The contrast of Phnom Penh

Khmer tea break

Our first few hours in Phnom Penh were hardly what we'd hoped for.

At dusk we unfolded ourselves from the legroom-less coach from Siem Reap. As Cambodian coaches go, there was little room for the passengers, but somehow there was room for no less than 5 motorcycles.

The doors opened to Phnom Penh and before we could say 'Gee, this place smells', we had been accosted by a herd of pushy drivers, forcibly shown two overpriced flea hostels (fortunately both full), and Sami had head butted the pavement thanks to a near-invisible shin-height chain across a dark patch of shitty pavement.

And so the biggest city in Cambodia, once known as 'the Pearl of Asia', welcomed us into its big smelly arms by barraging us with unpleasantries.

But, as so often is the case, things got better. We had soon found a decent hotel, changed from our stale travel clothes and had ordered a pair of margaritas and some curiously delicious pork meatballs at 'Friends' - a great restaurant staffed by formerly abused street children.

Perhaps Phnom Penh wasn't too bad after all. As we're learning, first impressions are rarely spot on.


Traffic at dusk

The next day we explored a few of the city markets, which were either full of very SARS looking chicken corpses or offered the usual mountain of fake sunglasses and plastic ash trays cleverly shaped like a pair of boobs.

Then we visited two places we will never forget. The first was the infamous 'Killing Fields of Choeung Ek', where the Khmer Rouge brutally murdered and buried 17 000 Cambodians between 1975 and 1979. Set in a former orchard a half hour outside Phnom Penh it is a truly horrendous place.


Unimaginable suffering

As you arrive to the site you see a huge number of big dimples in the ground, each one a hastily dug grave for hundreds of murdered people. In the distance an equal sized area has many more, unopened ones, which the Cambodian authorities agreed not to exhume. In the middle stands a single giant modern monument, the stupa, displaying 5000 stacked skulls, teeth and bones, where groups of silent tourists reflect on what they've just seen.

The other place we visited was Tuol Sleng, also known as S-21 or Security Prison 21, another infamous Khmer Rouge war machine. It used to be a secondary school before it was appropriated to be a torture prison. Today it's known as the 'Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum', and one can see thousands of mug shots of inmates, every one with a bone-chilling look in their eyes that gives away their full awareness of facing certain death. There are bullet holes in the walls, there are cabinets full of human remains and some ceilings still show signs of blood splatter.


Torture bed in former classroom at Tuol Sleng

Most of the prisoners tortured to death here were former Khmer Rouge combatants accused of espionage or generally being disloyal to the communist cause. In total, out of more than 17 000 inmates who were imprisoned here, 12 survived. A pretty dire survival rate.

To cheer us up from such a dreadful day of sightseeing we went out and got very drunk. Once again we went back to the awesome 'Friends' restaurant. It's remarkable how quickly alcohol and comfort food can make you forget about mass murder.


Local brew

Unfortunately, since we have such a tight schedule, this will be it for Cambodia, for now. But one thing's for sure. Whichever part of our Cambodian experience we choose to dwell on - the ancient structures, the horrendous genocide or the delicious food, this country has given us memories we won't easily forget.