Hope everyone had a good Christmas and have plans for new year well in hand! We are in Hanoi and unsure of our plans, the Vietnamese apparently go totally crazy for the lunar new year, but that's about a fortnight away and we will sadly have left so not sure what will happen tomorrow (probably cocoa in bed by 9!)
Cambodia is a country with a difficult past, for anyone who doesn't know then Wikipedia is a better bet than us for detailed history... a communist revolution led by Pol Pot and the Kmer Rouge in the 1970's attempted to make the entire country an agricultural socialist state. People were forcibly marched out of towns to the country to become farmers leaving ghost towns behind them. The state set massive targets for increasing rice production, these were missed but overseers claimed they were met and sent off the agreed portion to market whilst the workers were left without food or seed stock. Millions died of starvation or through persecution, torture and murder as enemies of the state. The country exported rice whilst people starved and educated people, those who wore glasses or percieved enemies of the revolution were rounded up and removed to torture camps or just dissapeared.
We visited a museum based in a former school that was converted into a prison and torture camp, we also intended to visit the so called 'killing fields' where mass graves have been partially excavated and where most of the former prisioners of the camp ended up. We didn't make the trip to the killing fields as there is only so much you can take in or experience of mans ability to inflict misery and suffering on eachother, I think if you read what we saw below then you'll understand.
The museum itself is excellent although not for those of a delicate disposition, there are cells left as they were when in use with pictures of what was found following the overthrow of the regime (some very graphic but important so people aren't allowed to forget what happened... it's a chilling experience to see a photo of a man who had been tortured to death in a room you are standing in, the body chained to the same bed that is the only furniture that remains in the room) there are rooms filled with photos of every person recorded as coming through the camp together with photos of the guards. The guards and the prisoners were often so young... it's hard to look into the eyes of a boy of 13 or 14 and know that they were a guard here and therefore guilty of killing and torturing the people in the neighbouring photos. The photos of the guards and the prisoners are displayed side by side and you try unconciously to see some difference between them, something in the guards photos that shows them as being capable of evil acts, some sneer or darkened look but it's not there. The only way you can identify the guards is that they are wearing hats.
In another room there are interviews with some of the former guards now working as housewives, fishermen or farmers... they don't display remorse for their role in the prison saying generally that they were following orders or feared for their own lives if they refused to work there. They blame the rulers of the Kmer rouge and call for them to be prosecuted... it's hard to accept that they haven't been punished for their part in what happened but few others have either.
Away from the dark stories of the Kmer rouge the city of Phom Penh is hard to love, you can't really walk anywhere, the polution and rubbish are amongst the worst we've experienced on the trip and to be perfectly honest we didn't really enjoy the city as we have with other cities on this trip (the exception being an excellent restaurant run by a non profit organisation that trains street kids to be chefs... zuchini and cheddar fritters... yum), we left after few days and visited a town on the south west coast where we hung out on the beach eating fresh seafood and enjoying our first sight of the sea since the islands right back at the start of the trip!
Cambodia has many of the same problems with UXOs as Laos but it is slightly wealthier and has better healthcare (it's a relative position but still better) which means more people survive an encounter with a land mine, we saw this first hand on the beach as we encountered a large number of land mine victims asking for alms (pun not intended and only spotted on review I promise) on the beach together with the usual hawkers of beads, fruit, and hair removal. It's a strange experience to look a man in the eye and shake him firmly by the stump, but not as uncomfortable as you might imagine.
It is strange to western eyes to see so many disfigured people but as there is no social security for some people begging from tourists is one of the few ways they can make a living. We made a point of buying bracelets and books from the disabled hawkers (at inflated prices... shaking arms is one thing, you try out-bargaining a man with no legs) and kept change to give out as well, when a girl who looks about 4 or 5 asks shyly to take the left over food from your plate it is very difficult to stop yourself from handing over the contents of your wallet or ordering them half the menu from wherever you happen to be... but local advice books ask tourists not to give to children at all as they are often controlled by adults and made to work as beggars or peddlars when they should be at school, it's sound advice but it doesn't make it easy.
Other than the beach peddlars our time at the beach was notable mainly for the sunsets which were fantastic, the seafood fresh off the boat, and the illness that befell one of our party who shall remain nameless. It was a classic travellers mallaise that allowed this person to demonstrate their resiliance and quick thinking under the worst kind of pressure... they emerged greenly from the bathroom and muttered "I'm sorry if the bathroom smells funny, I was on the toilet and had to vomit on the floor, I've cleaned it up but the alternative was much worse"... we're thinking of getting it printed on a t-shirt. Once all illness had left the camp we packed up and boarded a bus direct for Vietnam.
Cambodia is a country with a difficult past, for anyone who doesn't know then Wikipedia is a better bet than us for detailed history... a communist revolution led by Pol Pot and the Kmer Rouge in the 1970's attempted to make the entire country an agricultural socialist state. People were forcibly marched out of towns to the country to become farmers leaving ghost towns behind them. The state set massive targets for increasing rice production, these were missed but overseers claimed they were met and sent off the agreed portion to market whilst the workers were left without food or seed stock. Millions died of starvation or through persecution, torture and murder as enemies of the state. The country exported rice whilst people starved and educated people, those who wore glasses or percieved enemies of the revolution were rounded up and removed to torture camps or just dissapeared.
We visited a museum based in a former school that was converted into a prison and torture camp, we also intended to visit the so called 'killing fields' where mass graves have been partially excavated and where most of the former prisioners of the camp ended up. We didn't make the trip to the killing fields as there is only so much you can take in or experience of mans ability to inflict misery and suffering on eachother, I think if you read what we saw below then you'll understand.
The museum itself is excellent although not for those of a delicate disposition, there are cells left as they were when in use with pictures of what was found following the overthrow of the regime (some very graphic but important so people aren't allowed to forget what happened... it's a chilling experience to see a photo of a man who had been tortured to death in a room you are standing in, the body chained to the same bed that is the only furniture that remains in the room) there are rooms filled with photos of every person recorded as coming through the camp together with photos of the guards. The guards and the prisoners were often so young... it's hard to look into the eyes of a boy of 13 or 14 and know that they were a guard here and therefore guilty of killing and torturing the people in the neighbouring photos. The photos of the guards and the prisoners are displayed side by side and you try unconciously to see some difference between them, something in the guards photos that shows them as being capable of evil acts, some sneer or darkened look but it's not there. The only way you can identify the guards is that they are wearing hats.
In another room there are interviews with some of the former guards now working as housewives, fishermen or farmers... they don't display remorse for their role in the prison saying generally that they were following orders or feared for their own lives if they refused to work there. They blame the rulers of the Kmer rouge and call for them to be prosecuted... it's hard to accept that they haven't been punished for their part in what happened but few others have either.
Away from the dark stories of the Kmer rouge the city of Phom Penh is hard to love, you can't really walk anywhere, the polution and rubbish are amongst the worst we've experienced on the trip and to be perfectly honest we didn't really enjoy the city as we have with other cities on this trip (the exception being an excellent restaurant run by a non profit organisation that trains street kids to be chefs... zuchini and cheddar fritters... yum), we left after few days and visited a town on the south west coast where we hung out on the beach eating fresh seafood and enjoying our first sight of the sea since the islands right back at the start of the trip!
Cambodia has many of the same problems with UXOs as Laos but it is slightly wealthier and has better healthcare (it's a relative position but still better) which means more people survive an encounter with a land mine, we saw this first hand on the beach as we encountered a large number of land mine victims asking for alms (pun not intended and only spotted on review I promise) on the beach together with the usual hawkers of beads, fruit, and hair removal. It's a strange experience to look a man in the eye and shake him firmly by the stump, but not as uncomfortable as you might imagine.
It is strange to western eyes to see so many disfigured people but as there is no social security for some people begging from tourists is one of the few ways they can make a living. We made a point of buying bracelets and books from the disabled hawkers (at inflated prices... shaking arms is one thing, you try out-bargaining a man with no legs) and kept change to give out as well, when a girl who looks about 4 or 5 asks shyly to take the left over food from your plate it is very difficult to stop yourself from handing over the contents of your wallet or ordering them half the menu from wherever you happen to be... but local advice books ask tourists not to give to children at all as they are often controlled by adults and made to work as beggars or peddlars when they should be at school, it's sound advice but it doesn't make it easy.
Other than the beach peddlars our time at the beach was notable mainly for the sunsets which were fantastic, the seafood fresh off the boat, and the illness that befell one of our party who shall remain nameless. It was a classic travellers mallaise that allowed this person to demonstrate their resiliance and quick thinking under the worst kind of pressure... they emerged greenly from the bathroom and muttered "I'm sorry if the bathroom smells funny, I was on the toilet and had to vomit on the floor, I've cleaned it up but the alternative was much worse"... we're thinking of getting it printed on a t-shirt. Once all illness had left the camp we packed up and boarded a bus direct for Vietnam.
1 comment:
I hope there won't be a caption competition photo coming up any time soon after reading that, very moving, although I admit to chuckling at the tale of resilience and hardship at the end. I recall being in a similar bind once, although it was caused by excessive alcohol consumption on my 19th birthday and blissfully I can't remember the outcome.
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