Sour Sdey Cambodia

What a pleasure the drive to Cambodia was! The driver and his crew were the friendliest ever and they took all our paperwork from us and filled in our departure and arrival cards for the border and handled everything for us, all we had to do was show up and wait for it to be processed. It was such a joy and made up for many of the grumpy bus drivers we’ve had in Vietnam. Our first stop in Cambodia was Phnom Penh, the capital city where there’s a bustling night market, a busy river side touristy street and as much people watching as you can stand. I thoroughly enjoy people watching and took an afternoon out to sit outside a cafe, write a blog, and partake in that very activity. The odd thing about this city though is that many of the westerners appear to be ageing single men, some of whom have a young local girl on their arm, some of whom gather together with other single ageing men through the day and then the night time would be anyone’s guess, mine being the adult industry which would appear to be in full swing in this place! I never expected it to be so obvious. All through South East Asia we have seen the occasional older white man with a young local lady but here there are way more of these men, and I’m trying hard not to judge what I see.

Our first day out here had to be to the Killing Fields, another country with an horrific story to tell, and so recent as it only happened in the late 70s. Cambodians flooded the streets in April 1975 to celebrate the end of the war when Pol Pot (Khmer Rouge) came into power, just hours later they were being evicted from their homes and sent to work in the fields. Over the next 3 years this regime massacred around 2 million people, nearly a quarter of Cambodia’s population, and threw their bodies into mass graves, 129 of which are spread across the country, they also terrorised those who remained. A school in Phnom Penh was turned into an interrogation centre known as S-21 where people were brought in and tortured for several months before being taken to the killing fields. S-21 housed around 20,000 people and I believe that only 7 people survived this by becoming useful to the Khmer Rouge. This place is now the main museum and walking around it is eerie and sad, makeshift cells still exist, blood can still be seen on the floors and photographs and paintings help us to understand some of the horrors that took place. Outside the city is the site of one of the killing fields or mass graves which is now an open air museum come park with an audio guide telling stories and a memorial stupa which has 9 floors of human skulls displayed within. Walking around what is now a beautiful memorial park gives us time to listen to the stories and reflect peacefully on the disturbing things we are hearing. When the rains come and shift the soil, relics continue to rise up out of the ground, as we walk around there are loads of rags coming through as well as some human bones poking out and once a month the staff collect them and care for them. The Khmer Rouge considered bullets to be too expensive and so used farming equipment from a nearby shed to kill the prisoners. These poor men, women and children were taken from S-21 blindfolded; they had already been tortured, they were thin and weak and scared, they were brought to the mass grave and made to line up along the edge of it where they were battered until they fell in. In the worst section the ‘killing tree’ existed next to the grave of hundreds of children as they had been hit against the tree and then thrown into the pit. The Khmer Rouge then sprayed the graves with chemicals, this would help kill those who were about to be buried alive but it also masked the smell of the graves which were surrounded by land mines in an effort to hide the evidence. Pol Pot was afraid of anyone who might rise against him and so killed anyone with an education; this meant that once it was all over rebuilding the city was very slow as there were no architects or engineers left in the country to do the work. Today the leaders of the Khmer Rouge are in custody and awaiting trial, Pol Pot died too soon to face charges and the others are so old they will never face the punishment they deserve. A terribly sad and tragic tale of needless suffering and death in an otherwise peaceful society.

A walk around Phnom Penh brought us to markets, indoor and outdoor, wats, lots of cafes and eateries, the river and the palace. It’s a nice city, small and lively and I enjoyed my time here but I’ve arrived at that awful place where I have little interest in the temples and the wats and the stupas. I still love the look of them and I still get a wee kick from seeing the monks walking around in their orange robes, it’s such a special sight for a westerner, but I have no desire to enter the temples or spend any time around them, I am becoming indifferent to them. After the killing fields my favourite part of this city has been the busy night market near our hostel, selling loads of food. There’re many types of fish, whole or chopped, buy a bag of fish heads? Crabs all bound up with reeds, giant (and I mean giant!!) prawns, eels, alive and dead. I couldn’t resist a skewer of barbecued chicken which the vendor then dusted with a salt and squeezed lime juice over, that was really tasty!

We moved on from here to Siem Reap, another fairly touristy town but that is mainly due to its close proximity to Angkor Wat (city of temples), the largest Hindu temple complex in the world dating back to around the 12^th century.  A sleepy 5am start to the day ensured we were there in time for a non-existent sunrise and able to start the long day of exploring ancient ruins and temples. The Angkor Wat building itself is recognised the world over by its 5 towers which also feature on the Cambodian flag. Along with Angkor Wat we also visited Angkor Thom and Ta Prom Temple, only 3 out of the many that are situated here. Angkor Thom is a small(ish) city containing many different buildings including the Bayon which is incredible, several rock peaks stand tall each with different faces looking out over the area. Ta Prom is also known as the jungle temple as the trees have grown into the building making it such a magical place to roam around, it all looks like something created by the imaginations of the film industry, such a fantastic place to spend the day. We spent around 7-8hours wandering around the sites, once again thanking the lack of Health and Safety for enabling us to rummage about in places deemed too dangerous in other countries, up and down ridiculously steep steps, under semi-collapsed archways, it’s the kind of place that makes you wish you were a child again because adventures here would be the best! What a fantastic day out, and like everywhere else, there’s food stalls dotted about selling their wonderful food! What more could I ask for?

Like Phnom Penh the rest of the visit involved markets and food stalls and wondering about. I treated myself here to a reflexology foot, hand and shoulder massage and what a treat it was at the bargain price of about 3 GBP for an hour. After he’d done my feet, my legs, my hands, arms, head, neck, shoulders and back I couldn’t help wondering what the full body massage involves?!

Along the road to the Thai border the Cambodian dream draws to a close, looking out the window of the bus the land is flat and there are miles of paddy fields and people working the land. I’d love to return to this country, I feel there is a lot more to explore here and it would be really great to get away from the touristy spots and get a better feel for the place. The people are smiling and friendly, the food is tasty and cheap and the land is green and fresh. With such a sad history I am interested to see how it continues to develop.