Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Early Sunday morning we switched climates once again when we flew south from cool, humid Hanoi to hot, humid Phnom Penh. My first impression of the city (other than the heat) was the traffic! The traffic of SE Asia never ceases to amaze. Just when you think you've braved the worst of it, it gets worse. Phnom Penh is one of the few places we've been that actually had sidewalks. But just because they are clearly sidewalks, does not stop the mad rush of scooters from hopping up there the second it gets too congested on the road. Nowhere is safe! On the ride to our hostel from the airport, I saw twenty scooters get backed up on one patch of the sidewalk as the tiles broke apart under their wheels. It was essentially like they were stuck in the mud (or snow), but it was just the desentigrating sidewalks. Phnom Penh combines the volume of scooter traffic of Hanoi with the car traffic of Bangkok. Let me tell you, it is a terrifying combination. Like in Bangkok, based on the map we determined that a bunch of places we wanted to see appeared to be within walking distance. But the thing is nobody walks here. Lets just say, the experience was adrelaline  inducing. We kept getting offered rides from confused tuk tuk drivers (we were the only people foolish enough to attempt to walk). One driver, when we turned him down, even said, "what? Why not?" 

Meat transport of Cambodia! (If you look carefully, the two blue bags that man is holding are filled with chickens!)

Phnom Penh was a sad and humbling city to be in. We visited two sites of education and memorial on the Cambodian genocide, Tuol Sleng or S21, and the Killing Fields. At S21, we hired a guide to take us through the interrogation centre/prison. The genocide began in 1975 when Pol Pot, leader of the Khmer Rouge, began to implement his crazed plan to turn Cambodia into a radical agrarian socialist country. After Pol Pot's rise to power, the Khmer Rouge used S21 (a former high school) as an interrogation centre to torture people into confessing to being spies or naming their associates and family members as criminals. Their victims included members of the former US-backed government Lon Nol, academics, doctors, lawyers, anyone who spoke a foreign language, people who wore glasses (a sign of intelligence), and even other members of the Khmer Rouge. The Khmer Rouge were obsessed with documentation, and so every prisoners' photograph was taken. The photographs of the people were displayed next to the torture equipment used against them inside the small and dingy places they lived in. 

From S21, we took a tuk tuk to the Killing Fields. Here we were given an audio guide and toured the site at our own pace. It was an a jarring disconnect between the peaceful setting (everyone visiting was completely silent listening to their headsets) with lots of small animals running underfoot and the actions that transpired there 40 years previous. The Khmer Rouge could not afford the bullets to kill their victims that way and so they brought them to this site to murder them with whatever brunt tool was available and bury them in mass graves. On our headsets we listened to the history of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, people's personal stories of living through the genocide, testimonials made after the fact, as well as some music. One of the most chilling effects of the exhibit was done through music. In order to disguise what was happening at the Killing Fields from both the waiting prisoners and the people outside the area, the Khmer Rouge played its own propaganda music on a constant loop on speakers hooked up on a large tree. This music together with the buzzing noise from a generator was probably the last thing heard by their victims. 

After this day, we went to eat at a restaurant recommended to us by our friends from Hanoi called Friends. Friends  hires and trains street kids from Phnom Penh to be cooks and servers. All the staff have their photographs posted on the wall in the same style as displayed at S21 but instead of looking scared they are all smiling or making goofy faces (one guy is even dancing gangnam style in his photo). Here we were mostly taken with the hope and resilience displayed after undergoing such tragedy.