Phnom Penh; Pot and Potatoes

Being in Thailand for so long, I had become used to the views, the language, the food and the overall culture. I suppose you could say that I got a bit bored of it all. It lost its magic. By the time I was travelling after my teaching, I continued to feel a sense of boredom. Don't get me wrong, I loved seeing Thailand and I had a lot of fun, but the WOW factor was gone. I had forgotten that feeling of discovery. That feeling that you have experienced something new and alive.

I arrived in Cambodia expecting the WOW factor from Angkor Wat, and I did get that, but I came to Phnom Penh for one thing, and that was my visa to Vietnam. My plan was to see a bit of the city, but I suppose you could say I didnt really plan on enjoying it too much. Again, as with Chiang Rai, I was proven wrong. This city just has the greatest charm to it. It suffers great poverty, that is clear, and there does seem to be a bit of a problem with drugs in places, but I cant help but love the place. Just off the main roads with its mad traffic and noisy horns are little narrow streets filled with nice houses, offices, coffee shops and little businesses, all who keep their land full of green trees and bushes. Its such a contrast to the brown scorched earth of the poor village areas outside the city.

Yes you get slightly harassed by tuk tuk drivers, and the food is a good bit more expensive than other less populated areas of Cambodia, but the drivers are friendly and understand the word no, and the food is delicious no matter where you go.

But this city wasn't always a bustling centre of coffee cafe's and brilliant food. This city has suffered greatly. Today myself and a fellow traveller rented a scooter and took off to visit the infamous Killing Fields just outside the city. To make it short and quite brutally simple,in the 1970s a man named Pol Pot had an image of a 'pure' Cambodian society, so he took his brutal army of men and slaughtered a quarter of the population who didn't fit his image of a simple agricultural society. This involved anyone who was highly educated, who could speak a different language, any city dwellers who didnt know anything about farming, and anyone who didnt agree with him. His army of killers; The Khmer Rouge, took the thousands of people to many locations around Cambodia, bludgeoned and hacked them to death in the most horrible ways imaginable , and buried them in mass graves. How this was left out of my history degree I will never know. But I went today to see one of these places. I have to say, it was a very peaceful place for the atrocities that occurred there. I didnt take any pictures. I for some reason lost my appetite to capture everything around me. I don't think a picture would do this place justice anyway. Its one of those places where you have to feel it. Its the knowledge of what happened here thats harrowing more than the place itself. It does contain a massive memorial which holds the skulls of hundreds of dead who were never identified, and that is shocking. Also it holds examples of the clothes which were discovered with the people, and the childrens' clothes really make reality the horror and complete inhumane actions that people are capable of. What is worse is that Pol Pot was never punished for this actions, and lived in wealth and comfort until his dying day in 1998. It is a hard thing to visit, but I think it is appropriate, respectful, and I think it is important for people to know about these things.

Following this, we tottered back to reality and dodged our way through Phnom Penh's slightly scary traffic and found a nice Irish pub. We settled down to an early dinner of western goodiness; I myself choosing a cottage pie filled with lovely and highly missed mashed potato. The simple things that make us backpackers happy. We managed to make it back to the hostel before the heavens opened to let a thunder storm through. It seems that the rains are coming a few weeks earlier than expected. I thought that I could partly avoid the rainy season by finishing my travelling in June, but it doesnt look like nature likes my plan.

Tomorrow, a walk around the city to visit the Royal Palace, a silver pagoda (kind of like a temple) and a museum or two. There will be more pictures next time. I felt a little shaky taking pictures from the back of a scooter driven by an over enthusiastic Brit.

Sawatdiikha.