Travel Journal

In the center of Phnom Penh, Tuol Sleng is located, a former highschool consisting of four large buildings. In May of 1976, the Khmer Rouge established S-21 here, or Security Office 21. Although it was the most secret of offices of the Khmer Rouge, people living in close proximity to the former highschool soon knew what its function was, from the screams and the stench of death.

Then the Khmer Rouge’s premier prison and interrogation facility, it is now a genocide museum and monument for the victims. Around 18,000 people, who were deemed enemies of Democratic Kampuchea, the new name the Khmer Rouge had given to the country, were imprisoned, tortured and executed here. Of the eighteen thousand, only seven people survived.

The classrooms were converted into torture chambers or into rows of tiny holding cells, where the prisoners were shackled with chains fixed to the walls or the concrete floors. There were also mass holding cells, where the prisoners had one or both their legs shackled to the now infamous iron bars, that are also on display in the museum.

Not unlike the Nazi regime during World War II, the leadership of S-21 documented and photographed every prisoner that was brought in. The photographs are now on display, thousands of them, and are a testament to the madness and the indiscriminate killings of the Khmer Rouge. Men, boys, women, girls, babies. Their faces expressionless, as if they had resigned to their horrible fate, or frozen in fear. Women tightly holding their newborns, before their babies were taken away from them, and the women raped.

The leadership of S-21 had indoctrinated children to work as exceptionally cruel guards in the facility. After months of torture, where one would confess to basically anything the guards would accuse them of, the victims were taken away. If they hadn’t already succumbed during torture, they were executed at one of the many Killing Fields, scattered around the country.

The most infamous of these Killing Fields is the large area near the village of Choeng Ek, located just outside of Phnom Penh. A memorial stupa has been built here, containing the skulls, bones and clothing of the thousands of victims, their bodies dug up from the 88 mass graves in this area. Now large empty pits, there are signs indicating how many bodies had been found, and descriptions of the utterly horrible way they died.

If it were not for the sepia colour, it seems that the photographs of the victims at Tuol Sleng could have been taken a week ago. Indeed, it is chilling to realise that this all took place under 30 years ago, exactly 30 years after the world promised at the sight of Nazi destruction camps, never to let this happen again. In fact, the Khmer Rouge received western support and even recognition through a seat in the UN General Assembly.

Pol Pot, the leader of the Khmer Rouge, died in April of 1998, forever robbing Cambodians of some form of justice. Only one month ago, the green light was given by the UN to set up a special tribunal to try former leaders of the Khmer Rouge, who now live a quiet life in the small town of Pailin, close to the Thai border.

Visiting Tuol Sleng and Choeng Ek is, however horrible and depressing, a necessity to get a true impression of the events that took place here not that long ago. But I was glad to soon be able to see the other side of Cambodia’s history: it’s unequalled achievements in arts and architecture at Angkor, near the town of Siem Reap.

The Kingdom of Cambodia became independent in 1953 after nearly a century of French rule. Like Laos and Vietnam, Cambodia endured extensive carpet-bombing by the American Forces from 1969, with the aim of disrupting the arms supply to communist forces in Vietnam via the Ho Chi Minh Trail, and to destroy suspected communist base camps in Cambodia. Shortly after, a coup d’etat forced King Norodom Sihanouk to flee to China, after which American and South Vietnamese troops invaded the country to root out Vietnamese communist forces. This attempt failed, and Cambodia’s indigenous rebels, the Khmer Rouge, captured Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh on 17 April 1975.

What followed were four years of the most brutal and genocidal rule by the Khmer Rouge under leader Pol Pot, also known as Brother Number One. French-educated Pol Pot aimed to transform Cambodia into a Maoist, peasant-dominated, agrarian cooperative. To achieve this goal, hundreds of thousands of Cambodians, including the vast majority of the country’s educated people, were relocated into the countryside, tortured to death or executed. In the chaos that followed, many more people died as a result of famine or diseases, as the country went through the darkest moments in its history. It is estimated that between one and two and a half million people died during these four years.

As the Khmer Rouge carried out frequent incursions into Vietnam, killing Vietnamese and destroying villages, the Vietnamese army invaded Cambodia at the end of 1978 and managed to overthrow the Khmer Rouge. In 1991, a peace accord was signed in Paris, the Vietnamese army withdrew one year later, and in 1993, UN-administered elections were held.

Today, Cambodian politics are relatively stable, but deep scars remain from decades of war. In October of 2004, King Norodom Sihanouk abdicated, and his son, King Norodom Sihamoni became the new king of Cambodia.

From the uninteresting town of Stung Treng, located at around 50 kilometers from the border with Laos, I took a bus to the capital of Cambodia, Phnom Penh. During the first half of the 10-hour journey, we drove on the worst roads that I have come across during my 7 months of travelling. They actually don’t deserve the designation ‘roads’, just dirt tracks with lots and lots of potholes. Fortunately, after the town of Kratie, the roads improved, as we drove through small villages with wooden houses that had tiled roofs. A lot of Non-Governmental Organisations still provide relief aid and healthcare to villages in the countryside, as Cambodia, like Laos, is very poor. There were also many signs for local offices of the nation’s political parties, like the Cambodian People’s Party (CPP), the United Front for an Independent, Neutral and Free Cambodia (Funcinpec, a French acronym), and the only opposition party of note, the Sam Rainsy Party.

Underway, there were many new Buddhist temples, built in the past two decades. A lot of the older ones had been destroyed by the Khmer Rouge, with many monks killed. Nowadays, the monks, dressed in their bright orange robes, walk on the streets again, sometimes carrying orange umbrellas to provide some relief from the sun.

In the city of Kampong Cham, we stopped for a short toilet break, and women approached the bus, carrying large plates with the famous local specialty of this province: fried spider. They were the large, Tarantula kind, black, and dipped in soy sauce. They proved hugely popular, as all the Cambodians on our bus, including their children, ate them. Eager as I am to explore everything that the cuisine of a country I’m visiting has on offer, I thought that I’d better give this a miss. However, a Cambodian man who had just bought a whole bag with eight-legged snacks, offered me one, and as I thought it impolite to refuse (and as all the Cambodians were watching me), I accepted the snack. I ignored my inner voice that screamed I was completely mad, and ate the spider. You eat the whole thing, it’s crunchy, with a rather sweet taste from the soy sauce, not bad actually. But eating the legs and the fangs is just weird, and cracking its body open with your teeth, revealing a little bit of meaty flesh inside, requires quite some preseverance.

But we soon were on our way again, driving alongside the wide Mekhong river, and after a couple of hours reached the busy city of Phnom Penh. Mainly due to tourism, it has changed radically in the past two decades, and it’s now a modern city with traffic that makes your blood pressure rise beyond acceptable levels.

I would spend the next couple of days exploring the city, and see the evidence of the madness of the brutal Khmer Rouge regime.

During at least three days, the Buddhist New Year known as Songkran or Pimai, is celebrated everywhere in Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. During this holiday, families visit Buddhist temples to pay respect to Buddha, by pouring perfumed water over the many Buddha statues, by praying, and by offering food and water to the monks. On the streets, it’s a wild party involving lots of water, talcum powder, and lipstick.

It was no different in Pakse, where I was walking near the central market, and I soon found myself absolutely soaked in water. A number of Laotian boys and girls, drinking beer and dancing to western music, then covered my face with talcum powder and lots of lipstick. Small kids walk around with Super Soaker squirt guns, almost twice their size, and take aim at anyone who happens to pass by. Pickup trucks drive by, and from the back, kids throw water from huge jars at anyone within their reach. It’s lots of fun, especially as it’s so hot, this is the hottest month in the region.

Further south of Pakse, the beautiful Si Phan Don, or Four Thousand Islands area is located, where islands in the Mekhong offer a beautiful view of life passing by on the river. Many small boats ferry passengers or provisions from island to island. Don Khong is the largest island, and during a walk on a small dusty road in a village on the east side of the island, I was immediately invited to drink some rice wine, and then celebrate the New Year with a group of already very cheerful Laotians.

Further south, Don Det is smaller, but quite pleasant. Near the boat landing, I went for a swim in the Mekhong river during sunset, which was great, or looked out over the river from the hammock in front of my bungalow.

Just south of Don Det, the large Khon Pha Pheng waterfalls are located, according to the signs the largest ones in South East Asia. You can hear the thunderous sound of the rapids, cascading down several levels, when you approach the area. Many tourists from Laos and its neighbouring countries were there, having picnics, or going for a swim near the waterfalls, of course fully clothed.

Further upriver, a large New Year’s party was held, with hundreds of Laotians dancing to loud music in front of two stages. Unlike in Thailand or Vietnam, the women join the men in drinking (large quantities of) beer, the faces of both men and women red and white from lipstick and talcum powder. The atmosphere was very friendly, smiles everywhere, and they just love it when a tourist joins the celebrations.

Unfortunately, my time in Laos was coming to an end, and after quite a frustrating time at the border, where the officials from both countries knew exactly how to have every tourist part with a moderate amount of dollars, I went on dusty roads into the Kingdom of Cambodia.