Cambodia

I have been back to Cambodia a few times since I wrote this, but it was interesting to over my first experiences there. (Excuse the hair!)

Before crossing from Vietnam into Cambodia I had stayed in Saigon for over a week.  A guy that sold knocked off books gave me them cheap so I bought a few about Cambodia.  For me Cambodia had only conjured up bad images, I wasn't even sure that I wanted to go. Child sex tourism, poverty and mass genocide were what came to mind.  Communism has been something that I have always been interested in.  Not because I am a communist, but Marxism is a political philosophy I find fascinating.  A philosophy that was supposed to free the people is one that has caused death because of others interpretation of it.  I managed to get through three books on the Khmer Rouge, Pol Pot and life in Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge regime.  I don’t think I will ever read another book about it.  It has one of the most harrowing recent histories of any country in the world.

I had paid for a boat trip from Can Tho to Phnom Penh all the way up the Mekong River. However when I reached the border the tour operators said as there was only three of us they couldn’t provide a boat.  So some dude in a car took us from the border up to Phnom Penh.  Phnom Penh is a shady place.  Once it gets dark there are barely any streetlights and you walk down streets with a feint orange glow which seems to give it even more of an eerie feeling.  When the Khmer Rouge took power in 1975 they evacuated the whole city and sent everyone bar a few to the countryside.  I dread to think what the city would have been like then.  I only stuck around for two days.  I didn’t feel safe walking around at night and the seediness of it was uncomfortable.  As in most of Cambodia there are signs on hotel doors telling you that you can’t bring any children into your room.  It is obviously a problem although thankfully not something that I witnessed while I was in Cambodia.  One night walking back from a restaurant I saw a young woman sitting on the roadside smoking crystal meth.  She looked truly broken.  It is one image that had a big impact on me.  As someone that has got help for addiction, I know it is highly unlikely that she ever will, it wouldn’t surprise me if she was dead now.  It makes you grateful for the things that you have and the help that you are able to receive.  I’d like to say I can empathise but I probably can’t.  I’ve no doubt that the reasons she ended up on meth are endemic throughout the country and growing up where I did, in the country I did, I would have no way to relate. 

While in Phnom Penh I debated with myself if I should go and see the Tuol Sleng museum. Tuol Sleng was a prison used during the Khmer Rouge regime.  It used to be a school but when the government evacuated everyone from the cities in 1975 all the schools in the country were shut down.  They took over this school in Phnom Penh and it turned it into a prison.  It also had the more sinister name of S-21.  The battle I had with myself was if as a tourist I should go and see a place where there had been so much death.  I came to the decision to go because I have little understanding of that period in Cambodian history and also because the aim of the museum is to educate.  It was however set up by the Vietnamese when they invaded Cambodia in 1979 and it could have been seen as a propaganda tool.  When you first enter the gates it is eerily quiet even though there are lots of people walking about.  There are various blocks with 2 or 3 floors.  Each one would have been used as a classroom at some time.  When you enter the rooms the atmosphere is horrible and there is a smell that I cannot describe.  Death must linger.  There is still blood on the floor in some places and by the time I had walked around I was struggling not to cry. I had read about what had happened here and now I was seeing it for real.  It is really hard to describe how it feels to be there and also to describe the prison.  There is not really a lot to see there but just knowing what happened there is enough to keep you going in and out of rooms that look the same.  There was a man there who was a survivor of the prison.  He was an artist and had been asked to draw pictures of Pol Pot.  This saved his life but his wife was killed and he does know what happened to his children.  He still does not know what the reason for his arrest was.  Cambodians were forced to from morning to night and were told that it was for their own benefit.  They had very small rations and many died.

Bou Meng, Survivor of Tuol Sleng.

The estimates of how many people were killed between 1975 and 1979 are between 1.4 million and 2.2 million.  The government tried to create a self-sufficient agrarian society. These policies resulted in famine.  Schools had been shut down, money was abolished and many people associated with the old regime were executed.  People who were deemed to be educated were also executed.  Villagers were given minimal training and then expected to be doctors.  The account from Bou Meng, the survivor from Tuol Sleng, tells that once you were in Tuol Sleng you had no chance of getting out.  When arrested they were told that the government would never arrest the wrong person and people admitted to crimes that they did not commit.  While in Tuol Sleng two Cambodians asked me what I thought about the prison and what had happened in Cambodia.  My answer was that I found it difficult to articulate my thoughts on it.  The concept that a government would unleash that kind of terror on their own people is beyond my comprehension.  What I find even more difficult to understand is that many members of the Khmer Rouge ended up back in government positions after the Cambodian civil war had ended.  It was a humbling experience and one that I will never forget.  I only hope that they will some day gain some form of justice.  Many Cambodians that suffered live in the same villages as those who tormented them. 

From Phnom Penh I went down to Sihanoukville which is in the Gulf of Thailand.  Luckily I was there in off season and the weather was good apart from one day.  Sihanoukville is a dingy port and beach resort named after the former King of Cambodia.  Further down the coastline there is a beach called Otres beach which was almost deserted and much nicer than the beach near Serendipity.  I spent about four days in Sihanoukville doing not a lot but going to the beach during the day.  I went out a few times at night but the place is rammed with prostitutes and you are constantly harassed by children selling things. Reading my book on the beach a couple of kids told me they wouldn't leave me alone until I gave them 2 dollars.  They then told me I was ugly and that no woman would ever marry me.  They definitely weren't going to get 2 dollars after that.  They eventually left me alone after throwing further insults at me.  It was funny at first but then it was just annoying.  I only wanted to read my book!  I’m reluctant to buy anything from these kids because they normally work for an older sister or someone else who gets all the money.  I bought a couple some milkshakes and gave another some of my dinner.  At least that way they were getting something.  Wanting to get out I headed for Kampot.

Kampot is a small town near the southern coast of Cambodia about two hours from Sihanoukville but it seems a world away.  The poverty in Kampot is less visible and there is no sense of seediness.  I was also told that drugs were not tolerated unlike elsewhere in Cambodia.  It is a good place to just relax and wander around.  It rained a lot while I was there but there were some nice cafes by the river that I sat in and studied Chinese.  I took a trip up into the mountains to a hill town called Bokor.  The French built it to escape the heat and when I went up there it was freezing cold.  There was renovation work going on too which meant there was not a lot to see.  It was still a strange place.  There is an old church standing on its own at the top of the hill that Cambodian workers are living in.  It is not somewhere that I would choose to live in but obviously needs must for them.  There is also a big hotel being built which will mean more tourists.  One thing that I disliked about Kampot was the number of dogs.  During the day they would leave you be but at night they would follow you down the road growling and showing their teeth.  Not many things frighten me but rabies does.  Especially getting rabies in Cambodia. 

I spoke to a Khmer waiter in Kampot and he said to me “All Westerners say they not rich but of course they rich for us”.  He is right.  Most people have something or someone they can fall back or somewhere they can go.  The state provides means for us to.  Whether you think it’s too little or too much is irrelevant, it is still provided.  Same with healthcare, if I get sick I don’t have to pay for it.  There are various fall backs for us.  Also how can you tell a man that has never been out of his own province that you have no money?  You’re thousands of miles away from home drinking coffee and eating a meal that costs more than he earns in a few days.  To him you are rich.  About 30% of Cambodians live below the poverty line.  I am not preaching because I know well enough that backpackers are far from rich but you have to see their point of view. 

The final part of my travels in Cambodia took me to Siem Reap and Angkor Wat.  The journey up there was a nightmare as it looked like the whole of Cambodia was under water.  The Cambodians seemed to taking the flooding in their stride but it must have a massive impact on their lives.  Crops will be destroyed and the ability to move around would be restricted as the roads in Cambodia are not good.  When I arrived in Siem Reap the whole of the tourist area was under water and the tuk tuk driver wouldn't take me in there.  I know that he was getting me a commission for the hotel he took me to but it was only 8 dollars a night and I got a double bed, cable and a hot shower.  Hot showers are a rarity when you’re backpacking around Asia.

Angkor Wat was incredible.  I felt like I was in an Indiana Jones film except there were tourists everywhere.  The temples all seem to be different and you can spend hours looking at them.  Having lived in India and China I’ve seen many temples but Angkor is one I will definitely go back to.  It was one of the few places I have been to that I didn't hear anyone say was over rated.  Which is telling because you get plenty of travel experts who dispense their advice to you regardless of whether you want it or not.  I find it amazing that people tell others that they shouldn't go to such and such a place.  Just because you don’t like it doesn't mean others won’t.  These kinds of people are the most annoying you meet.  They tell you they don’t use guide books, probably because they think they are the guide book.  I use guide books for cheap hostels and maps and to see what is in a place.  Hence it being called a guide book.  Not using a guidebook doesn't make you anymore a hardcore of a traveller.  I’m sure you’re proud of yourself but maps are useful.  No doubt they have a copy of Lonely Planet in their bag.  I don’t really have much else to say about Angkor because it is hard to describe.  It has to be seen and something you need to feel for yourself.

I left Cambodia for Laos getting a 14 hour bus to Pakse.  Describing my experience of Cambodia and what I feel about CI left Cambodia for Laos getting a 14 hour bus to Pakse.  Describing my experience of Cambodia and what I feel about Cambodia is again hard to describe.  It seems to be a continuing theme for me with Cambodia.  Sadness and trying to understand something that you are unable to relate to is the closest I can come.  I liked Cambodian people.  They are very friendly but given their recent past you wonder if there is an underlying sadness behind their smiles.  The government of Cambodia is still corrupt and it feels as though people are just resigned to the fact their governments are completely self-interested.  I am in no way comparing the current government to that of the Khmer Rouge but the Cambodian people deserve much more.