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Day 377
We were up early and both of us were in a real rush to pack. It wasn't long before our mini bus arrived and in no time we were being transfered to a really nice bus. The roads in Cambodia used to be really terrible, but in the last 4 years they have paved most of the major ones. It was smooth gliding for the 5.5 hour trip to Siem Reap. When we arrived a tuk tuk offered us a free ride as long as we would use them to take us to the temples the next day and we accepted. The hotel I picked (it was my turn) was basic but cheap and had a garden like atmosphere. There were also some cute cats hanging around.
We went to a couple more places but ended up at the bar in town called Angkor What?. After a bucket we decided to call it a night and headed back to our room.
Day 376
I was up early but Nicole wanted to sleep in so I spent the morning running some errands. I was so annoyed with the constant calls of the tuk tuk drivers that I just ignored them all as I walked past and looked for an ATM. This tactic didn't seem to work either.
When I got back Nicole was up and ready to get going. We both wanted to visit the killing fields, but she wanted to go by motorbike (faster and scarier) and I wanted to go by tuk tuk. We got in an argument over it and attracted a bit of a crowd. I wanted her to go by motorbike and then I would go by tuk tuk. I didn't care that the tuk tuk would cost me more, I was paying for comfort. Nicole didn't want the money wasted even it it was mine. To stop the argument I gave in and got on the motorbike. I hated it, I don't know why I couldn't have just gotten a tuk tuk and have been more comfortable.
The Killing Fields, or the Choeung Ek Camp, is where about 17,000 men, women and children were executed and then buried in mass graves. In fact, 129 mass graves have been found here. Most of the victims were not shot, but rather bludgeoned to death to save bullets. Many were buried alive.
In the Buddhist religion people are cremated, they believe that this releases the soul. Before cremation the body must not be sealed in so that the spirit can come and go as it wishes. Due to this belief in 1980 the graves were dug up. It was decided that instead of cremation the bones would be displayed in an open stupa as a memorial. The is the first thing you see when you enter the site. On a shelf beneath the bones were bits of clothing found with the bodies.
The mass grave sites were still sunken and easily recognizable. On occasion we passed a bit of bone or a piece of clothing. One sign pointed out a tree with poison fruit that people, desperate for food, would eat and then die. Another tree was used for executions. Sometimes there wasn't enough time to kill everyone on the day they arrived. These people were forced to wait until the next day.
Next door to the site was an elementary school with kids playing outside. It was an odd juxtaposition, but an encouraging one. The site is small and we soon returned to town. That night we went to an Irish Pub for dinner. Afterwards Nicole headed out to meet up with some people we had met the day before while I stayed in and watched movies.
Day 375
After a nice English breakfast we did some negotiating and hired a guy to drive us around in his tuk tuk for a few hours.
In late 1978 Vitnam invaded and overthrew the KR. In the chaos thousands set off to find missing family members. The harvest was neglected and more people died. The violence continued throughout the 1980's. In 1991 a peace accord was signed and the king reinstated. The KR did not disband until 1998, the year that Pol Pot died. He was never tried for his crimes against the Cambodian people.
Tuol Sleng was turned into the largest detention and torture center in the country. In 1977 the jail claimed 100 lives a day. This place was huge and was made up of three different buildings.
The first building had 3 floors of the same thing. A former classroom with a rusted bed and some torture implements. On the walls were pictures of people who had died on the beds. On the floor there were blood stains. It was shocking how you could just walk right up to it all and even touch it if you wanted to.
The second building had rows and rows of pictures of the people who had been prisoners here. Men, women, children, it didn't matter. The KR tended to kill entire families at once so that the survivors couldn't band together to seek revenge. Most of the people had easy to see injuries and a haunting look in their eyes. On the next floor there were rows and rows of cells. They weren't long enough for someone as tall as me to lie down in. On the next floor was the history that I wrote earlier and detailed information on the top KR officials.
The last building was filled with more photos and personal stories. We had been at the prison for almost two hours at this point and could only take so much more. I was glad when it was time to leave. Our tuk tuk driver met us with a big smile trying to cheer us up.
Cambodia is far from healed. It was so recent and people are still killed and maimed by uxo's every year. There is a huge number of people here missing limbs. The money here is called the reil, but most business is down in US dollar. That's what comes out of the ATM's. Although things are improving there is still an entire generation of intellectuals missing. Cambodians seem very happy go lucky, but this comes with a live in the moment mentality that prevents people from saving or preparing for the future. It would be really interesting to come back in 30 years and see how things have changed.
To fight our depression we decided that it was time for a little retail therapy and we headed to the Russian Market. We both picked up a few things before our tuk tuk driver took us back to our hotel.
While we were having dinner we met a few people from the area Nicole is from. I didn't really care for them and I soon headed back on my own while Nicole stayed out.
Day 374
After almost a month in Vietnam it was time to go. We have done a lot of things here and it was mostly good. I'm just sick of reading about evil, imperialistic America, plus the people are rather rude. Well, not all of them, but a very high percentage of them, more so than in the other countries I have been to in SE Asia anyway. It's not just towards me because I'm American, no one knows where I'm from until I tell them. I've heard this complaint from a lot of other travelers as well.
On the way to the boat Nicole and I stopped at the post office so she could send some things. When we had booked our boat I was told that while the cyclo driver was getting paid that a tip would be appreciated. When we got to the port I gave my cyclo driver all the small change I had. I don't think that it was even $2, but it seems to have made his day.
We then had to take a very rickety boat to a bigger boat. It was still cool in the morning and there was a nice breeze. The boat ride would have been great, it was just that we were sitting on folding chairs and there wasn't any way that we could fall asleep. I ended up reading for the whole ride. About 3 hours in a guy came on board to collect our passports and money for our visas. He then just got off the boat. As we got further and further from where we had dropped him off we had to tell ourselves that there is no way that he just made off with an entire boatload of people's passports and that we would see them again.
About an hour later we stopped for lunch. Suddenly we were rushed out. Everyone got their passports back but he didn't seem to have ours. Then we realized that they were in his shirt pocket. It took us a few minutes to get them from him. We were then told to take our things off the boat so that they could be inspected. No one else seemed to be doing this. A new boat came and took everyone else on it, we were left standing there along with a French Canadian girl. Soon a woman who spoke better English came along and told us that the other people were on a tour and that there wasn't anymore room on the boat. We would have to wait for about 20 minutes for another one. I was pretty irritated, but it turned out that we got a better boat and arrived at the port at the same time as the people we were with before.
The French Canadian girl (FCG) didn't have enough money for her Cambodian visa. She could have easily gotten money from an ATM the day before in Chow Doc, she just didn't bother. She ended up borrowing money from Nicole and the woman who spoke good English. We spoke with FCG for a bit and found out that she had been traveling for a year and a half and was heading to Bangkok so that she could go home.
The second boat soon came and we got on. Not much later we reached the boarder. Nicole and I had no problems. The FCG, however, didn't have any empty pages in her passport. She would either have to bribe them to put the visa over a couple of stamps from Europe or tear something out that had been glued in. If she tore the page on her passport they wouldn't accept it all. She didn't have any money so she had to tear the page out. This is just stupid. I can't believe that she has been traveling for so long and a. doesn't bring enough money to the boarder, b. doesn't have extra pages in her passport and c. doesn't see why b is so important. She got lucky and the page didn't tear when she took out the glued in bit.
Even though the boat was moving with some speed there wasn't a breeze to be had. Somehow I managed to fall asleep for a few minutes by leaning on the seat in front of me. It was just so uncomfortable and hot, like 4 hours in a sauna. I was greatful when we got to the port and were loaded right onto a minibus. At least we had a breeze this time. An hour later we were in Phnom Phen, the capital of Cambodia.
We quickly got a tuk tuk and checked into our hotel. I wasn't very happy with it though, the beds were right next to each other and I like to have some space. The aircon did work very well though. After showers we headed out for dinner. We had some really yummy pizza that required a very long walk.
Nicole and I wanted to try and do a pub crawl but we found all of the bars to be really dark and scary looking. Eventually we braved one and it turned out to have live music. It was empty though so we bought one drink to split and then moved on. We next went into what we thought was a sports bar but turned out to be a hostess bar. Some bars here have anywhere from a few to up to 40 women (and ladyboys) employed to entertain the customers. When we walked in they brought out some board games to play with us.
We ended up chatting with one of the ladyboys for a bit. She was pretty interesting. Most of the women in SE Asia what to have lighter skin. All the drug stores here carry creams to help with this. The women here will also carry umbrellas every day and cover themselves in long sleeves and even gloves on even the hottest days to hid from the sun. She told us that there is one thing that she does that is a cream that after a few minutes makes it possible to pull off the top layer of skin. Apparently it is just as painful as it sounds. We told her about tanning beds and the things women do in the west just to get a tan. I guess the grass is always greener.
We were only there for one drink and soon moved on to a place on a boat called Pontoon. It was way to loud for me though and we left after a bit.
