Cambodia's Killing Fields

(Flashback: This post takes place AFTER the Angkor Wat post, BEFORE the Christmas post). As some of you may know, Cambodia has both a rich and beautiful history – evidenced in Angkor Wat – and a dark and nightmarish one: the Killing Fields.

In 1975, the Khmer Rouge came to power in Cambodia after a 5 year civil war. This civil war has been caused mostly by the Americans bombing the countryside during the Vietnam War, trying to root out the North Vietnamese forces that were using parts of Cambodia to travel through and hide in. President Nixon told the world that America was not bombing Cambodia to save face. As a result of these secret and illegal bombings, many displaced and desperate Cambodian farmers looked for a savior. They found it, or so they thought, in the Khmer Rouge.

The Khmer Rouge were a communist political party in Cambodia, backed by China. They would go on to share similarities with Nazi Germany, Stalinist Russia and Maoist China. Immediately after taking control of the country in 1975, the Khmer Rouge forcibly evacuated all the population, including the elderly and the sick, into the countryside. Once there, everyone, including children, was made to grow rice as farmers with very little food to sustain them. Religion was abolished, as was the right to own property. Anyone who was educated -- for instance: doctors, lawyers, people who spoke more than two languages, even people who wore glasses -- were killed. The Khmer Rouge were trying to transform their country into a purely agrarian one, uninfluenced by foreigners, technology or education. They wanted Cambodia to be great again: even changing the name of the country to Democratic Kampuchea. (Why is it that countries which aren’t democratic always throw ‘Democratic’ into their title? I’m looking at you ‘Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,’ aka North Korea). As a result of all of this, 3 million of the 8 million people in Cambodia died either through overwork, starvation or execution.

In 1979, Vietnam invaded Cambodia forcing the Khmer Rouge from power and ending their 4 year run of genocidal insanity. The war crimes trials for the Khmer Rouge leaders are still ongoing; though the leader Pol Pot escaped justice by dying of cancer.

In the capital Phnom Penh, Megan and I visited S-21 at the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum: a sort of Cambodian Auschwitz. An old schoolhouse had been converted into a seedy prison by the Khmer Rouge where mostly innocent inmates were tortured and eventually murdered. To walk the halls, seeing the rusty metallic beds that inmates slept on, or the cells shabbily constructed out of brick, one cannot easily describe the oppressive haunting feeling. 

Outside the city, we visited The Killing Fields, which is actually one of many fields in the country where people were executed and buried in mass graves. The Khmer Rouge didn’t want to waste bullets because they were expensive, so they used hoes, sickles, clubs, instead to murder.

There is a tree here that cannot be easily described. All the babies that were murdered were violently bashed against this tree and thrown into a giant hole in the ground. Now, on this tree, there hang thousands of armbands placed there by the visitors to this museum. The tiny armbands act as reminders of all the innocent infants killed here. At the centre of the fields, apart of the museum, is a tower (Stupa) constructed to hold all the skulls found buried under the ground. There are thousands of skulls inside, visible. Some still lie buried in the fields which are now covered in water: a chilling feeling as one walks by knowing what is buried underneath.

Nearby the fields, there is now a school – a real school – where one can now hear children playing and laughing. A strange juxtaposition to this tortured area.

The film ‘The Killing Fields’ (1984), which details much of this, is highly recommended viewing. It tells the true story of Dith Pran, a Cambodian correspondent and translator to New York Times journalist Sydney Schanberg. Pran survived 4 years in Democratic Kampuchea pretending to be uneducated so the Khmer Rouge wouldn’t kill him. He eventually escaped to Thailand. He was played by Cambodian actor Dr. Haing Ngor (winner of 1984’s Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance as Pran) whose life during the Khmer Rouge was eerily similar to the character that he played: he survived the 1975-1979 period by pretending not to be a doctor. Killing Fields Link Also recommended is the book ‘First they Killed my Father’ by Loung Ung: an autobiographical story of the near destruction of the author’s family during this time. First They Killed My Father Link Megan and I both read the book and watched the film before we arrived in Phnom Penh. I hope you will check out both of these.

Cambodia is a beautiful country. Nevertheless, it’s terrifying past can’t, and shouldn’t, be forgotten.

MERRY MONSOON CHRISTMAS TO ALL!

Hey!

MERRRRRRRRRRRRY CHRISTMAS to one and all.   Sorry the message is a little late, but know that we were thinking of all of those reading over the holidays.  It was definitely a different Christmas here; my first one away from family, and one with palm trees out the window.  Now you may be imagining Mark and I on Christmas morning getting up, opening gifts, and heading down to the white sandy beach for some sun and swimming….well let me tell you that’s not QUITE how it worked out.  We had a great time together, but one that was filled with lots of ‘amusing’ details.  (I can say amusing now; definitely not so amusing at the time).  So let me start back a few days before Christmas to let you know how it all went down.  

So several days before Christmas, Mark and I found our new apartment for the year ahead.  We managed to find a 3 bedroom, 2 bath place…one that has been refurbished and has all new furniture and appliances- AND is clean!   This was something that I had been stressing out over a few days of looking, but Mark did his duty and kept me cool.  After looking at around 14 units, this was the second last one we saw, and we jumped at it.  So we move in on January 1^st, after a nice 9:15am tenancy agreement signing.  I was pushing for 10am, as you note the date of the exchange, but 9:15 it is. 

So with the stress of finding a place off of our plates we could finally relax (some of you may be thinking we have been doing that for about 3 months now—semi true).  We had booked a Christmas getaway a few weeks before and were really excited to see more of Malaysia.  Note that while looking for an apartment we have been put up in a 4-star hotel here on the Sunway Resort.  A pretty sweet gig; one with a free breakfast buffet.  We eat enough to keep us full till dinner, and I bring a few ziplocks down to ensure we have a few snacks throughout the day.  So we have it pretty good here, but nevertheless we wanted something special for Christmas, and a beach resort sounded like the perfect thing. 

So DECEMBER 24^th, with bus tickets booked we headed into the city (about a 20 minute subway ride from our place), boarded our coach and we were on our way.  The ride went reasonable smoothly, aside from the shocks on the bus which I think were kaput.  We switched over buses in a place called Kuantan, where we bought another ticket to our final destination CHERATING.  Now going into this trip Mark and I knew it was monsoon season, but we also knew that this was a great place to surf, which we had intended on doing.  We arrived in Cherating, and saw signs wizzing by us….I looked out the window and saw our hotel, and rather than stopping there, we continued on for about 4km’s.  The rain was coming down hard at this point and it was getting near to dark.  So finally the driver pulled over and let us out.  Mark threw on a Dollarama poncho, and I took his $500 rain jacket and we were set.  We stood on the side of the road with a New Zealander and discussed our options.  We were trying to help him in finding his place, and in turn we turned away a taxi that we should have taken (he had offered to take us to our destination for about $3).  We called the NZ’ers hotel and he was on his way with the new info walking to his hotel, and we were still standing on the side of the road debating our options.  Finally after no one stopping, Mark went and asked a young couple with a baby in arm, at the restaurant near where we were standing.  They advised us to cross the road to have better luck getting a taxi.  So we did, and we waited.  Perhaps 30 minutes later, still in a monsoon rain, we stood on the side of the road.  The young mother from the restaurant waved us over….me thinking this was going to be a Christmas miracle went over to see what she was waving about.  She said in broken English that her husband could drive us the 4km down the road to our hotel.  I was shocked at the kindness, and said things along the lines of “really, you don’t mind, THANK YOU.”  This was immediately followed with a slight smirk from her, and her saying, “but we’ll charge you.”  GREATTTTTTT, I asked how much.  She conversed with her husband in Malay, and came up with the price of 4 times what the taxi driver had offered before.  I semi-laughed and said that the taxi driver would have taken us for 10RM ($3), and she laughed and said, “well why didn’t you take it?”  I said Merry Christmas to the lady and we were back at square one…so across the road we went and we waited again.  Finally we flagged a rare taxi and after negotiating for the original deal of 10RM ($3) for the ride…which I might add cost nearly the same as our hour long bus ride previous to the taxi ride.  Oh well, sometimes you win some, sometimes you get jipped.

Finally we arrived to our beach resort.  Woohooo, we were both so excited.  It was now dark out, and it was still pouring down, but we had made it and we could relax for 3 whole days.  Upon checking in the young man at the reception said he had upgraded us from a standard room to a Superior room.  We thanked him and again said MERRY CHRISTMAS.  We tredged through the massive pools of rain, and got to our room.  I was so excited to see it after having seen some nice pictures online.  Let’s just say there must be a photoshop EXPERT at this place.  We arrived to find carpet (which is really rare in a scorching hot country) on the floor, a mildew smell in the air, and just a generally dirty feeling environment.  I had a few tears at this point as our perfect Christmas getaway was not quite starting out as planned.  I set my stuff down, and said a hot shower is just what I needed to feel better.  I cracked open the door to the bathroom to find a HORRIBLE sight….a really nasty little room, with a paint peeled tub and all.  Trying to get over the physical wretchedness of the sight I continued on, turned on the tap and dribble dribble came the water.  Of course there was no pressure and the hot water didn’t work.  I got dressed, didn’t have a shower, and said let’s go eat.  So we went down to the restaurant to perhaps drink away our sorrows. 

We ordered some food, didn’t have a beer, as it was above our budget, and attempted to connect to wifi during the monsoon rains.  I got a little emotional thinking that my family would be so comfortable at home, getting ready for Christmas, following the traditions that have been created over the years.  I was rather envious, even if they were getting 2 feet of snow.  Mark ordered a club sandwich, and got a tuna sandwich, and I got a chicken and spaghetti dish which was sub-par.  Now, I don’t want you to get the impression that Mark and I like/are used to travelling extravagantly, if you read previous posts, you know this isn’t the case.  We have stayed in some holes in Thailand and Laos, places costing us $5 a night.  BUT this place, this place cost us $50 a night.  Our most expensive hotel yet….so we had some expectations that weren’t quite being met.  After a discussion with Mark he headed to the reception and advised them our water wasn’t working, we didn’t get towels, etc etc.  I almost piped in, but he seemed to be handing it well…without the emotions that I would have added to the equation.  So upon his request we got switched to another room…one with TILE floor, a NICE bathroom, and a pool side location.  I was happy…Mark was happy…we were more ready for the morning ahead.  

We retired for the night, Mark put out two dirty looking grey socks (stockings) and we were ready for whatever gifts may be left for us.  We slept like babies, and woke up nice and early to more rain POURING down, but it was Christmas and all was better at this point.  I had bought us two stockings and had them out, and Mark had jammed my Christmas gift in, and under the dirty grey sock.  We opened gifts and had a nice morning together.  We had intended on ordering room service as a treat, but when we called we were informed that the restaurant had FLOODED and they couldn’t offer it to us.  So we headed to the make shift restaurant off the front entrance and enjoyed some… toast.  What a wonderful Christmas meal, I was hoping there would be better later.  We gobbled up some toast, went back to the room, got on our bathing suits and decided it was time to hit the ocean.  We ran through new lakes of water up to our knees to get down to the water.  It was raining so hard I had to use my hands to act as a shield above my eyes to allow me to see a few feet in front of me.  The waves were massive, and we knew today wasn’t the day to do some surfing.  We ran in, and pranced around like kids, it was Christmas, we were together and I guess that’s what mattered.  

Christmas day brought lots of relaxing inside as the rain came down and down and the water rose higher and higher.  The pools were one with the lakes of water surrounding and the gardens around were seeping into them.  We watched several not so classic Christmas movies, ate some goodies from Mark’s stocking and waited for the rain to let up.  The power went on and off, along with the water; our shower wasn’t draining and we had a mini lake in our bathroom…..what an adventure we had gotten ourselves into.  Anyway, day 2 was an improvement on day 1; we called our families to wish them Merry Christmas, and were happily surprised when Home Alone 2 came on at 10pm.  Now I don’t know if any of your Christmases were at all comparable….I may bet money on it that they weren’t, but one thing for sure is that this will not be a Christmas we will forget.  

Boxing Day brought a halt in the rain…we got to enjoy the ocean, and the pools and things were starting to dry out.  We took some photos on the beach, and wished we could be sharing this experience with family and friends.  

All mixed up. 

December 27^th…CHECK OUT DAY.  I was pretty excited that we’d be getting back to KL (to our 4 star hotel and a free buffet breakie).  We checked out early, and by 10am we were at the side of the road ready to flag down a passing bus to pick us up.  We had read many reviews from travelers who had ventured to Cherating, that there isn’t an official bus stop here, let alone station, but just to wait on the side of the highway to indicate you’d like a ride to the neighboring town of Kuantan (about 45 minutes away).  We were out there at 10am, saw about 4 buses go by after about 2 ½ hours.  The bus drivers waved as they went by, as we were waving to them.  One bus did stop, but after Mark questioned them to see if we could make the 45 minute journey they said “BUS FULL,” and closed the door in his face.  Clearly not a full bus, as we could see in the windows.  After some discouragement we headed back to the hotel, in the pouring rain, and ordered a taxi.  We got to Kuantan, and then boarded a bus for KL.  Never had I been so happy.  This had been one memorable Christmas vacation, but I was happy to see the resort/Cherating behind us.  We got to KL, and made our way back to our hotel, which brought us to 8pm.  A 10 hour day of travelling/waiting was FINISHED, and we were pretty happy about that.  We immediately went to the grocery store, bought a few bottles of wine, some beer and snacks.  A night of vegging was exactly what we needed to put a smile on our faces. 

So here we are back to civilization.  We just finished a treat of Starbucks and are about to go out to a Curry House where our meal will be cheaper than our previous two drinks.  All is well in the world, we lounged by the pool, met some new teachers, and have full bellies! 

We hope all of you reading had a great vacation with family and friends.  We really did miss not being in Ontario, or in the Caribbean (where Mark’s family spent Christmas), but there is next year, and I’m pretty certain we’ll be home for that.  AND TURKEY!   Cheers :)