After the debacle leaving Vietnam we were thankful to be in a new country that welcomed us with open arms. Cambodia is an overlooked country that has seen widespread successes and failures throughout its long history. We had a very short trip here but we saw history at a glance that had us in tears, both good and bad.
After landing in Phnom Penh, The first thing we recognized was during pulling out money at the ATM and having the option for pulling our riel’s(Cambodian money)or USD, the second during transport from airport to hostel were the amount of high end American cars. Not only were there your standard Toyota’s, Fords, but there was also a slew of BMW, Mercedes, Bentley, Ferrari, etc. The weird thing about this is we hadn’t seen any of these brands in Thailand or Vietnam. The other weird part was the full sized vehicles ie, Ford F-150’s, Cadillac Escalades, and Chevrolet Suburbans. With how narrow and chaotic the streets are it left us baffled why there were so many high end large vehicles surrounded by tuktuks and mopeds that cost penny’s comparatively. There were more high end vehicles here than you would see driving around Denver or Minneapolis. The amount of car dealerships and banks riddled both sides of the road as we drove into our hostel. Also sorry I didn’t take any pictures of the high-end cars. What they haul with mopeds is far more intriguing.
We got to the hostel shortly after 230 and dropped the bags quickly and caught a tuktuk (since it was pouring rain) to Tuol Sleng Genocide Prison museum.
A little background; in 1975 Cambodia had a new party come into power called Khmer Rouge(Communist Party of Kampuchea) they gained power telling all Cambodians of a greater world with Cambodia being fully self sufficient, growth, and liberation from outside forces. They summoned all Cambodians who were studying/working abroad to come home to help rebuild a stronger Cambodia. Upon arrival these individuals as well as all other educated, politicians, military, and or anyone they deemed “not for support of the growth” were sent to 388 different prisons around Cambodia. The Khmer Rouge used old schools/universities as prisons or destroyed them, removed all monies, and created their own monetary system, destroyed temples, and removed all outside thinking.
We had just over 2 hours before it closed and we soaked up every last minute as we walked through the school turned Genocide Prison. It was the most sobering thing we had done thus far on our trip and it brought tears as we walked through old classrooms that were used to torcher and kill all ages of individuals. There were even classrooms with cots that still had chains that held individuals hostage for 4 plus years of their reign. The stains on the floors gave an extremely real depiction of what had happened during some of the most deadly years in human history. They had pictures of all the 18000+ individuals that had lost their lives at this prison, ranging in age from infants to old men and women and even included Australians, Americans, English, and other South East Asian countries who got stuck in Cambodia during the take over of 1975-1979. The Khmer Rouge regime was taken over by Vietnamese forces late in 1979 with individuals still tied down,dead, to the chains described above.
With the rains subsided we took the much needed walk back to the hostel to think about governments and what they have done throughout human history. We found a Khmer cuisine restaurant and tried their famous Fish Amok(fish,curry,egg,wrapped in banana leaf) and Beef Lok Lak (marinated beef with Rice) and called it an early night.
The next morning we had another sad day planned to go south of Phnom Penh about 45min and visit the Choeng Ek Genocidal Center (Killing Fields). We got our entry ticket and a man named Chi offered for $4 to be our tour guide, typically we avoid this, but for some reason we decided we would today. He ended up being a survivor of the Khmer Rouge and was one of the first people to arrive to the Killing Fields in 1980 to help clean up and find survivors. He said that the smell of decomposing bodies even in 1980 was excruciating and what didn’t make it any better was knowing he had friends and family potentially buried here. What was really hard to grasp was him asking “why did 2 million people have to be murder before any other country came to help us”- “it took 5 years for any country to help us” he kept asking us and all we could provide were blank stares and condolences, we had no answer. My only assumption why the US wasn’t more involved was because of all the backlash the US government received from being in the Vietnam War and they didn’t want to get involved and cause more backlash and riots in the US. Just my lack of history knowledge assumption. Upon entry into the Killing Field there was a tall and thin building built as a memorial for all the 2million+ individuals that lost their life during the Khmer Rouge Regime. The most notable part of the building was the 9000 unidentified human skulls stacked on the inside, who had been severely murdered on the very grounds we were walking. They estimate the regime murdered 300 individuals a day here, and because bullets were too expensive they used hammers, bats, garden hoes, pick axes, etc. anything and everything that could “get the job done” as described at the memorial. We walked into the memorial and you could see skulls ranging from babies to full grown adults and we were silent. We followed Chi around where he had cleaned up bodies, and pointed out still in the ground bones of people who had lost their lives as well as teeth that were pulled out as torcher. Human teeth and bones in the dirt at our feet as well as all sorts of clothing. Chi said every year more bones, teeth, and clothes become uncovered because the rain washes the dirt away. The holes in the field, where bodies were piled high laid in front of us and we were speechless as we followed Chi around the grounds. Experts believe there were between 1.7mil and 2.5mil executed during this time, at that time the Cambodian population was only 8million. That’s more then 25% of the countries population murdered.
With a bus ride to Siem Reap we caught our Tuk Tuk back to the hostel to get our bags and hit the Bus stop. The bus ride was not the sleeping busses we have taken previously but a 10 passenger van. I somehow got the front seat next to the driver and Nicolette was behind me at the sliding door. Her seat recliner was broken for half the trip so she had to use her core strength to stay upright, and I’m sure it wasn’t easy because the driver was ON 100% of the time, either ON the gas or ON the brakes. He would push the gas to the floor at every second and wait till death flashed in our eyes before crushing the brakes as hard as he could. Best part is the brakes were warped as hell and the van would shutter like it was going into orbit. Atleast the bus ride was only 5hrs so it wasn’t like it was that long of a roller coaster ride… Also at one point we pulled over the driver opened Nicolettes door, a hoard of Cambodian men looked in, said some words, then our driver slammed the door, jumped in the driver’s seat and pedal to the metal once again. Nicolette said it felt like he was showing the locals their were white people in his van, we didn’t pick up or drop anyone off he potentially was just showing Nic to the locals. One thing to factor in is the mandatory meal stop 30min long for the driver. Either way we were happy to be in Siam Reap alive and well. Because of the long bus ride we had a late arrival, ate dinner at the hostel and headed to sleep.
At the bus station it was pouring rain so we caught a ride from a Tuk Tuk driver(there are the normal 3 wheeled tuktuks but there are also the moped with a trailer that they also call a tuktuk) so we rode in the moped trailer and on arrival our driver said he would take us for $20 to Angkor Wat for sunrise and then to as many temples as we wanted after that. So we agreed and met him in front of the hostel at 430am. Absolutely pitch black out with minimal people on the road we swerved the the streets and stopped at the ticket office(not close to Angkor wat) and got in line for a ticket. There was already about 100 people in line, there were 50 ticket windows to sell tickets, only 3 were in use, that’s how much travel is down for this area cause of Covid. We got back in the tuktuk and went to Angkor Wat, it is the largest religious Monument in the world, on a site of 402 acres. Some call it one of the 7 wonders in the world “still standing” and was built in the 12th century. It is surrounded by a 100yd wide moat and 10ft tall walls. Unlike most temples in this region it faces West instead of east, it is the only temple to have remained a significant religious center since its foundation. It is one of the most important pilgrimage sites for Buddhists in the entire world, it’s the countries main tourist attraction and even is represented on the Cambodian Flag. One of the signs even stated that between 1100 and 1200AD it had 0.1% of the worlds population. As we were walking in with the sun still down we couldn’t see a damn thing. We could hear the hustle and bustle of people around us but couldn’t take in the views of the complex. We got to a spot where a 100+ people were to watch the sunrise over the temple. It was magnificent site and of course we got to enjoy it with everyone else. At 6am they let us into the the actual building because there was finally enough light outside to walk around inside safely. We were blown away on how complete everything was since its more then a 1000 years old.
We finished around 730am and walked out to meet our driver and found him sleeping in the tuktuk, we woke him up and told him we were ready for the next temple. He said it would cost $50 to see the “big loop” or just $20 to see the “small loop” we remembered the conversation from the previous day and knew he was trying to pull a fast one on us. So we just said we will pick the temples and you take us. We pointed on the map of a few temples we wanted to see and we went back and forth a few times before finally agreeing and it still costing us $20 but to only see 4 total temples. Which we weren’t too bummed about cause we had seen so many already. Next stop was Bayon temple which at the entrance was surrounded by monkeys, and with Nicolettes previous experience we were a bit intimidated but our driver ensured that they were not an issue so we shuffled quickly inside and walked around. We really enjoyed all the faces carved in the temples of this one and did our best to hide from the monkeys.
At Ta Prohm temple he dropped us off and said, “walk to the other side I will pick you up there”. With no temple in sight we thought for sure he was leaving us because he was frustrated we weren’t going to pay him more, luckily he was on the other side when we finished. This temple is famous for the massive trees that have grown in and around the temple. The roots engulf the temple like a snake, it made for some really cool photos and also was featured on Tomb Raider with Angeline Jolie.
Last temple of the day was Bonteay Kdei and was the smallest of the temples we saw but still was different and unique in its own wayto walk through briefly. There were minimal tourists at all the temples except Angkor Wat which made them much more pleasant. With the temp nearing 100deg at 930am we were happy to call our temple tour quits and head back to the hostel to take a little nap.
After the nap we hung by the Hostel pool and enjoyed the warm afternoon and then wandering the streets for dinner. The next morning was another tremulous bus ride back to Phnom Penh, then cruising the streets to find good food, great sites, and the best company. I even walked into a glass door trying to get a bottle of water on the walk home and Nicolette was in tears laughing at me, Everyone inside thought I was trying to rob the place it was so loud.
We also figured out why they use the USD in Cambodia. So after the Khmer Rouge destroyed the Monetary system in the late 70’s they created the riel in 1980. It started as 4 riel to 1 usd. Today that money has dwindled to 4000riel to 1usd. This slide of their money has kept them at a poverty level, and they prefer the USD because it is much more stable.
With 7weeks in South East Asia, time has slipped away but memories have not. We met great people, eaten amazing food, saw things we will never forget, and learned about ourselves and other cultures.
Off to the next chapter, oh and by the way I wrote this from the rooftop pool in the Singapore Airport while we wait for our next flight ;)
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