Cambodia and its capital city - Phnom Penh - are equally polarising. For some, it’s the captivating South East Asian kingdom that casts a spell on those who visit, by conjuring an image of the exotic. The glimmering golden-topped spires of the Royal Palace and the city’s Wats tower above the dusty colonial boulevards. The city clings to banks of the mighty Mekong River which in turn supplies the numerous freshwater fish – often served ahng (grilled) – which is a staple of the Cambodian diet. And the smiling and friendly faces of the passing Buddhist monks, in their flowing sun-set tangerine robes, welcome visitors to this exhilarating country. However, for others this once ‘Pearl of Asia’ has forever been tarnished by war, revolution and was the scene of some of the worst atrocities of the 20th century. It’s a place that can be both extraordinary and deeply upsetting at the same time.
My last visit to this country - specifically Phnom Penh - had left a bitter taste in my mouth. I’d visited the once ancient Khmer kingdom before in 2015 and it had been a disorientating trip, to say the least. From the not so welcoming entrance, as I crossed over from the Thai border to the rampant crime and bribing of police and officials that I had the unfortunate experience to witness first-hand. The outcome of that trip was that, in my once romanticised and wanderlust-filled mind, the former Pearl of French Indochina was a depressing and downtrodden place. Something that not even the tropical weather and rays of intense sunshine could dispel.
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Why did I decide to go back, you might ask? After visiting neighbouring Vietnam and Laos, my thoughts kept returning to the Khmer kingdom. I wanted to give it another chance. I thought to myself that maybe I’d written it off too hastily in my “wet behind the ear” first-year living in the Eastern Hemisphere. Candy and I also needed a holiday. After a long and arduous summer working non-stop in Chengdu, we settled on Cambodia. My younger brother had recommended the magnificent, but most importantly, secluded beaches over on Koh Rong island and the prospect of some much-needed rest time sounded perfect.
The only problem was that we’d have to fly into Phnom Penh.
Needless to say, I was pessimistic to be heading back to the Kingdom of Cambodia. But with it being Candy’s first chance to experience South East Asia, I was willing to let my past doubts and experiences slide.
(At least someone was happy to be in Phnom Penh)
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First things first, travelling in and around South East Asia during the wet season can sometimes be problematic. I'd been stuck in Hanoi overnight in a decrepit hotel in the middle of nowhere, a couple of summers back due to the torrential rain and storms. These same tropical rainstorms had also kept me awake almost every night during my time in Laos. However, we were both quite lucky with the weather this time! As soon as we landed in the capital, the wet season's torrential rain had just stopped! Well for the time being at least.
Once in the narrow streets of the city proper, the tuk-tuk guys – we never actually saw any women driving those rickety death-traps - harassed us constantly. Pestering us to visit their "friend's" shooting ranges or if we were interested in purchasing some highly illegal substances – and all for a cheap price too! One guy even took my number too, just in the off-chance I ever had the urge to go and shoot a cow in the middle of the night.
The only thing happy about Phnom Penh is its… pizza!
[Looks pretty non-descript but who really goes to Happy Herb pizza for the food itself? A Michelin star restaurant this isn’t.]
You might even be like Candy and fall straight off to sleep and into the land of Nod. I laid there feeling like my mouth – as well as my whole body – had been left out in some Saharan sun and dried out like a piece of beef jerky. A long middle of the morning shower did little to abate this. After guzzling copious amounts of what seemed like my whole weight in water, I still felt as if I was a dried-out raisin! While Candy continued to sleep peacefully beside me, I binge-read (if that is even a thing) about a couple of photojournalists who went missing deep in 1970s Cambodia. I had this sudden urge to change careers and become a photojournalist. Much to my chagrin, I realised that had left my camera on our coffee table back in Chengdu. I realised that I didn't know the first thing about taking serious photos. Or being a photojournalist. This urge soon drifted into another. I wanted to go out and wander the dark streets at night and see the local wildlife. Local Phnom Penh wildlife being the numerous street cats that prowl the dusty capital city streets and boulevards. I also wanted to go out and take photos of the slowing decrepit old French style colonial villas dotted around the city. Realised once again that I had left my camera in Chengdu. Eventually, sleep came but strange dreams were to plague me. My abandoned and much-missed camera chased me down the Mekong River – which oddly looked very similar to the River Trent back home in Nottingham…
[These French colonial villas dominate downtown Phnom Penh and are often converted into decent hotels!]
The Cambodian genocide is a part of history that is unfortunately little taught in the West (well from my own school experiences anyway). Under the leadership of the notorious Pol Pot – often described as Asia's own Hitler – the bloodthirsty regime of the Khmer Rouge enacted the disastrous Year Zero policy. This was a radical plan to take Cambodia back to a rural peasant society and exterminate academics which led to the deaths of approximately 1.5 to 3 million innocent Cambodians innocent between 1975 – 1979.
To try and understand what occurred here in Cambodia, only mere decades ago, is an arduous and depressing task. But ultimately one that needs to be undertaken during a trip to the country or Phnom Penh, if only to pay your respects an acknowledge what happened here.
The Tuol Sleng Museum was once a simple high school. It was taken over by Pol Pot's security forces and turned into a prison, referred to as S-21, and soon became the largest centre of detention and torture by the Khmer Rouge.
As the Khmer Rouge's Year-Zero "revolution" reached ever greater heights of insanity; it began devouring its own. During early 1977, S-21 claimed an average of 100 victims a day and the torturers and executioners who worked there were in turn killed by those who took their places. When Phnom Penh was finally liberated in early 1979, there were only seven prisoners alive at S-21.
The Khmer Rouge leaders were meticulous in keeping records of their barbarism. Each prisoner who passed through S-21 was photographed, sometimes before and after torture. The museum displays include room after room of harrowing black and white photographs; virtually all of the men, women, and children pictured were later killed. The mind is filled with haunting but hard-hitting thoughts as you can wander through the school-turned-prison, but I'd argue that this is the main purpose of the museum. It serves as a testament to the crimes of the Khmer Rouge.
Even now, words fail me as I try to describe the feelings and thoughts I had as I walked around the prison-turned-museum. It was a tough experience. The sheer normality of the buildings and the surrounding area really hit me hard as it looked eerily similar to schools I had taught in, but also the area of Chengdu we currently live in. I found myself questioning what made human beings commit these sorts of atrocities. The darkest side of the human spirit hides in plain sight but lurks within us all.
12km on the outskirts of Phnom Penh is perhaps the most infamous location used by the Khmer Rouge during their campaign of terror. Chowing Ek, also known as the Killing Fields. Between 1975 and 1978 around 17,000 men, women, children, and infants who had been detained and tortured at S-21 were transported to the extermination camp at Choeung Ek. It was there that the one-time countryside orchard became the infamous and immense graveyard for those who simply didn't adhere to the insane Year-Zero policy, and therefore purged.
Today, the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek are devoid of any external sounds, even the sound of a bird call. The site is somewhat peaceful, albeit eerily so, despite the horrors that unfolded here just decades ago. It's a heart-breaking fact that the remains of thousands of victims – 43 of the 129 mass graves have been left untouched – lay just under your feet. Even today, fragments of human bone and bits of cloth are scattered around the disinterred pits.
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To try and understand what occurred here in Cambodia, only mere decades ago, is an arduous and depressing task. But ultimately one that needs to be undertaken during a trip to the country or Phnom Penh, if only to pay your respects an acknowledge what happened here.
The Tuol Sleng Museum was once a simple high school. It was taken over by Pol Pot's security forces and turned into a prison, referred to as S-21, and soon became the largest centre of detention and torture by the Khmer Rouge.
As the Khmer Rouge's Year-Zero "revolution" reached ever greater heights of insanity; it began devouring its own. During early 1977, S-21 claimed an average of 100 victims a day and the torturers and executioners who worked there were in turn killed by those who took their places. When Phnom Penh was finally liberated in early 1979, there were only seven prisoners alive at S-21.
The Khmer Rouge leaders were meticulous in keeping records of their barbarism. Each prisoner who passed through S-21 was photographed, sometimes before and after torture. The museum displays include room after room of harrowing black and white photographs; virtually all of the men, women, and children pictured were later killed. The mind is filled with haunting but hard-hitting thoughts as you can wander through the school-turned-prison, but I'd argue that this is the main purpose of the museum. It serves as a testament to the crimes of the Khmer Rouge.
Even now, words fail me as I try to describe the feelings and thoughts I had as I walked around the prison-turned-museum. It was a tough experience. The sheer normality of the buildings and the surrounding area really hit me hard as it looked eerily similar to schools I had taught in, but also the area of Chengdu we currently live in. I found myself questioning what made human beings commit these sorts of atrocities. The darkest side of the human spirit hides in plain sight but lurks within us all.
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12km on the outskirts of Phnom Penh is perhaps the most infamous location used by the Khmer Rouge during their campaign of terror. Chowing Ek, also known as the Killing Fields. Between 1975 and 1978 around 17,000 men, women, children, and infants who had been detained and tortured at S-21 were transported to the extermination camp at Choeung Ek. It was there that the one-time countryside orchard became the infamous and immense graveyard for those who simply didn't adhere to the insane Year-Zero policy, and therefore purged.
Today, the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek are devoid of any external sounds, even the sound of a bird call. The site is somewhat peaceful, albeit eerily so, despite the horrors that unfolded here just decades ago. It's a heart-breaking fact that the remains of thousands of victims – 43 of the 129 mass graves have been left untouched – lay just under your feet. Even today, fragments of human bone and bits of cloth are scattered around the disinterred pits.
[A memorial stupa has been built - to commemorate those who lost their lives here - using more than 5000 skulls - which are visible behind clear glass panels – and arranged by sex and age.]
A piece of advice though, do try and refrain from taking photographs of absolutely everything, unlike some of the other visitors I'd noticed. Why do your Instagram followers want to see posts about one of Asia's worst human-made atrocities?
The sheer horror of what happened here in Phnom Penh, and Cambodia, is beyond my comprehension but the fact that the Killing Fields and S-21 remain open as museums us surely right. Nevertheless, to walk through them is still an aseptic experience.
Back in 2015, as I walked around the Tuol Sleng Museum, I noticed that someone had scribbled this above a doorway there. I remember that at the time it stopped me in my tracks and left me to ponder. Even to this day, it's one of the enduring recollections I have of Cambodia. Make of it what you will but I would strongly argue it just about sums up the only attitude to have regarding acts of human-made atrocities like the Cambodian genocide.
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Whatever the reason is; the golden-topped pagodas, the narrow colonial streets teeming with life and the booming soul of the city, we will miss you. If we ever find ourselves back in the Cambodian capital again; a sunset stroll along the banks of the Mekong river - with the hustle and bustle of the city running parallel - will be in store for us. We wonder if our soupy-rice noodle selling women will still be there, peddling her delicious delicacies on the river bank? If not, we'll just have to settle for a refreshing ice-cold local Angkor beer and watch the sunset over the Mekong and the city.
Cambodia's greatest treasure is its people. They are forever smiling and are probably some of the friendliest I've met in my years since leaving the U.K., much like their Vietnamese and Laotian neighbours.
If you ever find yourself in the capital – or anywhere else in the country – head to "Café Amazon". We discovered this on our first day in Phnom Penh and we almost went there every day afterwards. It's an amazing coffee chain – think Starbucks but less of an evil world-dominating conglomerate – that sells local style coffee and tea. Their iced coffees will keep you abuzz for the whole day and feeling fresh in the 30˚C (plus) heat! I'd hate to think what all that sweet milk did to my waistline…
If you ever find yourself in the capital – or anywhere else in the country – head to "Café Amazon". We discovered this on our first day in Phnom Penh and we almost went there every day afterwards. It's an amazing coffee chain – think Starbucks but less of an evil world-dominating conglomerate – that sells local style coffee and tea. Their iced coffees will keep you abuzz for the whole day and feeling fresh in the 30˚C (plus) heat! I'd hate to think what all that sweet milk did to my waistline…
អរគុណ ‘or kun’- “thanks” in the Khmer language!
If you are interested in learning more about this shamefully little taught history, these are worth the read/watch:
- The Killing Fields (1984) - not your typical Hollywood blockbuster. Made even more poignant that Haing S. Ngor, who plays Pran in the film, was himself a survivor of the Khmer Rouge regime and the labour camps. He went onto the win the Best Supporting Actor.
- Alive in the Killing Fields is the memoir of Nawuth Keat, a survivor of the Khmer Rouge genocide in Cambodia.
- http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/politics/2014/04/how-thatcher-gave-pol-pot-hand
- Eight Go Rallying – The Road to Saigon [A BBC documentary where four celebrity couples travel in rally cars from Thailand to Vietnam. The episodes set in Cambodia and Phnom Penh are very interesting and eye-opening to watch.]
- Anthony Bourdain – No Reservations [His episode set in Cambodia is a particularly interesting watch.]
- The Killing Fields (1984) - not your typical Hollywood blockbuster. Made even more poignant that Haing S. Ngor, who plays Pran in the film, was himself a survivor of the Khmer Rouge regime and the labour camps. He went onto the win the Best Supporting Actor.
- Alive in the Killing Fields is the memoir of Nawuth Keat, a survivor of the Khmer Rouge genocide in Cambodia.
- http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/politics/2014/04/how-thatcher-gave-pol-pot-hand
- Eight Go Rallying – The Road to Saigon [A BBC documentary where four celebrity couples travel in rally cars from Thailand to Vietnam. The episodes set in Cambodia and Phnom Penh are very interesting and eye-opening to watch.]
- Anthony Bourdain – No Reservations [His episode set in Cambodia is a particularly interesting watch.]