Cambodia: Phnom Penh

Cambodia is a beautiful country, rich in its culture and religious temples. Yet it is also a country still struggling to regain its economy from the Khmer regime that overtook the country from 1975-1979. Cambodia is one of the poorest countries in the world and you can see in it in the faces of the locals who are surviving day to day. I had never seen the face of desperation until we arrived in Phnom Penh. The capitol of Cambodia, it is a busy city with the hustle and bustle of imports/exports, large markets, tourism, and many hooker bars. We met up with Ben and Sarah to experience one more city with them before we headed on our separate paths.

Cambodia definitely had the greatest effect on me. Not only for the beauty but mainly for the destitute peril that these people live in day to day. For some history, in 1975 the Khmer Rouge, ruled by Pol Pot, stormed the country city by city destroying/stealing ancient relics, closed all educational institutions and forced women, men, and children into slave labor. All the while creating a mass genocide  where innocent victims were tortured in the most horrific ways and then executed. Pol Pot's regime (which mainly consisted of teenaged boys forced into service) killed over 2 million. Since the genocide started in Phnom Penh there were various museums to visit. We first went to Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum which was converted from a school into a prison to detain, interrogate, torture, and kill people. This had a very "spooky" feeling, seeing all the tiny cells, shackles, and photographs were something out of a horror movie. After having just read The Rape of Nanking then seeing the Vietnamese World War II museums and now this, I was emotionally spent and overwhelmed with all the terror and insanity that humans inflicted on others. Over 20,000 people were detained and killed at Tuol Sleng, there were only 7 survivors and we happened to meet one of them, bought his biography and got a photograph. The only reason he had survived was because of his artistic talent that allowed him to paint portraits of Pol Pot.

If this wasn't bad enough we had another historical site to visit related to the genocide, the killing fields. This is where over 20,000 mass graves were discovered, housing the remains of around 1.3 million people. And because ammunition was expensive they used everyday farming tools to execute people. It was rough to be there and see the skull remains of the victims that are now housed in a memorial temple located in the center of the grounds. They present the horrors of the genocide as an example to prevent one of ever occurring again in Cambodia or anywhere else in the world. If you want to find out more about this here is a link: http://www.killingfieldsmuseum.com/genocide1.html

Okay I know you probably want to stop reading this but don't because this is the AMAZING part of our trip. Earlier in the day we visited the Russian market and bought a bunch of toys. In the evening we took an ATV sunset ride through the villages in the country side and stopped at one of the villages and handed the toys out to about 20 kids (thank you Megan for the donation). This made everything from the incredibly depressing day better and worth while. Seeing the smiles on kids faces as we blew up balloons, hula hooped, and kicked balls around was more than I could ever have asked for. You may think that toys aren't much but it meant a lot to these kids.  We then drove off, saw an incredible sunset, drank some coconut juice and headed home. Make sure you check out all the photos on Picasa, they are great.

As for the night life in Phnom Penh, as I stated earlier it mainly consisted of hooker bars, but we heard of one disco tech that sounded fun, "Heart of Darkness." Now the tuk tuk drivers are in excess so they all fight for your business, which they only make about $1-2 per ride. We took one guy who spoke pretty much that of zero english so it was a lot of chirades and hand motions. The conversation went a little like this;
Ben: "We need to go to "Heart of Darkness"  (makes gesture on chest and points to sky)
Tuk Tuk: "Hart-dog?"
Ben: "No, no hot dog" (again with same gestures), "heart of darkness"
Tuk Tuk: "Hart dog?"

This went on for about 5 minutes until finally we were pointed in the right direction by someone else and got to our destination. We entered the club, where they used to have metal detectors they now just have 5 security guards outside to pat you down and then monitor the scene inside. I don't know if that makes you feel better that they have the security or the fact that they NEED the security?! Anyway, the rest of the night consisted of cheap drinks, dancing, and meeting 2 Americans that live in Afghanistan as private contractors for the marine. They bought bottle service at one club and we enjoyed being treated like the rich foreigners :) Definitely an interesting day and night in the city of Phnom Penh, never to be forgotten.