The true face of South East Asia

Hello from Cambodia.

Yes we made it over the border.... it cost $5 each more than we bargained on paying, but at least it was trouble free (apart from us arguing the toss with the bus 'guide' and insisting that the visa should be $20, not $25: $3 went to him and his co, while $2 went to the police, oh and the bus would not wait for us if we decided to do it ourselves!). The air con on the bus was thankfully excellent, however, there was no toilet on-board, regardless of claims to the contratry made by the company we booked through.

Cambodia is probably the poorest place we've visited so far in SEA. And one with possibly one of the saddest histories (not taking into account the American War in Vietnam of course).

This was the home of Pol Pot: a dictator far worse than even Adolf Hitler! He wanted a Socialist revolution in Cambodia but decided the best way to do that would be to kill off anyone who might disagree, ie the educated people (he even went as far as targeting people with glasses!) and anyone else who stood in his way. He carried this out via the Khmer Rouge, who gained more recruits thanks to the Americans' bombing of Cambodia during the Vietnam War.

You kind of feel sorry for the Cambodian people because during the 1950s they managed to gain independence from the French, only to become occupied by the Americans (Phnom Penh was taken over) after the Northern Vietnamese began smuggling arms and soldiers through the part of the country bordering Vietnam (via part of the Ho Chi Minh Trail). Of course the Americans used the same excuse that seems to be on the tip of invading presidents' tongues: 'we are doing it to help the people' - yeah right. America needs to turn the record over. Then when the Americans left, the Khmer Rouge took over and the country descended into civil war. These last 25 years or so have been the only years of peace these people have seen in a long time.

There is still debate as to how many Cambodians Pol Pot's genocide wiped out: a conservative guess is between 2 and 3 million. The Khmer Rouge were vicious: we saw photographic evidence of their attrocities in S-21, a high school-turned detention and torture centre. The 's' stood for 'security' and the '1' stood for Brother 1 (ie Pol Pot - there were 5 main people in control). At one stage up to 100 prisoners a day were taken to Cheung Ek Killing Fields outside Phnom Penh and exterminated. The brutal methods by which they did this included bludgeoning them to death with a pickaxe handle blow to the back of the neck before slitting their throats. Music was played loudly so other prisoners could not hear the death moans of their inmates. Lovely. It never fails to astound me how truly grotesque Mankind can be. It seems we never learn from the past.

When the Khmer Rouge were finally defeated, 11 bodies were found at the camp with only 7 survivors. The bodies were the Khmer Rouge's hasty effort to get rid of the evidence before help arrived. There were graphic photos on the walls of the aftermath in each room where bodies were found.

The torture was also brutal: prisoners' fingernails were ripped out; they were repeatedly dunked in water; they were strung up and hung by feet and hands from a 'gallows' outside. This was to name but a few. The really disturbing thing about this was that many of the perpetrators within the Khmer Rouge were only in their mid to late teens. But if they didn't do it, they probably faced the same fate.

Each prisoner was photographed (most of which were mounted on display around the museum) and torture was carefully recorded. Many of the prisoners were young children: there were even mothers and babies. The Khmer Rouge believed they were all traitors when in actual fact many were peasants or farmers. How anyone survived mentally in the tiny dingey cells (I guess you were lucky if you had a window in your cell - see photos 3 & 4) I've no idea.

Pol Pot believed in extreme Communism: he wanted to develop a country without money or material things where everyone was equal and earned their living from the land with Lords in charge - kind of like the ancient Feudal system in the UK. That's why the Khmer Rouge drove everyone out of Phnom Penh and into the fields. We saw a documentary here in the Mekong River Cafe about Pol Pot and it showed footage of Phnom Penh completely deserted: hard to believe when you look at it today. Needless to say it failed.

It's yet another sad testament to the horrors of war. At least there is still life living there: I saw nesting birds (see photo 5) and also hanging bats who were right at home in the rafters - not like other prison camps I've heard about (Shari said at Auschwitz there is no life at all, not even birds singing).

We then went to the Killing Fields and saw the shallow graves where the people were exterminated. Among the graves was one for the bodies of decaptitated women and children. You get the idea. There is now a large memorial stupa there which contains 8000 skulls of the dead. There are even clothing tatters still left on the ground as a reminder of what it once was. It used to be a place of new life: an orchard. But it turned into a place of death. At S-21 someone has written on a wall:' When this was a prison, no-one learned; when it was a school, no-one died'. Very fitting I thought.

Hence that is probably why Cambodia seems to have so much poverty: much more than any we've seen elsewhere. There are beggars all over the streets: many landmine victims and even entire families. Some children are enterprising and sell photocopied books or daily newspapers, but they don't seem to be as badly off as those actually sleeping on the streets. There are literal slums: there's one right next door to the Russian Embassy where we dropped off our application form for our Russian visas yesterday. There is also one directly opposite the British Ambassador's very swanky house with its high gates and post Colonial exterior. I find this simply shocking and unaccaptable. How do these people live there and not do anything?!

I have seen a little taste of home here though: a fair few Nissan Micras (same shape as my little motorcar)! There are more cars here than in Vietnam but still plenty of motorbikes, tuk tuks and cyclos. The ironic thing is that among the poverty, the most popular brand of car here is a Lexus! The mind boggles...

The capital city also has frequent power cuts: there's one at 22.50 every night. It's not uncommon to go into a restaurant and have to feel your way to the toilet because there's no power. Toilet by candlelight is a surreal experience (see photo 6).

There are, yeat again, some very nice restaurants and cafes here. Again, I thought we'd be entering the middle of nowhere, but no. You'd have thought I would have learned by now that there aren't many places that haven't been touched by civilisation! There is even an Irish bar: not called Sheridan's though (pic no 2 is the one we found in Saigon by the way), it's called Rory's and is quite small. Most shops here are open again, ie no doors during opening hours, subsequently you get all the kids trying to sell their wares at you while you're eating (like Laos).

Apparently there are a lot of guns here too. That didn't alarm me in the slightest when Shaz and Andy highlighted that fact to me. What did alarm me was the sound of gunfire somewhere on the streets when I was sat in my hotel room the other night... remind me not to argue with any cyclo drivers here! ;)

The tuk tuk driver who took us to S-21 and the Killing Fields is called Jade and he's a top bloke (see photo 1). He does a cracking Geordie accent - so good that you can't understand a word he says and having lived in Darlo and that area, I'd say that was spot on! ;)

He knows everything there could ever be to know about football. He even knows where Hull is because he knows about Hull City! That is how he knows the geography of the UK, from his knowledge of football teams! I guess football can't be all that bad.....

His catchphrase is 'You're taking the piss mate' and he cracks us all up. He took us to an orphanage too for a few hours, of which I'll tell you more in my next entry.

Til then, ciao for now! ;0)