Coming to Cambodia

  Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Saturday, November 22, 2008

Me and Kate on my first tuk-tuk ride!

We got off the bus in Phnom Penh and very quickly noticed a difference in Cambodia... everyone was smiling... everyone was waving hello with big welcoming grins and offering us help for nothing.... this felt good... I've heard people say they didn't like Vietnam, and while it wasn't my favourite place, I thought it was a bit unfair... But if they went from Cambodia to Vietnam, I can see why they might not like it... Within minutes I was enjoying my very first tuk-tuk (a mo-ped with a carriage on the back) ride, with me, Tom, Tony and Kate all crammed in with our bags... we found a very cheap guesthouse on the edge of the lake and settled in... we went exploring for a while and then went back to meet up with B (Barbro, who we met with Tony and Kate in Australia) and Emma, who is a lovely English girl they met along the way... And in true 'us' style, we got showered and ready, and headed out for a night out in Phnom Penh...

Tom, B, Tony, Emma, Kate, me and random!

The next day, no-one wanted to get up very early, but somehow we managed a fairly reasonable hour and hired a tuk-tuk driver called Jack for the day... our first stop was S-21... I hope this will be the saddest place I ever visit. People at home are well aware of the atrocities that took place during the Second World War, in Vietnam and in countless other cases of genocide, but few know what happened in Cambodia within the lifetime of my elder brother....

The faces of S-21

An extreme group called the Khmer Rouge wanted to use the country to provide rice for nations all over the world, and set the country back to the year zero. In order to do this they drove everyone out of the cities and forced them to work with no pay and very little food. Anyone deemed intelligent or academic, anyone who worse glasses or spoke a second language was rounded up and systematically tortured and killed. Between 1975 and 1979 3 million people were killed. 200,000 were sent to S-21 and 7 survived. S-21 was a school, but it was converted into a torture house. There are thousands of documents that show what happened there, including gruesome photos that are displayed so that no-one will remember. I walked around several rooms, staring into the eyes of face upon face of hopeless hostage, with nothing but a number around their necks to show who they were. It was absolutely horrifying. There are also a number of rooms, left the way they were after the Khmer Rouge fell with wire beds and bars on the windows... more photos show how people were killed in these rooms. I really can't begin to express how helpless and heart broken I felt walking around this place...

Skulls at the killing fields

And the next step was equally bad... Truck loads of people were taken every day to the killing fields, where they were lined up next to shallow graves and hit over the head to save bullets... the remains of men, women and children were found in these shallow graves and the skulls have been kept inside a huge monument to show just how many people were killed there... These are the saddest things I've ever seen and I will never forget how they affected me, as I think they will continue to affect me for the rest of my life.

Being in a big group of people really helped that day though, because we lifted each other's spirits ready to visit the Russian Market... which is a really cool, big market... We all did a little bit of shopping and then went back to the hotel for dinner...

Tom about to eat a leg

The next day we headed out fairly early again and went back to the Russian Market to have some more yummy noodles... I also snuk off and bought Tom a present, because our 5 year anniversary was the next day :) We also found some Camodian treats - fried tarantulas, cockroaches and crickets... we all had a go at eating them, just a leg or two, and I have to say it wasn't bad at all... but Tony was the only one to eat anything meaty... he had the body of the tarantula... and didn't seem to mind it at all!!

Emma, Tony and Tom at the orphanag

Next up, we got back in the tuk-tuk and visited an orphanage, where one of Kate's friends is going to be working next year. It was amazing... as soon as we walked in one child literally dragged himself across the floor at lightning speed to be the first to get a hug from us... I was welling up already... we spent a while walking around to see where the kids play and sleep, and then spent an amazing few hours playing with some of the younger children on a play mat. They all had a lot of serious problems, like HIV, blindness, autism, deafness, cancer... the list goes on... but they all had absolutely amazing spirit, and getting a smile out of them felt amazing. We took a big 50kg bag of rice with us too, so as we were leaving the cook came out to say thank you... our tuk-tuk driver also thanked us for visiting, as he said that this is one of the orphanages that really helps the kids... apparently some of them take donations and get rich from them...

Girly golf!

On the way home we decided to stop off at the driving range we saw on the way, and hit a few balls... I have never done this before and so wasn't all that successful, but it was loads of fun... we invited Jack up to hit a few balls too, which he absolutely loved :)

The next day, Tom and I got up early and boarded a bus to Sihanoukville, a little seaside town, to celebrate our anniversary.... but that's another blog!!

More Phnom Penh photos