We spent three nights in Phnom Penh, it was surprisingly to see how cosmopolitan and modern the city was. Numerous people we met explained the high-rises were all Chinese business, hinting at distrust of the government and monarchy. Most of the motorcyclist were wearing helmets and the traffic seem to move with more rules than we have observed in Thailand over the last six weeks. We had another great Airbnb views of the with Mekong River view, overlooking “walking street” with a short stroll to the night market. At night the street was busy with vendors, groups line dancing and generally people out having fun. To get to our temporary home we had to walk thought a dark and intimidating alleyway, we quickly learned that despite the garbage and disrepair people along living in the buildings along the alleyway were friendly and welcoming, as it was close to the Royal Palace it was also monitored by a security guard at night. The apartment itself was very concrete and brutalist in its modern design but had everything we needed and a fantastic location.
We were walking distance from the Royal Palace, which is open to tours. We were pleased with our decision at the doorway to have one of the staff tour guides show us around. She was a charming young woman with excellent English and enjoyed surprising us with some of the amazing facts about the palace and Cambodia. It was neat to see the “Buddha tree”, learning that it is also called the “cannonball tree” and that the interesting flowers only last one day. She showed us lots of other flora around the gardens. She was diligent about finding shade and using her umbrella to help us find shade in the immense heat as she explained the historical importance and function of the buildings in the Royal compound. The most impressive site was inside the central temple, there was a 90 kg gold Buddha, Aiden did the math, and the gold alone was worth $14 million USD. The third eye was a 25-carat diamond and the diamond on the belt was 20-carats. Surrounding it were many other small solid gold Buddhist statues. They were housed in wooden glass shelving units, very different from the immense security precautions that we have seen in Europe, understandably no photos allowed in this room. Our guide answered a few of our questions about the politics related to royalty and the current government, she was always diplomatic but let us know much of the population is dissatisfied with the level of corruption and inequality. We had an interesting discussion with her about her and her sibling’s frustration with paying income tax of 5%, and the difference with Canadian income tax and its teared system and the benefits we see of this in terms of social structure, education, healthcare etc. The events Cambodia’s tragic and devastating past with the Khmer Rouge clearly shaped current values, and there is a fear of socialism.
The next day we took another difficult tour to the killing fields and genocide Museum. Although this was heartbreaking, we were very glad that we went on the tour and had this difficult piece of history was explained to us in a way that we will never forget. This experience was very visceral and gruesome. Our guide gave a very detailed description of torture methods and how endangered everyone’s lives became under the Khmer Rouge; everyone lost their homes and belongings, schools and hospitals were closed and everyone was moved from the cities to work in the rice fields. It is estimated the population of Cambodia went from 8,000,000 to 5,000,000 during the Khmer Rouges rule from 1975-1979. Many of the deaths were related to executions driven by mounting paranoia and fear about individuals against the regime, many more deaths related to starvation, overwork, and malaria and other diseases, everyone was expected to work in the rice field producing unattainable quotas of rice for the regime. At the killing fields we saw the weapons used for executions, our guide angrily sharing the Khmer Rouge felt it was a waste of a bullet to use one on an enemy so expected their executioners to use other means of killing and torture. The tree were many infants and toddlers were murdered in front of their parents because they were considered a threat based on paranoia that their parent’s suspected political values would mean they were automatically enemies of the party. The memorial monument filled with thousands of skulls of the victims of this single killing field (there were many), brought the insane loss of human life to strong visual experience. Outside the killing field entrance was a survivor selling his book documenting his life and survival story.
The genocide museum is housed in S21, what used to be high school, it was turned into a prison and torture centre, it has now become a museum documenting the atrocities of its history. There was only 12 survivors and a huge number of deaths. There were vivid pictures of the scenes at the prison when it was liberated by the Vietnamese army, images of the people piles of people who have been killed. Throughout the prison where rooms filled with intake pictures of prisoners, with their cell number, these pictures displayed in 8 1/2 x 11 form were very striking and real, so many young people where needlessly killed. Wandering through the rows of tiny cells, seeing the shackles and terrible conditions was viscerally painful and sad. Again there were three different survivors in the museum selling their books about survival to make a living. Visiting S21 brought many thoughts and sadness about current atrocities in our world and shame and sadness that we have not yet learned from mistakes of the past, war, genocide, starvation, and torture continue and seem to be getting worse.
