Reflections on Cambodia

We made it to Cambodia after a quick flight from Hi Chi Minh City. Our first stop was the Capital city of Phnom Penh, where we stayed for 3 nights at a very tranquil French owned hotel, The Kabiki.

Phnom Penh is similar to the cities we described in our Vietnam blog in that it is a bit of an assault on the senses, although maybe not quite as charming .

There’s no shortage of things to see at any given moment in and on the streets. Stray dogs and cats, Turk -tuks and scooters carry anything you can imagine and some things that you wouldn’t ever think were possible. There are markets with the vendors taking in evening aerobics classes after they close their stalls, men playing chess on the sidewalks and children riding bikes. You can see Buddha statues, temples and monks wearing bright orange robes, guards and gates and barbed wire fences mixed with beautiful flowers and tropical foliage.

There’s also lots to smell; all kinds of food blended with sewer and odours from the trash adorning the street. Although still present, the litter does seem to be less prevalent than that in the cities we visited in Vietnam. Phonm Penh is also dusty and HOT; 36-40 muggy degrees. That sweaty and dirty feeling never really goes away until you make your way to anywhere air conditioned.

Our first day was a chill day spent relaxing by the pool. Our hotel was very nice and we all enjoyed some down time. That evening we met with our guide Nay (guides are plentiful here, very helpful and most speak very good English) who arranged a cyclo tour which took us through the city. We stopped to see the central market, Wat Phnom temple, and the Independence Monument. We saw the statue of Lady Penh and learned of the legend of how the city was named. This was followed by dinner at a local restaurant and a tuk-tuk ride back to the hotel.

For each of us, the next day was a difficult and incredibly somber time. Cambodia is very diverse and beautiful, but also has a very bitter and tragic history. It isn’t easy to try to find the appropriate words, but here’s an attempt.

*Warning, tough read ahead*

We are ashamed to admit we knew very little about the atrocities that went on in Cambodia between 1975 and 1979. To those like us, here is a “Cole’s Notes” version of history to bring you up to speed:

After the Vietnam War ended in 1975, Cambodia suffered a devastating famine and many people were angry and upset with the current government and blamed them for getting Cambodia involved in the Vietnam war. Many Cambodians were poor, starving and looking for change. Enter Pol Pot and his regime, the Khmer Rouge. The people were drawn to him and his promise of a better future. His vision was to cleanse Cambodia of all Western influence and to set up a solely agrarian society. While idealized in the beginning, this would become one of the most radical and brutal restructurings of society ever attempted. The Khmer Rouge seized power in 1975 and almost immediately cities were evacuated and the entire population (men, women and children) was forced to rural areas to work in the fields. All businesses, hospitals and schools were closed, and currency and private property was abolished. Anyone believed to be an intellectual, such as someone who spoke a foreign language or had an education was immediately killed. Skilled workers were also killed, in addition to anyone caught wearing eyeglasses, wristwatches, or any other modern technology.

Between 1975 and 1979 the regime presided over the deaths of an estimated 1.7-2.7 million Cambodians through execution, forced labor, disease and famine.

1.7-2.7 million people…

In recent years The Killing Fields of Choeung Ek and Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum have been opened to the public to share the stories of some of these people. The Killing Fields of Choeung Ek was just one of an estimated 343 such fields discovered in Cambodia and was the burial ground for approximately 17,000 men, women, children and infants that were killed there between 1975 and 1979. The victims were brought from a site called S-21 (Security Office 21) or Tuol Sleng. Tuol Sleng used to be a school, but the Khmer Rouge turned it into a torture camp and prison for those who would eventually be taken to the killing fields and executed. We had the opportunity to visit S-21 and meet one of the 2 remaining adult survivors (only 9 adults and 5 children were rescued when the site was Liberated by Vietnam in 1979).

In 1978, Vietnamese troops invaded Cambodia, capturing Phnom Penh in early 1979. A moderate Communist government was established, and Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge retreated back into the jungle. Sadly Pol Pot was never punished for his crimes and he is believed to have died of natural causes while under house arrest in 1998.

To visit the killing field was surreal and incredibly sad. The site itself is just as it sounds, a field which was once an orchard. Paths lead the way past a stupa that was built in 1988 to house some of the bones of the over 8000 bodies exhumed to date. Many skulls are arranged by sex, age and means of death. The Khmer Rouge didn’t want to use costly bullets or to attract attention by using guns so instead most were killed by trauma to the head. The rest of the estimated 17000 have been left to rest where they were buried in mass graves scattered throughout the field. There is no means to identify the victims. Most Cambodians live with the knowledge that missing loved ones likely died in this horrific place (or another of the killing fields). As we walked we saw bits of bone, teeth and clothing, which to this day are emerging during times of rain from the earth where the victims still lie. The paths take you past many what appear to be pits, identified as the sites of mass graves holding 20-450 bodies per site. The most difficult area was the Killing Tree that was used to end the lives of children and infants. Children, infants and women were killed as they were repeatedly smacked against the trunk of the tree – absolutely heart wrenching and nauseating.

It is so incredibly hard to imagine how anyone could be so heartless and so much hate and cruelty exists. How do you go to sleep at night knowing what you’ve done? How do you look at your own children after you’ve murdered someone else’s child? It is important, however, to note that many of the Khmer Rouge were victims themselves, taken as young children, brainwashed and forced to fight or be killed.

We do encourage you to learn more about these atrocities and as a suggestion consider the book or movie (currently on Netflix) “First They Killed My Father” which tells the story of a young girl forced to become a child soldier during the Khmer Rouge takeover. The film is directed by Angelina Jolie, who famously adopted a son from an orphanage in Cambodia.

We visited the Royal Palace on our last evening in Phonm Penh. Although you can’t go inside the palace itself you are able to walk the grounds and enter some of the buildings onsite.

Moving on we spent the next 2 nights at Khmer Homestay in Baray, approximately half way between the capital of Phonm Penh and Siem Reap. This was a really worthwhile and eye opening experience for the entire family. The homestay is owned and run by a Malaysian women, Esther, who is also responsible for building a local school subsidized through church and private donations. This school provides many children access to an education that they might not otherwise have. We learned that only 43 per cent per cent of children in Cambodia complete even a primary education. They drop out to work instead, many on the streets or in agriculture. Only a third go on to secondary school where class sizes are up to 80 in the state run schools, such is the shortage of teachers. Only 20 per cent stay beyond the age of 15.

The vision of the homestay is to create jobs for locals and to provide a platform for foreigners to help Cambodian communities, especially in rural areas, as well as to experience the Khmer culture and daily lifestyle. The homestay itself was very comfortable. We had a dorm type room with bunk beds and our own bathroom. Because it was low season we basically had the place to ourselves and our own private guide to show us around. Our activities during our time at the homestay included a walk through the local village, a sunset tractor ride through the rice fields, a pony cart ride, a visit to the Christian funded private school, a hands on demo on making rice noodles, lots of delicious local foods and an opportunity to deliver clothing and food care packages to some of the families in the village with significant struggles. Our visit concluded with a performance from some of the local children, performing traditional dances and attempting to teach us some of the dances.

Rural village life for many Khmer is essentially the same now as it was a 100 years ago. Most huts in the villages surprisingly have a source of electricity although for some it seemed to supply little more than a light source. Often the houses have one room holding many people, with an outdoor kitchen cooking with pots over a wood fire. The roads are dirt, except the main highway through town, and they are not in the best shape. Roads are shared with roaming cows, chickens and dogs. Extended families live in huts made of palm leaves and sticks and own little more than the clothes on their backs. Some of the Khmer houses are raised on stilts for protection from annual floods and toilets are simple pits in the ground, located away from the house. To see first hand these conditions and to meet some of the people was truly humbling.

Our final 3 days in Cambodia were spent in Siem Reap at BB Angkor Green Resort. This hotel just opened 8 months ago and was really wonderful. The staff, accommodation and food were amazing. The boys loved the mango smoothies – they tasted so fresh and were an excellent way to beat the heat.

We preferred Siem Reap over Phenom Penh. It was smaller, cleaner, less chaotic and more charming. No buildings can be built over the height of the center tower at Angkor Wat (65m). This provides a more quaint feeling with no skyscrapers looming overhead.

Our first morning started very, very early with a sunrise visit to Angkor Wat. We’d been told that the sunrise here was not to be missed and figured we wouldn’t be back in this neck of the woods any time soon so why not?

Angkor Wat is the largest temple complex in the world and is on UNESCO’s World Heritage List. Constructed in the 12th century, it was the capital of the Khmer Empire for several centuries. The “city” had hundreds of temples and may have had a population of over 1 million. After getting our tickets we joined hundreds of other sleepy tourists to watch the sun slowly rise over the temple’s magnificent central tower. It was very beautiful but maybe not quite a “wow” as we’d imagined and the boys were really not in to being up that early! Are we glad we did it? Yes. Would we get up early to see the sunrise again? Maybe not. As Chase said “Mom if we want to see the sunrise tomorrow can we just stay in bed and look out the window?” For certain, experiencing Angkor Wat and the surrounding area temples is a must do, and should be near the top of one’s bucket list. It is truly spectacular. The intricate building, planning, canal systems, drainage, and detailed carvings all over the walls is astonishing to witness and dream about life way back when.

Despite being tired and feeling a bit drained from the heat as the sun reached it full potential, we explored several other temples in the complex including Ta Prohm and Bayon.

The remainder of our time in Siem Reap included a very fun and very dusty quad bike tour, a visit to the famous Pub Street (although no pubs were visited – one of the drawbacks of travelling with kids!), an evening performance of Phare Cambodian Circus, a movie and some cake to celebrate Chase’s 9th birthday – another action packed adventure!

Next up is Laos as we venture further on in our Asian component of our epic adventure…more to come soon!

With Love

The Travelling Babins

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeing new landscapes but in having new eyes – Marcel Proust