We arrived at 12am which is a miracle because that was the time we were told we would arrive. This was the first mode of transport that we have taken that has arrived on time. It was so astonishing that our couchsurfing host who did not show up until 12:30am was surprised. We got bugged a bit by tuk tuk drivers telling us our friend would not be showing up, but it was nothing we couldn't handle.
We took a tuk tuk the 4 km to his house with three of us, all of our bags and his bake squeezed on. Our host is originally from Mexico but lives in Cambodia and has travelled all throughout Canada among other Countries. He speaks 10 languages fluently and is a linguist. His home is very small about the size of our bathroom at home. He has a toilet, shower head and sink and a sleeping bag he sleeps on. This is typical of the Cambodian homes we saw and for this he pays $50 per month in rent plus $1.50 a month for water. There was no space in his place for us, so we slept on the ground outside his place. This may have been strange six months ago but nowadays it's quite typical. We had a great sleep and in the morning the showers washed away the dirt, sweat and grime of our temple days.
The next morning was another snooze filled one. We snoozed the alarm from 6am until about 10am and finally got up. We walked the couple of blocks to the Tuel Slang museam and our couchsurfing host accompanied us. This museam used to be a normal high school but when the Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot took over it became the largest secret prison among hundreds of prisons in the country. Under Pol Pot all schools, hospitals, religions and entertainment facilities were shut down and everyone was ordered to focus on the revolution and work. At first the intellectuals and city people were imprisoned here under horrific circumstances. As the regime continued Pol Pot became more and more paranoid about CIA and KGB agents, spys and traitors that he began to imprison his own people, followers and family members. The people were interrogated and tortured until they became unconscious, revived, then tortured again until the admitted to crimes they did not commit. Once they had admitted to a crime they were put inside tiny, dark prisons or squished with others into bigger cells. Here they were shackled together, totured and forced to listen to revolutionary information. Then they would be told they were moving to another place, but really they would be going to the Chueng Ek killing fields. One of over 300 found killing fields in the country where over 20, 000 of the 3 million inocent Cambodians were beaten to death (because bullets were being used in the war and were too expensive to use to kill locals).
During our visit to this museam we walked through the interrogation areas where the torture devices were still kept. Mostly gardening tools, hammers, poisonous insects and snakes, pliers excrement (not on display) and other easily accesable and cheap items that could be used to smash in skulls, pull out nails or cut throats. We saw many photographs of the victims as each person would have their photo taken when entering Tuel Slang (S-21). We saw photos of them being tortured and even their dead bodies. Most alarming perhaps was their skulls and other bones on display by the thousands that showed the wounds and damage that was done. These are all real and many were woman, children and babies.
As one could imagine this was very draining and while we had planned to go to Chueng Ek on the same day, we quickly decided it might be better to save the killing fields for the next day. So we wandered the city. We tried a dozen new foods from street carts that our host was able to identify for us and get local prices on. We tried vietnamese hot spring rolls as well as cold ones, we tried sweet rice and coconut desserts in bread, fried rice and spinich patties in sweet sauce, mangos with pepper, tamales with banana, fried bananas, various stir fries and noodles, sweet sausages, fish pancakes (not good), omelettes, Khmer ice cream sandwhiches in sweet baguettes, viniger peanuts, burnt sweet rice snacks, banana chips and even African food.
We rented bikes in the city which helped us get around a lot faster. Tyson had driven a motor bike in Indonesia and Thailand but this was my first time driving in such an environment. While it is super intimidating and nerve racking at first, once you pick up on the basic rules (that there are none) relax and exude confidence, it all somehow works out. Except that Cambodia has the most accidents in the world and we witnessed several in the few days we were there. That night we went to a hole in the wall, hidden Nigerian restaurant that we would never ever have found on our own. We tried rice paste that you break off in your hands and mould a bit then dip into a curry like spicy dish with beef stomach. Perhaps my description does not make it sound appetizing but in fact it is one of the best things I have ever tasted and I have been craving it everyday since. Although comparatively expensive, it was worth every riel.
The next day we rode over 20km one way to the Chueng Ek killing fields and genocide museam. Here we rented audio players and a narrator guided us through the fields where thousands of people were killed. It is now a serene and beautiful place where we could hear children from the neighboring school playing and birds chirping. But it was not always like this. Prisoners would be driven here from Tuel Slang prison blindfolded and cuffed together and killed with cheap tools one by one. Blaring revolutionary music would play to cover their screams and their bodies would be covered with D.D.T. to cover the smell. On average, 300 people a day were killed here in mass graves. As we walked around the site, scraps of clothing, teeth and small human bones could be seen in the dirt. Every few weeks the care takers collect all of this but every time it rains more comes up to the surface. There is a display of thousands of skulls and bones here as well showing the trauma that each person endured. On the audio tape there are personal stories from some of the very few survivors. Stories of rapes and witnessed killings. Mothers seeing their children killed, friends, brothers, sisters and parents all tortured and murdered.
There was a mass grave of over 166 headless bodies found in one area, in another there were hundreds of naked bodies of women and children. The children were killed in the most brutal fashion, guards would hold them by their feet and smash their heads against a tree that still stands in the field. Some of the victims were still alive when thrown into the graves. People have left bracelets and other small items for the children near the site. The founders of the museam say that they want to educate and inform the public of the attrocities that occured to ensure it does not happen again. They say that it could happen anywhere. The story of how Pol Pot took over the country is long and there are many details but he took over when the country was weak from the war and bombings from the USA. The Khmer Rouge pretended they were freeing the people. They told the people that America was planning to bomb the cities so they evacuated the cities within hours and then forced the people to work for their country. He took young innocent children and forced false information into their empty heads and poisoned their thoughts. Anyone who did not do as they were told was publically killed or tortured. The history and stories of Cambodia in the 70s can be found easily online or there are many books available. This is just a small glimpse into the recent history of the country we visited.
Alarmingly, genocides are happening today still and many are going unnoticed by the public. Places like North Korea, Iran and other civilians are being tortured and killed in groups. This is still happening right now.
From the killing fields we walked to the beautiful river side, saw the extravagant temples and buildings including the over the top royal palace. The palace where the king lives in covered in five tons of silver and solid gold buddhas with diamonds and jewels to decorate. Outside of the palace young children beg for money with their huge swollen tummies sticking out far past the norm. This is the imbalance of the world so evident in Cambodia.
We hung out in a monk sanctuary where we spoke with young monks for a few hours. One of them was blown away by my dreads and even spent some time trying to fix them for me. He gave us special bracelets that are meant to bring happiness.
We ate at the economic kitchen that night where you can pick several local dishes and sat by the water. Here is where locals continuously begged us for money and help. We drank fruit smoothies on the way home.
The next day we were without bikes again so it was a slower go at the city. We bought bus tickets to Poipet (the border) for that evening, we bought tons of groceries because we had run out of Baht (Thai currency) and had to have enough food for the next few days. Unfortuantely we kept eating the food so we kept having to replace it again. We confirmed our flights out of Bangkok and somehow ended up buying a red hammok on the way. Perhaps it can be a gift or a keeper. We took out more US currency from an ATM and head out to meet our couchsurfing host. Together we walked around, shopped and explored local snack foods. Later Tyson and I got hour long full body massages for $5 each which is relatively expensive but compared to Canada its pennies. We got this massage on our last day in the country and wondered why we had not gotten them everyday in SE Asia. It was very relaxing, they stretch out your body and massage as they go. Since I have an ongoing back injury from a car accident, I have had a lot of pain and this was a greatly needed relief.
We ran to grab our bags and catch the tuk tuk to the bus station where it took us 11 hours to make the 6 hour trip to Poipet. I spent the last of our Riels at the corner store and the Phnom Penh bakery. The bus stopped every few minutes and eventually reached the border at quarter to seven in the morning. We stopped to buy breakfast (bbq pork and rice) and crossed the border when it opened at 7am. With no problems we crossed back into Thailand and walked the 10km to the train station. Of course we missed the morning train so we waited until 2pm to catch the afternoon third class train back to Bangkok. I slept through most of this ride until it filled up and I had to share my seat. At one point we saw a few backpackers get up, so we asked if we could get to the airport from there. By the time we found out that this was our stop, the train had begun to move again but I was told by a voice that sounded an awful lot like my husband's to "just jump". So I jumped off a moving train and he came behind me. It was a first for me, and hopefully a last. But nonetheless we made it to the airport with Baht to spare and spent the night gorging on food and sleeping on rock hard floor.
"If we are not happy and joyous in this season for what season shall we wait"
We took a tuk tuk the 4 km to his house with three of us, all of our bags and his bake squeezed on. Our host is originally from Mexico but lives in Cambodia and has travelled all throughout Canada among other Countries. He speaks 10 languages fluently and is a linguist. His home is very small about the size of our bathroom at home. He has a toilet, shower head and sink and a sleeping bag he sleeps on. This is typical of the Cambodian homes we saw and for this he pays $50 per month in rent plus $1.50 a month for water. There was no space in his place for us, so we slept on the ground outside his place. This may have been strange six months ago but nowadays it's quite typical. We had a great sleep and in the morning the showers washed away the dirt, sweat and grime of our temple days.
The next morning was another snooze filled one. We snoozed the alarm from 6am until about 10am and finally got up. We walked the couple of blocks to the Tuel Slang museam and our couchsurfing host accompanied us. This museam used to be a normal high school but when the Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot took over it became the largest secret prison among hundreds of prisons in the country. Under Pol Pot all schools, hospitals, religions and entertainment facilities were shut down and everyone was ordered to focus on the revolution and work. At first the intellectuals and city people were imprisoned here under horrific circumstances. As the regime continued Pol Pot became more and more paranoid about CIA and KGB agents, spys and traitors that he began to imprison his own people, followers and family members. The people were interrogated and tortured until they became unconscious, revived, then tortured again until the admitted to crimes they did not commit. Once they had admitted to a crime they were put inside tiny, dark prisons or squished with others into bigger cells. Here they were shackled together, totured and forced to listen to revolutionary information. Then they would be told they were moving to another place, but really they would be going to the Chueng Ek killing fields. One of over 300 found killing fields in the country where over 20, 000 of the 3 million inocent Cambodians were beaten to death (because bullets were being used in the war and were too expensive to use to kill locals).
During our visit to this museam we walked through the interrogation areas where the torture devices were still kept. Mostly gardening tools, hammers, poisonous insects and snakes, pliers excrement (not on display) and other easily accesable and cheap items that could be used to smash in skulls, pull out nails or cut throats. We saw many photographs of the victims as each person would have their photo taken when entering Tuel Slang (S-21). We saw photos of them being tortured and even their dead bodies. Most alarming perhaps was their skulls and other bones on display by the thousands that showed the wounds and damage that was done. These are all real and many were woman, children and babies.
As one could imagine this was very draining and while we had planned to go to Chueng Ek on the same day, we quickly decided it might be better to save the killing fields for the next day. So we wandered the city. We tried a dozen new foods from street carts that our host was able to identify for us and get local prices on. We tried vietnamese hot spring rolls as well as cold ones, we tried sweet rice and coconut desserts in bread, fried rice and spinich patties in sweet sauce, mangos with pepper, tamales with banana, fried bananas, various stir fries and noodles, sweet sausages, fish pancakes (not good), omelettes, Khmer ice cream sandwhiches in sweet baguettes, viniger peanuts, burnt sweet rice snacks, banana chips and even African food.
We rented bikes in the city which helped us get around a lot faster. Tyson had driven a motor bike in Indonesia and Thailand but this was my first time driving in such an environment. While it is super intimidating and nerve racking at first, once you pick up on the basic rules (that there are none) relax and exude confidence, it all somehow works out. Except that Cambodia has the most accidents in the world and we witnessed several in the few days we were there. That night we went to a hole in the wall, hidden Nigerian restaurant that we would never ever have found on our own. We tried rice paste that you break off in your hands and mould a bit then dip into a curry like spicy dish with beef stomach. Perhaps my description does not make it sound appetizing but in fact it is one of the best things I have ever tasted and I have been craving it everyday since. Although comparatively expensive, it was worth every riel.
The next day we rode over 20km one way to the Chueng Ek killing fields and genocide museam. Here we rented audio players and a narrator guided us through the fields where thousands of people were killed. It is now a serene and beautiful place where we could hear children from the neighboring school playing and birds chirping. But it was not always like this. Prisoners would be driven here from Tuel Slang prison blindfolded and cuffed together and killed with cheap tools one by one. Blaring revolutionary music would play to cover their screams and their bodies would be covered with D.D.T. to cover the smell. On average, 300 people a day were killed here in mass graves. As we walked around the site, scraps of clothing, teeth and small human bones could be seen in the dirt. Every few weeks the care takers collect all of this but every time it rains more comes up to the surface. There is a display of thousands of skulls and bones here as well showing the trauma that each person endured. On the audio tape there are personal stories from some of the very few survivors. Stories of rapes and witnessed killings. Mothers seeing their children killed, friends, brothers, sisters and parents all tortured and murdered.
There was a mass grave of over 166 headless bodies found in one area, in another there were hundreds of naked bodies of women and children. The children were killed in the most brutal fashion, guards would hold them by their feet and smash their heads against a tree that still stands in the field. Some of the victims were still alive when thrown into the graves. People have left bracelets and other small items for the children near the site. The founders of the museam say that they want to educate and inform the public of the attrocities that occured to ensure it does not happen again. They say that it could happen anywhere. The story of how Pol Pot took over the country is long and there are many details but he took over when the country was weak from the war and bombings from the USA. The Khmer Rouge pretended they were freeing the people. They told the people that America was planning to bomb the cities so they evacuated the cities within hours and then forced the people to work for their country. He took young innocent children and forced false information into their empty heads and poisoned their thoughts. Anyone who did not do as they were told was publically killed or tortured. The history and stories of Cambodia in the 70s can be found easily online or there are many books available. This is just a small glimpse into the recent history of the country we visited.
Alarmingly, genocides are happening today still and many are going unnoticed by the public. Places like North Korea, Iran and other civilians are being tortured and killed in groups. This is still happening right now.
From the killing fields we walked to the beautiful river side, saw the extravagant temples and buildings including the over the top royal palace. The palace where the king lives in covered in five tons of silver and solid gold buddhas with diamonds and jewels to decorate. Outside of the palace young children beg for money with their huge swollen tummies sticking out far past the norm. This is the imbalance of the world so evident in Cambodia.
We hung out in a monk sanctuary where we spoke with young monks for a few hours. One of them was blown away by my dreads and even spent some time trying to fix them for me. He gave us special bracelets that are meant to bring happiness.
We ate at the economic kitchen that night where you can pick several local dishes and sat by the water. Here is where locals continuously begged us for money and help. We drank fruit smoothies on the way home.
The next day we were without bikes again so it was a slower go at the city. We bought bus tickets to Poipet (the border) for that evening, we bought tons of groceries because we had run out of Baht (Thai currency) and had to have enough food for the next few days. Unfortuantely we kept eating the food so we kept having to replace it again. We confirmed our flights out of Bangkok and somehow ended up buying a red hammok on the way. Perhaps it can be a gift or a keeper. We took out more US currency from an ATM and head out to meet our couchsurfing host. Together we walked around, shopped and explored local snack foods. Later Tyson and I got hour long full body massages for $5 each which is relatively expensive but compared to Canada its pennies. We got this massage on our last day in the country and wondered why we had not gotten them everyday in SE Asia. It was very relaxing, they stretch out your body and massage as they go. Since I have an ongoing back injury from a car accident, I have had a lot of pain and this was a greatly needed relief.
We ran to grab our bags and catch the tuk tuk to the bus station where it took us 11 hours to make the 6 hour trip to Poipet. I spent the last of our Riels at the corner store and the Phnom Penh bakery. The bus stopped every few minutes and eventually reached the border at quarter to seven in the morning. We stopped to buy breakfast (bbq pork and rice) and crossed the border when it opened at 7am. With no problems we crossed back into Thailand and walked the 10km to the train station. Of course we missed the morning train so we waited until 2pm to catch the afternoon third class train back to Bangkok. I slept through most of this ride until it filled up and I had to share my seat. At one point we saw a few backpackers get up, so we asked if we could get to the airport from there. By the time we found out that this was our stop, the train had begun to move again but I was told by a voice that sounded an awful lot like my husband's to "just jump". So I jumped off a moving train and he came behind me. It was a first for me, and hopefully a last. But nonetheless we made it to the airport with Baht to spare and spent the night gorging on food and sleeping on rock hard floor.
"If we are not happy and joyous in this season for what season shall we wait"
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