The Kingdom of Cambodia

Cambodia has always been in my list of top countries to visit; maybe because I was drawn by the unique culture, history and architectures (temple). I admit that I did not know much about Cambodia, like many places I often just search for 'Top things to do in ___' then read more about the place once I am there.

Cambodia did not disappoint me at all - I learned a whole lot about their stories, the Khmer Rouge, and the temples. Later on, I watched some documentaries from Al-Jazeera and I found out about the other side of Cambodia that people don't know about i.e. the gang rape culture called 'Bauk', and their deadly politics.

To begin with, I first planned the trip with my Nigerian brother, Deon whom I met many years ago when I was visiting the Maldives. He has been living in Kuala Lumpur for almost 5 years now, it's crazy. I would crash at his apartment whenever I am transiting and he welcomed me every time, and treated me like his own little sister. So we randomly decided to see Cambodia for a few days, he got his visa and off we went.

We first landed in Phnom Penh, stayed the night there at one of the hundreds of backpacker hostels in Cambodia (for less than USD10 a night). The following day we decided to see the 'Killing Fields' and 'Genocide Museum' with a tour package. It was very dark, but at the same time I was learning a lot about what happened during the Khmer Rouge. It's an indescribable thought to think that I live so close to Cambodia and not actually knowing what has happened. We did not learned about this in our history class. All I remember was when I was a kid, we've had our neighbours being sent for peacekeeping in Cambodia.

To get to both the Genocide Museum and the Killing Fields, best to get a tuk tuk so you can get the ultimate experience and intimate view of the village and the road side. I have no idea how our driver can find us after we are done with the tour because he was waiting outside, amongst hundreds of other drivers, vans and tourist buses.

I do not remember the whole histories of the places as I went there over a year ago. So in 1975-1979, Cambodia was ruled by the Khmer Rouge Communist. Their leader Pol Pot forced the entire urban populations, such as those in Phnom Penh, to relocate to the rural areas to work in agriculture. About one and a half million people were executed by the Khmer Rouge during this four year period. Members of the upper, middle, and educated classes, along with suspected enemies of the Khmer Rouge, were all victims of the genocide (Source: killingfieldsmuseums.com).

" In 1975, Tuol Svay Prey High School was taken over by Pol Pot's force and turned into a prison known as Security Prison 21 (S-21). It soon became the largest such center of detention and torture in the country. Over 17,000 people held at S-21 were taken to the extermination camp at Choeung Ek to be executed.

During the first part of 1977, S-21 claimed an average of 100 victims a day. When the Vietnamese army liberated Phnom Penh in early 1979, they found only seven prisoners alive at S-21.

Altogether, a visit to Tuol Sleng is a profoundly depressing experience. There is something about the sheer ordinariness of the place that make it even more horrific; the suburban setting, the plain school buildings, the grassy playing area where several children kick around a ball, ousted beds, instruments of torture and wall after wall of harrowing black-and-white portraits conjure up images of humanity at its worst. Tuol Sleng is not for the squeamish (Source: Tourismcambodia.com). "

Personal reflections:

We got ourselves an audio guide each and took our time to go through all the rooms and exhibition. Deon was deeply immersed into the tour, he did not feel too good after the day. My first impression upon arrival to the museum was noticing that this is a school compound, turned to a prison and torture place. There was a huge signboard listing all the 10 rules the detainees have to follow. The photos on display are very gruesome - mostly detailing the torture methods used by the rouge. One of the main reasons why victims are detained here were to find out the 'root' of rebels who are against the Pol Pot dictatorship.

1 out of 4 Cambodians were killed because of this, as the regime believes that the all the family members of a 'traitor' must be exterminate from the society.

It broke my heart to see some of the survivors who wrote books about their survival during the rouge were present at the end of the museum tour. They were tortured and mutilated to the point that they are unable to walk or see. It is very sad, but the world has to know - just like what Nazi Germany did to the millions of victims of Holocaust. Cambodian genocide is still so fresh, only 35 years ago and many of the people are still affected to what happened then.

" The Killing Fields of Choenung Ek is about 14.5km away from Phnom Penh, in which the Khmer rouge practiced genocide in the most horrendous ways possible. A soccer-field-sized area surrounded by farmland, the killing fields contain mass graves, slightly sunken, for perhaps 20,000 Cambodians, many of whom were tortured before being killed. The bordering trees held nooses for hangings.

Guides explain that bullets were too precious to use for executions. Axes, knives and bamboo sticks were far more common. As for children, their murderers simply battered them against trees. In the middle of the field stands a glass tower filled with more than 8,000 skulls found from the unearthed victims as they were mass buried (Source: nationalgeographic.com). "

Personal reflections:

We also got ourselves an audio guide and took our time to go through the area. In some places, there are shallow irrigation lake and it was peaceful. In other parts of the field, there were even chicken, cows and huts containing agricultural products from nearby farmland. However, in most parts you can see plenty of bracelets made up of colourful threads were placed along the fences, grave sites and the tree where they would smashed babies and children to kill them then throwing them into the pit. The bracelets were meant to bring luck, as I got mine in one of the temples of Angkor Wat. I still have these bracelets that I wore around my ankle until this day.

I remember they were playing something on the stereo too and you can hear it throughout every corners of the field. I was not sure what it was until I found that that;

"Ahead of me was a massive tree with a loudspeaker in the branches. This was the infamous Magic Tree. Apparently, when people arrived they were led to a waiting area to listen to a magic tree that played music. The Khmer Rouge played loud music blasting it from the branches of the tree to drown out any noise of the killing machines just further down the trail." - wanderwisdom.com

While over 30% of the tourists who came to Cambodia visited the Genocided Museum and the Killing Fields, the majority actually aims for the majestic Angkor Wat Archaeological Park.

Stretching over some 400 km2, including forested area, Angkor Archaeological Park contains the magnificent remains of the different capitals of the Khmer Empire, from the 9th to the 15th century. They include the famous Temple of Angkor Wat and, at Angkor Thom, the Bayon Temple with its countless sculptural decorations. UNESCO has set up a wide-ranging programme to safeguard this symbolic site and its surroundings (Source: unesco.org).

This place is like no other, Cambodia even placed Angkor Wat in the middle of their flag. To get here from Phnom Penh, we took a 3 hours ride on a van, heading North to Siem Reap. We stayed at another big hostel in Siem Reap that has a rooftop swimming pool + amazing sunset and booked a full day temple run tour at the reception. The downside is you have to start the tour like 4.30am with a tuk tuk to the registration office, pay for your tickets, have your photo taken and printed on your ticket (imagine a 5am face).

Amidst the long and massive queues (the office is really packed with tourists!) Deon and I made friends with the guys on the same tour from the same hostel as us. We bonded over the temple run tours and spent the time hanging out at night. One of the guys is my boyfriend now, Dave! The other David is from Canada, Nick from the UK and Jeremy from Australia.

As the park is huge, we constantly need to ride our tuk tuk (3 persons per tuk tuk) to get to different temples. I was surprised that visitors are allowed to climb the very steep steps of the temples - most are angled at 45 degrees, or more. This is to symbolize the struggle you have to endure to reach the highest point in your believe... (nirvana?) 

I had to use my hands to get a better grip and crawled my way up. Also, I was being ignorant that when you are visiting temples you should pay attention to covering up your legs and bare shoulders. Dave (Germany) let me use his travel pants so he made sure I looked my very best while exploring and climbing these temples!

There was a 'walking street' near our hostel, though most of us did not last the night very long as we were templed out under the hot sun. I did not enjoy the fact that because we were mostly in the tourist areas, the currency used is just US dollars. The crazy story is, I ran out of cash money and tried to get some money out with my HSBC UK bank card. The ATM machine took my card and I can only get it back the following Monday when their office opens. I will be back to Phnom Penh by then to catch my flight back to Kuala Lumpur. I was lucky at the time I was travelling with friends, and Dave helped to pay for my meals.

Now this is the story of my short trip to Cambodia - I have learned more than what I previously knew about this incredible country. At first, I was intrigued to visit the world-famous, UNESCO heritage site and glorified Angkor Wat. However, as we explored more on the dark histories of Khmer Rouge through visits to the Genocide Museum and the Killing Field, I realised how Cambodians are actually just trying to recover from such a recent, painful tragedy. Cambodia will always have a special place in my heart, as I met my boyfriend here. Worlds apart, we found each other here, out of all places ;)