It was not very long ago that Cambodia was effectively closed to tourism from the west,
due to the turmoil the country has been through in the latter half of the 20th century. The most
notable events took place in the 1970s under the genocidical rule of Pol Pot, brought to a close
when the Vietnamese invaded, who themselves were invaded by China in retaliation. The capital Phnom
Penh had been abandoned, the citizens forced into the countryside for manual labour. Cambodia is only
just getting back on its feet, and again beginning to make use of its fabulous assets.
We went through Cambodia as part of our south-east Asia trip in autumn 2006, taking in Siem Reap and
Phnom Penh, again the issue of time was against us. We spent two nights in Phnom Penh in the "lakeside"
area, as opposed to the more upmarket "riverside" district.
The view from our hostel the "Floating Island" which was having some trouble staying above the
water, given that half the ground floor was actually in the lake. In the background is the mosque.
One of the dance halls at the Royal Palace.
At first I thought that these guys lived here, but of course they're just visiting from a
monastery somewhere nearby.
This building was moved here by the French when they were running the joint, which explains
why it looks a bit out of place.
The Silver Pagoda is so called because it is tiled with solid silver, left in place by the
Khmer Rouge as they wanted to demostrate to the world that they weren't going to destroy all the past
of the country, as happened during the Chinese cultural revolution.
Angkor Wat is a powerful symbol in south east Asia, there is a model of it here as well as
at the Royal Palace in
Bangkok.
Wat Phnom is built on the only hill in the city, which is little more than a roundabout.
It marks the site where the lady Penh took the images of Buddha she found by the riverside, thus founding
the city.
Also at Wat Phnom there are a lot of monkeys, you can buy bananas off local guys who hang out
here (for the monkeys, not for you).
Public transport on a road heading out of the city towards the killing fields.
It's just as well I didn't order a bottle of Pepsi, this is a Cambodian petrol station.
The proprietor eyed us suspiciously...
Crossing a river with slum housing on the way to the killing fields, there were a lot of
kids swimming in the filthy water on the other side.
Outside Phnom Penh is the killing fields, where people deemed to be a threat to the Pol Pot
regime were brought to be executed. There is now a monumental stupa next to the mass graves, some of
which still have fragments of clothing and bone lying around the edges.
Thousands of bodies have been exhumed from the killing fields, and the skulls have been placed
in the monument, sorted by age and sex.
Back in the city things weren't much better, at the S-21 prison, a former school where people
were taken to be held, catalogued, photographed and tortured if deemed necessary before being sent
to the killing fields. What makes it all the more disturbing is that these events took place so
recently, less than 30 years ago.
Inside the school classroom walls were knocked through and rough brickwork was used to create
makeshift cells.
Back to some lighter subjects; our tuk-tuk driving friend here gave us some very reasonable
rates for his services for the day.
The market place in Phnom Penh, it looks like this shopper has taken a fancy to the fruit-seller's
head. Bargain.
We went from Phnom Penh to Vietnam by bus, along the notoriously awful Cambodian highway system,
but the closer we got to Vietnam the better the roads became, which is saying something. It was
apparent that most of the country was underwater.
For most of the journey we were stared at in equal measure by cows as farmers, outside straw huts
on stilts by the roadside.
At the mighty Mekong River we boarded the good ship "Vishnu" for the crossing, before which we
were accosted by the usual cheerful salespeople.
Crossing the Mekong only took about 10 minutes, the river is lined with houses.
The border between Cambodia and Vietnam is the first that I have walked across, you can see
the two flags on the left marking the divide, ahead of the Vietnamese immigration post, at which
we were stuck for 7 hours on account of having incorrect visas. We were lucky we didn't have to go
back to Phnom Penh!
