Phmon Penh (Day 2)

ok guys, this one really is going to be short and sweet. the internet cafe im at is a rip and i dont much feel like writing...but duty calls.

the next day after we partied at heart of darkness, we woke up around noon. we had agreed to make joe our own personal tuk-tuk driver for the duration of our stay in phnom penh. there were two things on our agenda for this day: visit the killing fields and shop at the russian market.

that morning, joe took kristen and kitty-corner to the airport so they could fly to phuket or crabbe or some other thai island. (it was kitty-corner's birthday that month and they had agreed to spend a month in the islands as a tribute...pretty precious, right?) we would find out that this is the route most backpackers take: take the bus from bangkok to siem reap, see angkor wat, and bounce to phnom penh for a day or two before flying the fuck out of there. this is probably why most travelers dont give cambodia its just due.

we woke up, got some stellar breakfast at the okay guesthouse while chatting it up with some other travelers. (at this point, we were still pretty much the only americans around, which was cool.) as we emerged into the hot afternoon, joe zoomed up on his tuk-tuk, fresh from taking the canadian girls to the airport, and screamed, "i'm here!" i swear, it was out of a movie or something. so me, skeelow, jason, papa skee, and some japanese chick that papa skee picked up that morning while eating breakfast at the guesthouse headed out to the killing fields.

at this point, we really didnt know what to expect; all we knew of the killing fields is what the lonely planet had told us (which wasnt much) and some hearsay from the canadians (who were overly emotional and a bit unreliable at that). what we would see would be far beyond what we were imagining.

now some history: pol pot and the khmer rouge came into power in 1976. at this time, the country was in ruin. previously, it had been a monarchy, with a king: king sihanouk. as the country grew more destabilized by the war in vietnam and fighting among warlords within the country itself, king sihanouk fled to china, leaving a huge power vacuum. this was immediately filled by the khmer rouge, which was a government backed by the maoists in china (and some say king sihanouk himself.) without missing a beat, the party instituted a program of slaughter that spared almost no one. if you were an intellectual in any way, you, along with every member of your family, was arrested, sent to torture camps, and eventually executed in the most painful and dehumanizing ways. what made this genocide so despicable was that it was cambodians killing cambodians. often, the young people who were committing these crimes were so swept up in communist fervor that they would turn their own parents or family members in, knowing full well that they would not survive the ordeal. there are stories of children killing their own parents. this went on for almost 4 years. as i said before, the international community stood aside and did nothing, pretending not to see. women and children were likewise tortured and murdered for doing nothing other than being associated with an accused person. by the end of the genocide, the khmer rouge was killing its own party members. the paranoia spread like a disease and permeated though the most basic parts of khmer society. no one trusted anyone else. it was very much "join us or be killed" and those who did not readily offer their services to the khmer rouge were executed like stray dogs, along with everyone they held dear.

so joe takes us about 15 km out of town to a place that looked pretty much like any other place in cambodia. it was barren and bereft of any noticeable buildings or architecture; the actual killing fields were nothing more than a couple of wooden shacks with steel roofs and a large, opulent pagoda-thing. as we drew closer, we could hear somber khmer music playing softly. it costs $2 to go through the gates and there really isnt that much to see. however, what you do see would shock even the most hardened person.

(side note: we found out that the killing fields and S-21, the prison where the accused were tortured and beaten before being executed, had been sold to the japanese government. that means that like angkor wat, when you go in to see these places, your $2 goes directly to a foreign government and not to cambodia. think about how sad that is for a minute....apparently, the cambodian people were outraged, but thats what you get with a corrupt government...
after the cambodians were liberated by the NVA in 1980, the country was not recognized by the united nations until 1991. in fact, the khmer rouge was the officially recognized government of cambodia for that entire time, even though they had been driven into the northern mountains. from 1980 to 1998, the country was embroiled in a vicious civil war that not only killed millions, but caused millions to starve to death. again, the international community stood aside and pretended that it wasnt happening. because the UN would not recognize the new government of cambodia, the country basically did not exist. no aid or relief or troops or anything was allowed in and no person was allowed out of the country. basically, if you are a cambodian who is alive today, you can consider yourself lucky to be alive.....if you can call it lucky to be cambodian at all, that is.)


inside that great pagoda, there are over 7,000 human skulls piled on top of each other. each one represents a person who was brutally murdered at the killing fields. in all, over 18,000 people were executed there, including many women and children. the skulls are placed haphazardly over perhaps 10 different levels. when you walk in, you are struck by just how many skulls 7,000 really is. each person was someone's mother, father, or child. some of the skulls were badly disfigured, as evidence of the horrible deaths these people suffered. underneath it all, there are great piles of clothes, seemingly freshly dug up from the mass graves that line the area. there is a sign that says that the clothes had been cleaned with detergents, but otherwise were left as the were. what strikes you most about the whole scene is the sheer number of people who were unearthed there.

as you walk around the grounds, there are big pits in the ground with signs marking the number of bodies found in each grave. each sign also details the kind of person who was buried in each grave. one of the graves held over 100 bodies of naked women; another had over 200 children in it. next to this particular grave, there was a pretty nondescript tree that had a sign on it reading "beating tree". this is where children were bound, beaten with sticks, and murdered. their bodies were tossed into the grave just next to it.

i overheard one of the guides telling a tour group about the method of the executions. he said that most of the people were forced to kneel over the pits and a thick piece of bamboo was put under their necks. the executioner would then proceed to bludgeon the backs of their necks until they fell into the pits. those who survived the initial beatings had their throats slit at the bottom of the pit; those who ran were shot in the back. there was no escape.

the most chilling thing about the mass graves was how immediate everything seemed. every time it rains, more bone fragments and pieces of clothing are unearthed. as i walked around, i could see these things for myself: teeth, flannel shirts, daisy-print dresses. they had displays of shattered bones that they had unearthed to show the brutality of the torture. in all, only about half of the mass graves had been unearthed. the rest were left alone.

all around, there are little cambodian kids begging for money. the scene is surreal. these kids are pros, and they all speak pretty damn good english. they ask you where you are from and when you tell them, they roll off whatever they know about your country. it's almost impossible not to give them something. in my mind, they earned it.

ok, enough about the killing fields. we were going to go the S-21 also, but papa skee vetoed that idea. we decided to do something more cheery so we had joe take us to the russian market, which is this big marketplace in this huge warehouse where you can find literally anything. there are pirated goods galore: north face bags, dvds, watches, t-shirts.....everything. they had all of that thailand souvenir shit: elephant pouches, carved figurines, jewelery, etc. we shopped til we dropped and got gifts everyone we knew. (if you're still reading this, you may be in line for a sweet, authentic, handmade cambodian souvenir....maybe.)

jason and i were intent on returning and buying a whole bunch of stuff to ship back home. the market closed at 5, so we decided to return home and shower.

that night, we had joe take us back to the heart of darkness bar. after this, the night gets hazy. jason and i lit it up against a bunch of khmer guys and girls on the pool table while papa skee worked the back of the room. we drank angkor beer and vodka-red bulls all night. at some point in the evening, skeelow got to talking with one of the hot cambodian ladies that was there. her friend told her that she thought "his korean friend", meaning me, was cute. i completely blew them off, but they were insistent and bought us several expensive drinks. by the end of the night, we were wasted. my girl kept trying to make out with me on the dance floor, but i was having none of it. finally, as we were ready to head home, these girls forced themselves onto joe's tuk-tuk and came back with us. (skeelow's chick bounced, so ladies, dont fret on that...) papa skee had two women gunning for his affection.

as we headed back to okay guesthouse, we asked joe if he trusted these women. he flatly told us that if they didnt have ID or a passport, they were probably whores and should not be trusted. we thanked him profusely and sent them away. my girl was having a rough time of it, but im sure she got over it. in the process of telling them to leave, she slapped the shit out of skeelow, which prompted me to tell her to beat it. all in all, it was an interesting end to our first foray into phnom penh. we would leave the next morning for sihanoukville.

i guess this entry did turn out to be quite lengthy. i hope you guys enjoyed it as i pretty much just hammered it out. i promise that the next entry on sihanoukville will be much more robust and entertaining. until next time.