The visa on arrival system when we arrived in Cambodia was fairly painless and all in all I don't think it took us more than 30 minutes to get it all sorted and be on our way. What did take time was trying to get a grab (think southeast Asia's "Uber"), try as we might they refused to come up to the airport to pick us up. In the end we settled on grabbing an overpriced airport taxi - I mean it was still only 9 American dollars so we couldn't really complain.
For a very brief currency rundown, while in Cambodia I will mainly talk about costs in dollars as that's what they primarily use. The economy in Cambodia is currently pretty poor, mainly due to their recent past concerning the Khmer Rouge (who destroyed financial infrastructures in Cambodia) so a dual currency system is used. Right now, 1 USD = 4125 Cambodian Reil. In practical terms this means that you can pay with a 5 dollar bill for something that costs 3 dollars, and get 8250 Reil as the change. You could also pay the whole amount in Riel if you so chose, but most times you'd need to do the conversions yourself. Sometimes, when the bill amount wasn't in whole denominations it did feel like we were getting a random amount of riel in return, as it was pretty complicated to convert on the fly. Currently, Cambodia is trying to move away from their reliance on the dollar.
I really liked Phnom Penh as a city, and although there is cracked pavements and run down buildings the city had a lot of charm. Construction was on the rise and improvements were being made, the city is bustling with locals and tourists. The French influence is still strong, with many bakeries selling French pastries and bread, and some older buildings are in more of a French architectural style. There's a mix of street food stands dotted around the place, alongside restaurants selling all types of cuisine. There was even one restaurant named "Mysterious Spicy food from China" - needless to say we weren't quite experimental enough to go in there. I wouldn't really say it was a pretty city (although there was beautiful manicured spaces), but we enjoyed walking around it, it felt more like a place where people lived rather than just a smokescreen for tourists.
One place we walked to, was the central market. Around two miles away from where we were staying, the Central market is housed in an Art Deco building that was completed in 1937. The market is comprised of a central dome with four arms branching off at regular intervals. I don't think its an exaggeration to say you can get pretty much anything you need while visiting. Around the edge of the market are stalls filled with fresh and cooked food, and the cheaper items you might expect to find. Right in the centre of the dome is the jewellery market, with high priced items safe within their glass cases, and all other things are scattered in between. While we battled our way through the crowds, we managed to get ourselves a pretty good deal of two pairs of sunglasses and a hat all for $15. The sunglasses we knock-off ray-bans but what else can you expect at that price!
To escape the hustle and bustle of the city, we headed to the royal palace. Entry was $10 each and this allowed us into a few buildings and the grounds of the current residence of the Cambodian Royal family. The area you're actually allowed to visit isn't too expansive, however it was absolutely stunning, with courtyards covered in intricate wall murals, pagodas, and a to scale replica of the Angkor Wat. The most famous of the Pagodas on site is the Silver Pagoda (Wat Preah Keo Morakot). Built in 1892, the silver pagoda gets it name from the 5,329 genuine silver tiles that cover the floor, they are now mostly covered in rugs to protect them from wearing away under the feet of thousands of visitors. As this is the main place of worship for the Cabodian Royal family, the pagoda houses many buddha statues made of precious metals, the most impressive being 90kg buddha made out of pure gold, covered in more than 2000 diamonds. Despite the amount of visitors, the royal palace was a very peaceful place to visit and it really felt like we were cut off from the noise of the city just outside the gates.
Before we left Phnom Penh, there was one very important place we were compelled to visit; the S-21 Tuol Sleng Genocide museum. Built to be a school, this site turned into the place of nightmares when it became a prison during the reign of the Khmer Rouge, before finally becoming a museum to teach others of the horrors perpetrated. S-21 was a prison only in name, it was really one of two hundred of the Khmer Rouges torture and interrogation camps across Cambodia. Around 20,000 were interred at S21 and out of that number there are only 12 known survivors.
The site itself had 4 main prison buildings; building A was where inmates were taken to be touted and interrogated here the prisoners were all kept separately. In buildings B, C and D the set up was all the same, small wooden cells on the lower floors would house two prisoners each with hardly space for them to lie side by side, the upper floors had mass cells were prisoners were forced to lie side by side along the cold floor, chained ankle to ankle so they couldn't move.
Now building B is filled with photos of the victims who lost their lives after going through S-21, alongside photos of the staff that kept them there, some of whom ended up incarcerated themselves. To see photos of people who clearly know what their fate is, with hopeless eyes and resignation in their faces, was really impactful. They aren't faceless people of fiction, but real people who had real lives who were tortured and died for no real reason at all.
Building C has been left how it was during the Khmer Rouges rule. The tiny cells, the shackles on the floor, the chicken wire covering the balconies to stop those trying to escape via suicide. Building D houses the torture equipment alongside photos and paintings depicting the awful conditions and the skeletal frames of the prisoners denied of all human rights. This building also houses a few of the Skulls recovered from Choeung Ek, the extermination centre where prisoners were sent to die.
S-21 was an extremely difficult place to visit, however the museum itself has been very thoughtfully laid out and the audio guide did an amazing job at walking us through the site in an informative and impactful way. There was an option to listen stories told by the few survivors, and also stories told by the guards, the information told was shocking but it was told in a frank manner, seeming to really want to impart how life was at S-21 with nothing left hidden.
Both Ben and I found it mentally and emotionally hard to hear about the senseless atrocities committed while standing in the place that it happened. The museum radiated an oppressive heaviness, we welled up on multiple occasions, having to go take a break, sitting on benches provided before feeling like we were ready to continue. I personally feel that the S-21 Tuol Sleng Genocide museum is the single most important place to visit in Cambodia to understand their modern history. If those imprisoned at S-21 had to endure unthinkable horror, for simply being educated or for being a monk, or for even for just being in the wrong place at the wrong time; the least we can do is to listen to their stories and acknowledge the pain they faced.
Originally we had planned to visit the Choeung Ek killing fields that afternoon, but after visiting S-21 we simply couldn't face any more horror, we instead spent the rest of the day in quite contemplation, trying to absorb and make sense of what we had just learned. As we were planning to visit Phnom Penh again in our trip we pushed it back, knowing it was equally important that we go but in no way ready for it.
I've written a post that goes into more detail about the genocide committed against the Cambodian people by Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, detailing more of why and how this happened in the first place.
Trip date: feb 2020
コメント