S-21 & The Choeung Ek Killing Field (Part II)

The previous Cambodia-related post already hinted at the existence of countless "killing fields" within an only now gradually recovering country. Being tourists and all, we visited the most renowned of these sites, Choeung Ek, a former orchard / Chinese graveyard just outside of the capital. Most people will know this site from the movie "The Killing Fields" (worth checking out on video/DVD btw!).

The Choeung Ek site features several mass graves. 8895 bodies have already been uncovered in several shallow graves, but there remain many more. The government has decided not to dig up the estimated remaining 9000 bodies because they believe the point has been made. Many of the dead were former inmates of the earlier discussed Tuol Sleng prison camp.

Grasping your mind around the reasons behind and the amount of executions at Choeung Ek (remember, this was only one of an estimated 150+ killing fields), we were also troubled by the brutal way most were executed. In order to save ammunition, most "traitors" were struck and tortured to death and often even buried alive. Children and women were also not spared. To step right back into the reality of that time, just examine the above picture closely.

At present, Choeung Ek fulfills a role as a memorial with a grand white Buddhist stupa in the center of the site. All four sides of the stupa are made from glass so visitors can see the +5000 human skulls displayed inside. The lower section is also open to the public, which gives visitors the chance to view the skulls op close. From up close, you can see that many skulls have fractures or even miss whole pieces of bone. But the signs, stories, pictures, and skulls are not the only links to the awful Khmer Rouge legacy.

Walking around the grounds and the many shallow mass graves, you literally walk over unrecovered bones and pieces of worn-out clothing. It is impossible to describe the feeling that lingers over this place, even in between all the kackling and photo-snapping tourists. The picture below, for instance, is a human jawbone (incl. teeth) that we came across. Our guide told us that bones got washed up all time, especially during the wet season.

The whole experience was deeply disturbing and remained difficult to comprehend as our generation has fortunately never experienced any war or genocides. The feeling we got when walking over so many people's graves remains one of our strongest and darkest memories of our world trip.

S-21 & The Choeung Ek Killing Field (Part I)

Today we visited the S-21 prison camp and the Choeung Ek killing field on the outskirts of Pnhom Penh. Before we tell you about our experiences there, it is first important to discuss the story behind them as well the Khmer Rouge occupation in Vietnam.

The Khmer Rouge was a Communist party that ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979 via their "puppet" leader Pol Pot. Their policies reflected an extreme and deranged form of communism. It included isolation of the country from foreign influence, closing shools, hospitals, and factories, abolishing banking, finance, and currency, outlawing all forms of religion, confiscating all private property and finally a MASSIVE relocation of people from urban areas to farm collectives on the countryside. Through agricultural labor, the "New People" would become "classless" and therefore equal. These actions resulted in the deaths of an estimated 3 million people (out of a 7 million total population) through brutal torture and executions, work exhaustion, illness, and starvation. In terms of the number of people killed as a proportion of the population of the country it ruled, it was one of the most lethal regimes of the 20th century.

Two of the more internationally well-known remnants of this gruesome period are S-21 and the Choeung Ek killing field. This post talks only about the first, while the next one will discuss the latter. Phnom Penh was taken by the Khmer Rouge on April 17, the Cambodian New Year. First they were seen as heroes coming to free the people from their unwanted in the Vietnamese War. However, the euphoric mood soon changed as every citizen was evacuated and forced to go and work on the countryside. Pol Pot's forces took over the Tuol Svay Pray High School and turned it into the S-21 or "Tuol Sleng" (literally meaning "poisonous hill") prison camp. Here, suspected traitors were tortured mercilessly until they even confessed acts they had never even committed. The desire to create the ultimate self-sustaining agrarian society fueled a killing spree that targeted the educated and those supposedly still loyal to the former government.

But how did they find all of these "traitors"? There are several ways they did this: they had snitches in every village and town, they fooled educated people into believing that they were needed to help build the new economy (but were imprisoned and executed instead if they "confessed" that they were in fact educated), they killed everyone with glasses - a "sure" tell sign of intellect; the people without a tan because they were believed to work in offices, and finally they would check people for callouses (=eelt) on their hands! In the meantime, while the educated were eradicated, many others who slavishly labored on the rice fields died of inhumane treatment (e.g. one bowl of watery rice soup p.p. per day). Most of the rice production was used not to feed the people, but to buy weaponry from China instead and used to kill their own people.

Coming back to S-21, this place was just one of the facilities where the educated and other traitors (including quite a few unfortunate foreigners) were "questioned" to death. S-21 is now called the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum and features many grueling stories about the torturing and inhumanities that occurred. For instance, the women prisoners were raped and tortured to insanity. This led many of them to commit suicide by jumping off the prison roof when they were having their weekly shower. To "correct" this behavior, the Khmer Rouge put barbed wire over the entire cell block which made jumping down impossible.

All prisoners were either kept in communal rooms where they were chained together by their feet, in separate "interrogation" chambers chained to their beds, or in small cement cells. In the latter, they had to ask permission for everything; even to move. If they did not do this, they would be beaten or put in solitary confinement. There are so many horrible stories which were all meticulously documented. Every prisoner had a photo-file of his or her forced "confessions". The museum uses their pictures to relate people to the horrorstories. On top of the torture devices, this makes for a very strong and lasting impression. We weren't there yet, however. The picture of individual torture was still going to be turned into an experience of mass genocide. Please check out the next post for more hell on earth.

Phnom Penh, PP Province

We were glad to get away from Sihanoukville and head towards our final destination in Cambodia: the country's capital Phnom Penh. Just as a fun fact, this city was once called the "City of Four Faces" because of the four rivers that crossed here. The full name back then was: "Krong Chaktomuk Mongkol Sakal Kampuchea Thipadei Sereythor Inthabot Borei Roth Reach Seima Maha Nokor. Wow!

Phnom Penh has two faces: a beautiful and an ugly one. The beauty can be found in the fantastic Khmer and French architecture, the nice riverfront, and the friendly people. The ugliness becomes apparent from all the fighting and torturing that took place here but also in the poor living conditions of many of its residents.

By now you are probably wondering what it is that we did in Cambodia's #2 tourist destination. Here's a short breakdown: visited the royal palace, the Khmer museum, had dinner at our S-21 and Choeung Ek Killing field guide, participated in an English class for kids at the same guide's house, a great dinner, strolled around the city by foot and visited several markets, and finally ate at (and bought some souvenirs at) a local charity. This post showcases some pictures taken during our visit. Please keep visiting the blog for upcoming posts on the most shocking field trip we have experienced on our trip so far: S-21 or the Tuol Sleng prison and the Choeung Ek Killing Field on the edge of the city.

Group dinner at our S-21/Choeung Ek guide

Sois teaching inappropriate English words to the kids

Heng, the cyclo guy

Meatlovers "0" - Vegetarians "1"

Sihanoukville, Kampong Som Province

Today, our tour led us to the beachside town of Sihanoukville. Sihanoukville is also know as Kampong Som and is a port city in the South of Cambodia on the Gulf of Thailand. The city is named after the much loathed King Norodom Sihanouk. Normally, we would be pleased to go to the beach for a day or so. Sihanoukville, however, can be skipped when traveling through Cambodia. If you want to support the locals then there are other ways to do this. All we can say is that if you are looking for place that's worse than Thailand's Pattaya, then this is the place for you.

Of course, there are always exceptions and we had a somewhat nice excursion to a nearby island plus we arranged our own bike ride across the town and its surroundings (the maritime is also rumored to be nice). There are also a few places where you can get some great food, with some even offering their proceeds to charity. Our verdict: it is a great "true" backpacker hangout if you want a cheap beach. Otherwise, forget the place altogether... there are better ways to spend your days in Cambodia. Period. [Ps. And as a bonus, Chel got eaten by the hotel's bed bugs, the beach's sandflies, and of course the ever present mosquitos. Click the pic to check our her legs.]

Takeo Homestay, Takeo Province

With the taste of spider still in Sois' mouth (and maybe one in our backpacks) we arrived at our homestay in Takeo. For those of you that don't know how this works, here's the lowdown: you stay at a Cambodian family that offer their own house as a place to stay and have dinner. This can be for a single or a couple of days and can include joint visits (with the family) to several places of interest.

We only had an afternoon and an evening so we basically just chilled out from the long bus journey. Our host was the village chief; a kind old man with a very nice family. Sois and Phil played some soccer with the kids while the girls caught up on their gossiping. In the meantime, "mom" was preparing a banquet for that night's dinner. And boy was it good. It seems that everytime we visit the people at their homes, we get a great meal. Just simple ingredients to create honest dishes. Needless to say, we were stuffed at the end of the night.

The family had a traditional house built on wooden stilts. The place had very low ceilings and hobbit-small doors so even Sois had to watch out for his head. Pi-pi and poo-poo were done outside in, of course, a squat toilet. And guess were Sois' intestinal problems began... yep right here. There was also no real place to shower so we went outside and took a shower "country" style: at the waterpump with a bucket which was quick and refreshing. The beds and hammocks were very comfortable though and we had a good night's rest before we would take off to the beachside town of Sihanoukville.

Hint: it's not a Coke

Pitstop at Spider Village

On our way to the homestay in Takeo, we stopped at a place called Spider Village to meet, great, and eat some of the local delicacies. Yes, we're talking spiders here. As soon as we got of the bus, we were crowded by friendly "hawkers" (street-food-sellers) who served up a nice big plate of spiders (and other tasty fruit, animal, and insect produce).

In adition, the local kids were quick to put a few spiders on you, just to see if we tourists would freak out. Of course, a couple always do: it's a love or hate thing with spiders. Sois, for instance, found the spiders actually pretty cute (quote: "They're soooo soft, just like puppies. Wanna hold one?") and allowed them to crawl everywhere except his underpants. Chel managed to pet one quickly before being disgusted again when they brought in a fresh plate of fried spider.

We know what you want to ask: Did somebody eat it? Well, Lisa (from our tourgroup) and Sois managed to chomp down a spider leg (unfortunately no video, just personal witnesses). So how did it taste? Well, it tasted like deep-fried plastic. Plus the taste of grease haunted Sois's tastebuds for the entire day. Maybe a great snack from a local standpoint, but one we'll definitely pass the next time. Keep following us for more culinary (and other) adventures. In the meantime, bon appetit and never complain about our meat, potato, and veggie dishes again ;-)

Kompong Cham, KC Province

After an overwhelming introduction to Cambodia, we went straight on through to the decaying city of Kompong Cham in the mighty Mekong river delta. Kompong Cham used to be an important trading town during the French occupation but has now lost much of its former glory. We were only there for a day. Within this short time period we visited the local market and had some great food, but the highlight was a bikeride through the countryside, including a visit to a local temple, school, and tobacco plantation. Another cool feature was that we crossed the Mekong river by a bamboo bridge. During the dry season the Mekong is reduced to a small river and every year they build an entire bamboo bridge for the people to use (for a small fee). During the monsoon, however, they have to take it down or the river does that for them. All in all, a nice little introduction into the day-to-day life of many Cambodians.

Very long handmade bamboo bridge

Sois and his grocery bike overlooking the currently not so mighty Mekong

Pagoda #234

Special "Tuk-Tuk" Greetings !!!

Tuk-tuk? Many greetings from Cambodia to all our loyal blog visitors! In this clip, we are zooming through the Cambodian countryside towards SE Asia's largest freshwater lake, the Tonle Sap.

To be a little more specific, Tonle Sap is actually a combination of a lake and a river system. This is system is very important to Cambodia because the lake massively floods each year (it swells from a mere 2700 square km to approximately 16000 square km) during the Monsoon (rain season). The flood creates an enormous habitat for countless species of fish to spawn thus providing the Cambodians with a doorstep seafood buffet.

More tuk-tuk action

Yours truly made a short but satisfying excursion on this great UNESCO biosphere to find out how the people survive along and on the water. First of all everything floats on a bamboo trunks that last for about 7 years in the waters. Those that are not fortunate enough to have a floating house (or tiny shack along the river banks) live on very small (not bigger than 5-6 mtr) boats with tiny roofs and no protection whatsoever against the elements.

We have seen mothers with entire flocks of children just floating around trying to make a living by selling fruits and begging. Again a sad situation that slightly improves when the Monsoon sets in and there's fish-a-plenty. What's also striking is that the schools, playgrounds, police, and churches are also floating around on the lake. It is literally an entirely floating village with its own fish, squid, and crocodile farms. A unique place in a unique natural setting but also for many, a very tough life.

From the Tonle Sap, we headed back with our Schumi-aspiring tuk-tuk drivers to Siem Reap. Along the way, however, we visited our Cambodian guide's mother just for fun and to see the different ways people live in Cambodia. They even had their own alligator farm in the backyard. Now that would be something to keep the damn burglars out. Anyway, we have to close this post as we have to get going again to yet another destination. But remember keep coming back because more info can be right around the next corner...

The Landmine Museum, Siem Reap

Besides those funny temple things that everyone keeps jabbering about, we also took the opportunity to visit the Land Mine Museum on the edge of town. Mr. Aki Ra, a former child soldier for both the Khmer Rouge and Vietnamese armies is the owner of the museum. Besides being a curator, Mr. Ra is also Cambodia's most well-known "mine-clearer." There are still millions of mines in Cambodia which continue to kill 3 and cripple numerous other people a day. So on top of educating tourists and Cambodians alike about the terrible invention called landmines (as well as other highly lethal devices and contraptions), he also risks his life every day by clearing mines in the affected areas. He does this with nothing more than a 2 mtr long wooden probing stick and a screwdriver. With these simple tools he has been able to clear more than 100 mines a day (while still keeping his limbs, eyes, and life). This of course turns the official landmine removal organizations into a mockery as they not only charge $1000 for each mine they clear but also need much more time to actually clear them.

The pictures show you some of the landmines scattered throughout the country, especially across the Thai border (where the Khmer Rouge retreated). Our guide was a young guy who lost his right leg and his brother and sister due to a landmine while working in a rice field. Now, he helps Mr. Aki Ra to clear mines and acts as a guide at the museum. He explained to us how the landmines work and what other boobytraps were used by the Khmer Rouge. Honestly, this stuff was pretty gruesome like landmines filled with tiny pieces of metal that would explode within a 10 meter radius, causing loss of limbs, eyes, and big cuts. There's more but we'd rather not go into the specific details of each device. For more information and other interesting links, please visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aki_Ra. In the future, you will be able to visit his site directly under: http://www.akiramineaction.com.

From our own experience, we have seen so many Cambodian people directly and/or indirectly suffering from the terror of the landmines that it almost made us sick to our stomachs. But still, after years of unwanted fights with other nations, the Khmer Rouge's genocide, the bombings, the landmines, and corruption, the people are still trying to get the country back in shape. 75% of the population is under 25 and ready to make a difference, education opportunities are improving, as is agricultural production and trade. We hope that within the coming years the Cambodian people can realize their much-deserved comeback in SE Asia. Oh, and higher tourists numbers would not hurt either ;-) So go and visit Cambodia now!

Angkor Wat, Siem Reap (Part II)

Yes, the Raiders of the Lost Khmer Empire are back in Angkor and its magical surroundings. The above picture features Chel in front of the east gate of Angkor Wat. Less crowded equals better pictures. Did you know that it is in fact the largest religious building in the world?

Sois is walking along the boardwalk from the outer causeway to Angkor Wat's inner confines. A more symbolic interpretation would read something like this: here you see Sois venturing back into the first age of the creation of the universe. Now we can also cross time-traveling off our "to-do" list.

Once inside, we have Chel climbing up the highest tower (which represents Hinduism's mythical Mt. Meru) which rises 33 mtr above the third level from which the picture was taken (55 mtrs above ground level). Now it was a very steep ascent, especially the final 10 steps or so, so steep that we had to come down on the other side of the building. And before you start boo-ing: a couple of people have already plummeted to their death from these killer steps.

And from killer steps we move on to a killer view (please note: this does not imply Sois). From the highest tower you could look at the entire courtyard and the main entrance. A very impressive sight, even more so when you imagine that the entire courtyard was once filled with activity and wooden houses. At its prime, Angkor as a city was home to more than one million people(!)

On top of the impressive view on the outside, things were pretty interesting on the inside as well. There were smaller baths for the king, some leftover-leftovers of Hindu and Buddhist statues, and of course some "live" worshipping (see pic above).

After all of this, we said goodbye to Angkor to explore some other temples and sights in the area. We visited too many interesting things to post here, so we'll stick to these three for now. The pic features one of the 216 huge stone faces of Avalokiteshvara (scrabble points: 753) found at the Bayon temple behind the five gates of Angkor Thom, which lies north of Angkor What. ALL faces have a different expression. We have no idea how to call the expression above, but if you have an idea, you're more than welcome to post a comment.

Honestly, we don't know anymore how this one is called. After some research, we're guessing this temple is called Baphuon, also known as the world's largest jigsaw puzzle after countless years of restorative work (against war-related setbacks) to put into its current state. Like Angkor Wat, Baphuon is a representation of Mt. Meru, but a pyramidal one in that. We were again allowed to climb to the top. But after trudging along all these great architectural achievements (and the countless stampeding Korean tourgroups breathing down our necks) you start to wonder if they should allow any tourists on the structures at all. We're probably causing more wear and tear than time itself by now. On the other hand, Angkor now provides so many (in)direct jobs for the people of Siem Reap and around that it would a shame if tourist kept away because they could not experience Angkor up, close, and sometimes way to personal.

Ok, enough with the rants and this post. We're closing down the shop for today. And while we do, we leave you with a true Hollywood ending: the final picture is taken at Ta Prohm, a 12th century Mahayana Buddhist temple which featured in movies like "Tomb Raider" and "Two Brothers". If you look closely, you can even see Angelina Chelie behind the big black celebrity sunglasses in the right corner. However, the main attractions next to the numerous mazes of narrow corridors and instable stonework are the big trees that grow like alien tentacles through almost all of the remaining structures. In conclusion, our visit to Angkor was one of the greatest (cultural) experiences so far on our journey (minus the anxious herd of K-tourists). Beautiful, different, and continously surprising from every angle, this is a must-see for all of (wo)man. And with that bombshell, we close those post and bid you adieu!

Angkor Wat, Siem Reap (Part I)

After settling down in our guesthouse at Siem Reap, we prepared ourselves for the visit to Angkor the next day. Here's some more info about Angkor for those of you that have never heard of it or just want to refresh their general memory (please note, several parts are taken from Wikipedia.org).

Between 900 and 1200 AD, the Khmer empire built some of the world's greatest architectural masterpiecies. Around 72 temples and other buildings were taken up just outside the town of Siem Reap (on the northern side of the Tonle Sap lake).

The main temple is called Angkor Wat and was built between 1113-1150 by King Suryavarman II. With walls nearly one-half mile long on each side, Angkor Wat grandly portrays the Hindu cosmology, with the central towers representing Mount Meru, home of the gods; the outer walls, the mountains enclosing the world; and the moat, the oceans beyond. The later capital of Angkor Thom, built after the Cham sack of 1177, has at its centre the Bayon. Construction of Angkor Thom coincided with a change from Hinduism to Mahayana Buddhism. Temples were altered to display images of the Buddha, and Angkor Wat briefly became a Buddhist shrine. A subsequent Hindu revival included a large-scale campaign of desecration of Buddhist images, before Theravada Buddhism became established from the 14th century.

During the 15th century, nearly all of Angkor was abandoned, except Angkor Wat, which remained a shrine for Buddhist pilgrims. While it is widely believed that this occurred after Siamese attacks, some recent research by Australian archaeologists indicates that the main cause was a shortage of water caused by during the transition from the medieval warm period to the little ice age.

Angkor was re-discovered by the French (late 19th century) who began an extensive restoration process (later joined by other countries like Japan and Korea) to recover the temples from the dense jungle that developed from the 15th century onwards.

We humble tourists only visited a relatively small part of Angkor's offerings: we first went to see the sunset over Angkor Wat at 6:00 am, had breakfast, subsequently visited (amongst others) Bayon, the Terrace of the Leper King, the Terrace of Elephants, Ta Prohm (featured in Tomb Raider and Two Brothers), and finished the day of with an extensive visit of Angkor Wat. We will disperse more facts and pics about these truly amazing sights in the upcoming post.