Hello everyone,
Let me tell you my impressions about Phnom Penh.
First of all, the two first things you fell is the heat and the poverty. I've been travelling since a little while now and believe me when I say Cambodia is a hot country! Moreover, Phnom Penh is pure cement! The heat is concentrated.
And poverty. Everywhere. Overwhelming. Frustrating. When you think before the wars that devastated the country, Cambodia was doing great... It's so sad to see the current situation of the country, particularly in PP*.
And to crown the overwhelming feeling, you visit the "Killing Fields" and "S-21 Prison".
Killing fields first: I don't have enough words to express the flood of feelings you feel when walking over the place the Khmer Rouges killed around 20'000 people. Sadness, aversion, surprise, pity.
You receive an audioguide and walk through this former Chinese cementery listening to all the terrible things that happened there wondering: "why nobody did anything to stop it? How come nobody knew? How come nobody knows even now?
A small resume avoiding the horrible details: the prisoners from S-21 were sent to the killing fields and killed the same day. As said, 20'000 people were killed there and were "buried" in mass graves. Still now you can find teeth all over the place. Sorry, is this too blunt? Well... it's not even 10% of what I saw and heard there... and, yeah, it happened 30 years ago and people should know it. So allow me to present you this crude true hoping one day you will go to Cambodia and see it by your own.
S-21 now: it was a school built by the French. The Khmer Rouge transformed it in a prison from where nobody escaped and when someone left the prison, he ended his days in the Killing Fields. See the horror? When Phnom Penh was released in 1979, only 7 survivors where found inside. 7... beside the last 14 victims.
No resume this time: I'm still overwhelmed... I did the two visits in one day and was wordless... still am.
Hopefully, that day we had a tuk tuk accident which brought us back to reality... our reality... face-to-face with our own dead. But no worries, we were fine. The scooter in front however... the front wheel was looking like and 8... poor guy!
Sorry to disturb you with this creepy stories. But we shouldn't forget they happened... ONLY 30 years ago.
I promise I will be less saddening in my next posts. In the meantime, best of luck!
Rebeca
*: Phnom Penh
Let me tell you my impressions about Phnom Penh.
First of all, the two first things you fell is the heat and the poverty. I've been travelling since a little while now and believe me when I say Cambodia is a hot country! Moreover, Phnom Penh is pure cement! The heat is concentrated.
And poverty. Everywhere. Overwhelming. Frustrating. When you think before the wars that devastated the country, Cambodia was doing great... It's so sad to see the current situation of the country, particularly in PP*.
And to crown the overwhelming feeling, you visit the "Killing Fields" and "S-21 Prison".
Killing fields first: I don't have enough words to express the flood of feelings you feel when walking over the place the Khmer Rouges killed around 20'000 people. Sadness, aversion, surprise, pity.
You receive an audioguide and walk through this former Chinese cementery listening to all the terrible things that happened there wondering: "why nobody did anything to stop it? How come nobody knew? How come nobody knows even now?
A small resume avoiding the horrible details: the prisoners from S-21 were sent to the killing fields and killed the same day. As said, 20'000 people were killed there and were "buried" in mass graves. Still now you can find teeth all over the place. Sorry, is this too blunt? Well... it's not even 10% of what I saw and heard there... and, yeah, it happened 30 years ago and people should know it. So allow me to present you this crude true hoping one day you will go to Cambodia and see it by your own.
S-21 now: it was a school built by the French. The Khmer Rouge transformed it in a prison from where nobody escaped and when someone left the prison, he ended his days in the Killing Fields. See the horror? When Phnom Penh was released in 1979, only 7 survivors where found inside. 7... beside the last 14 victims.
No resume this time: I'm still overwhelmed... I did the two visits in one day and was wordless... still am.
Hopefully, that day we had a tuk tuk accident which brought us back to reality... our reality... face-to-face with our own dead. But no worries, we were fine. The scooter in front however... the front wheel was looking like and 8... poor guy!
Sorry to disturb you with this creepy stories. But we shouldn't forget they happened... ONLY 30 years ago.
I promise I will be less saddening in my next posts. In the meantime, best of luck!
Rebeca
*: Phnom Penh
I had a similar experience in Dachau outside Munich. . . very sad.
ReplyDeleteYou might be interested in the watching John Malkovich : The Killing Fields