
. They flipped the class structure upside down, the poor peasants were considered to be of high moral character, incorruptible, not influenced by outsiders. All borders were closed and foreigners were killed or forced to leave the country. They spent the next few years breaking up families through starvation and killing their own people in the name of equality. The individual stories are beyond horrific. The people have suffered and their seems to be an underlying calm and pain in the nations psyche.
The Capital has no franchises, that's a first for me. However, a KFC is on the way.
There are over 1 million people in the bustling city with very few paved roads. The city is located on the convergence of three rivers. The corruption is shocking and thus not much central planning. Their first high rise building is currently under construction. The dollar is the de facto currency, it's the only thing that comes out of ATM machines. They have no coins, and their paper money is used like our change. It's a strange mix of Asian Palaces and old French Colonial Architecture along the river front with lots of poverty scattered about
bike wash
. The food is excellent and cheap. Overall, the city has lots of fine points and a great vibe about it.One day we visited the old concentration camp style jail. It was an old public school turned into a torture jail. The shear shock from the stories and photos of the deceased was disturbing to say the least. The tourists walk around with blank looks on their faces trying to understand the atrocities committed so recently. It was one of the most disturbing places that I have ever seen. Then most people take a short ride out of town to see the Killing Fields. It's nice to double down on the misery in one day. The bar street in town on the river provides some medicine for the pain. Bottles of wine starting at 8 dollars with a view help pass the time.
We had more time to kill in Cambodia so we were off to Cambodia's beach town in the Gulf of Thailand
Comments
sobering
just reading your entry made me cringe. i can not imagine what the experience is like in person. hard to believe that humans can treat one another that way. please add pictures to your entries.
steele