Cambodia, day 2

[Before I continue about my trip to Cambodia, I want to tell you about the memorial service we had yesterday for our student as we sailed from Vietnam. It was a beautiful program. There were giant flower arrangements that had been ordered before we left and a program with the choir, readings from the Torah, Bible, and Qu'ran, and reflections by 4 of his friends. The Archbishop spoke as well and there was a slide show of pictures from the student's time on the voyage. Finally, the Captain got up to explain the flower memorial and the instructions. I had been doing okay up to this point, but the Captain came up in tears and could barely get through his brief speech. It was heartbreaking. We all exited the union and took a flower. We proceeded to the aft of the ship and down to the 4th deck. We threw the flower overboard, along with a prayer for his family. Please keep his family, his friends, and everyone on this ship in your thoughts. It's been a rough time.

On to Cambodia, day 2. I hope you don't think me insenstive; I feel I can continue to tell this story because he had enjoyed the trip so much.]


I woke up early the next day to get downstairs before a lot of students did. Breakfast was served at the hotel and it was outstanding. In addition to omelets to order and usual breakfast items like bacon, pancakes and sausage, there was a noodle bar (because it’s very common to eat a bowl of pho for breakfast) and a spread of pineapple, mango, and dragon fruit (all of which were delicious). I had some fruit and toast (with pineapple jam) and then had to round everyone up.

Before I continue, a brief, incomplete history lesson: In 1975 the Khmer Rouge came to power in Cambodia, led by the Hitler of Southeast Asia, Pol Pot. Khmer means Cambodia, Rouge means red, so this was the Communist party of Cambodia. Upon coming into power, they evacuated all the cities in the country including Phnom Penh and Siem Reap. The belief was that the people should be working the land in the countryside, so they forced everyone into work camps and agricultural labor as their requirement was that everyone be self-sufficient. Many people died from the labor as well as starvation. Additionally, the government targeted foreigners, the educated class, artists, etc (anyone who wasn’t a laborer) and tortured and executed them. The total number of Cambodians who died under the Khmer Rouge regime was about 1.7 million. The population of the country at the time was between 6-7 million, meaning more than 1 in 4 people were killed by the government. The UN has since labeled this as genocide because of the targeting of certain groups. The regime fell when Vietnam liberated the country in 1979 with a different kind of communism. Cambodians now refer to that as liberation turned to invasion because the Vietnamese stayed for 10 years. Many of the leaders of the party were eventually arrested and tried for war crimes, except for Pol Pot who only died in 1998 without being arrested for his atrocities.

So, on Thursday our first stop was Tuol Sleng, the genocide museum in Phnom Penh. It had been a high school (built by the French during their imperialist stay in the region) and was turned into a prison by the Khmer Rouge. Well, not really a prison, but a torture chamber. They called it Security Center 21 [or S21] and after torturing the educated, the artists, the foreigners, they sent them to a nearby Killing Field to be killed. The complex of four buildings is now preserved as a museum.

We started in the building that was for VIPs – Very Important Prisoners. These were the big names that were captured. They had their own room with a metal bed in the middle with shackles for their arms and legs. They were tortured twice a day and fed porridge after their evening torture session. Sometimes fingernails were removed, often times prisoners were hung upside down in the gallows and their heads were dunked in sewage.

We walked through the first floor which had about 15 rooms. Each room had a window with bars, a metal bed in the middle of the room, and on the wall was a picture of the last person to die in each room and how they were found when the prison was liberated. It was truly horrible. Parts of the floor are still stained from the blood.

The next building had boards and boards of pictures. The first room had pictures of the “soldiers” who carried out the torture. Many were young boys (in their teens) which was part of the Khmer Rouge philosophy – to induct the youth into their party. The other rooms had pictures of the victims, some living, some upon their death. I have never seen such gruesome images, but I felt I needed to look. Their only crime was being educated; the best way to memorialize them is to continue to educate ourselves about their story.

Many of the students were quiet as we all boarded the buses to Choeung Ek, a killing field 15 km away. Choeung Ek had been a Chinese burial ground, but was turned into a site for mass graves. When it was discovered and graves were exhumed, almost 9,000 bodies were discovered at this particular killing field. There is a Buddhist stupa right when you walk in that contains many of the skulls found at the gravesite.

We walked among the graves (which now are large dips in the ground) and there are places where you can see fragments of bones still coming up from the ground. When prisoners were brought there, they would dig a hole, be blindfolded, and their hands were tied behind their back. Most were then killed with an iron pipe to the head because they weren’t worthy of a bullet in terms of resources and the “quick death” a bullet would provide. There was a nearby tree that was used for killing children. When the grave was full, the soldiers would cover the bodies with a chemical powder to hide the smell and then cover it with dirt.

It was a very sobering, heavy morning. I was extremely impressed with my students during the morning. They were engaged, appropriate, and seemed to be reflecting in a very mature way. A lot of them said to me “why don’t we know about this?” and we talked about education, war, international relations, and genocide. In addition to each being responsible for learning more, we agreed that it’s important to turn our attention to the present and what other atrocities are happening now that we don’t know about, because that we CAN influence. My example to many students was the sex trafficking industry in Cambodia, which is extremely widespread and tragically successful.

Anyway, we left the killing fields and headed to the Royal Palace, a complete 180 from the early part of the day. It was absolutely stunning to see. There was a delegation visiting from China that day, so we had to get in and out of there in 45 minutes. We saw the room in the palace where the coronation takes place. A king will only ever sit on the throne once in his life – on coronation day. After that, he sits in a smaller, less grandiose throne. King Sihanouk was king twice and when he was re-coronated he wasn’t allowed to sit there a second time.

We rushed through the palace a bit so that we could stop at the National Museum (of art). The guides really wanted to squeeze it in (it was one of the things we had missed the night before) because they said it provided more context for Angkor Wat, which we’d be visiting the following day. It was a beautiful museum, with some beautiful pieces, but I kind of wished we’d been able to stay at the Palace a little bit longer. Also, they charged to use the bathroom, which I hate, so I’m a little bitter.

For lunch, we went to a Chinese/Cambodian fusion kind of restaurant. It was delicious! More rice, vegetables, meats, etc. We even had some spring rolls, which were quite tasty. The student sitting next to me decided to try a soda he hadn’t ever heard of and it was bright green. We feared for his health and the health of his future children, so he stopped drinking it. There was also this very strange dessert that none of us really recognized. It LOOKED like lime jello, and it moved like lime jello, but it was kind of sticky and tasted like bad butter. Every time someone would try it, they would make a face and say “yup, butter” and then someone new would try it. You can’t NOT try butter flavored jello. (Seriously, does anyone know what this is?)

I had to collect all passports at lunch so that the tour company could take them to the airport to get us checked in for our flight. I absolutely HATE giving my passport to someone else. But the guy who took them from me put them in a suitcase that he locked right away. It made me feel a little better.

We then had an hour to shop in the Central Market of Phnom Penh. Oh my goodness. It was great shopping. But we were all extremely limited in terms of space – we all had a backpack for our 2 nights out of the country. I still purchased a small painting and 2 AWESOME t-shirts. One of the t-shirts is the label of the preferred beer in Cambodia – Angkor. The slogan is “My country, my beer.” I thought I’d see them everywhere and planned to buy many more for many of you, but I never did see more. Sorry. You can all just be jealous of mine.

Then it was time to load the bus and head to the airport for our flight to Siem Reap. This time the flight couldn’t have been more perfect. We got there an hour before, the passports were there with our boarding passes, and I passed them all out and we headed through security. There was a coffee shop to wait in and an ATM that spit out US dollars. Have I mentioned that most people in Cambodia use the US dollar? The currency is actually the riel (which I have a few of because if you pay in US dollars, you’ll get any coin change in riel) but the US dollar is more stable.
The flight to Siem Reap was quick and we landed and hopped on a bus to head to the hotel. The hotel was gorgeous and we were again greeted with some juice and a refreshing cool towel. I got further instructions about the next day’s travel and started to feel a little anxious. The tour operator had come to meet me and watched as I collected all the passports. She had me sign across the sealed envelope, then taped it, and had me put it in the safe at the front desk. She wanted to make sure we all had the correct Multiple Entry visa to Vietnam (we did).

I went up to my room and was stunned. It was easily the nicest hotel I’ve stayed in, with a giant balcony overlooking the pool. Again, I watched some CNN ☺ Only for a few minutes though because we had to meet for dinner. The great news was that my friends Chris and Jodi were also on a SAS trip to Cambodia (different trip) and were staying at the same hotel. They had left me a note at check-in and we agreed to meet up later.

Dinner was again amazing (are you sensing a pattern?). It was a giant touristy restaurant that easily seated a thousand people at these long tables, German beer hall style. It was a buffet and it had all kinds of noodles, spring rolls, meats, vegetables, fruits, etc. I had a delicious Angkor beer (my country, my beer) and we watched a dance performance with some traditional Cambodian dancing. We headed back to the hotel and I met up with Chris and Jodi and we enjoyed my balcony and chatted about our Cambodian experience so far. We didn’t talk too long, because we were exhausted and we all were getting up for a sunrise trip to Angkor Wat. So I watched some CNN and fell asleep!