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Cambodia. A country famous for its historic temples, infamous for the Pol Pot regime, and is the only country in the world to feature a building on its flag. Their population may still be recovering from the Khmer Rogue period (the four years between 1975-1979 which cost 2 million lives, one third of the population), but the people's kindness and hospitality lives on.
After reading horror stories about bus drivers leaving passengers at the Vietnamese-Cambodian border, the last thing I wanted to hear whilst our visas were being processed was the conductor say, 'You meet us 2km down road. Get scooter once done. 20 minutes we go'. Thankfully, a plea of we have no money (we'd spent our last Dong just before boarding the bus and hadn't found a Riel/Dollar ATM yet) meant he hurried us through the border and into Cambodia. We arrived in Phnom Penh in the evening and headed to a few hostels before stumbling on a $15 a night, brand new guesthouse with a kettle (!!) and satellite tv.
The words heat and humidity should have a new meaning after stepping out into the
Phnom Penh sun. Wow. We wondered around the town, well for about an hour (seeing temples and the Royal Palace) before deciding a Dairy Queen blizzard (an American fast-food restaurant's, ice-cream) and watching Fox movies was a better shout.
Our penultimate day in the Cambodian capital was spent exploring the 'Killing Fields'. Before I carry on, I'll give you a bit of information for those of you who aren't aware of the atrocities of Pol Pot.
In Year Zero or 1975, Pol Pot (known as "Vach du Mach" or One with the Gun) became ruler of a strong and prosperous Cambodia. This however, was the opposite to the future of the country he planned. Anyone who he deemed intellectual were killed. Cities were emptied as millions were murdered by execution, starvation and disease. All though his reign was only four years, it'd cost the lives of millions of its people and the changed life of its survivors forever.
The 'killing fields' (of Choeung Ek) as the name suggests was the location of over 8000 men, women and children's deaths and today still holds thousands of their remains. Tatters of clothing, teeth and bones are easily visible, making these atrocious events 'real'. Even stood in the grounds, it's hard to imagine one human doing these acts to another. But, it's happened before (such as Auschwitz to name one of many) and if history tells us anything, it will happen again.
The centre piece of the 'fields' is a large Buddhist Stupa which houses 5000 human skulls on 17 levels, however, the image most visitors will remember is the killing tree (pictured), a tree where many children, children at an age unable to speak, had their heads bashed against and ultimately a tree that ended their lives. When the fields were discovered, this tree was blood stained and held remains of children's brains. When Pol Pots regime killed one member of the family, it often killed all of them, leaving no one alive to seek revenge.
Our next stop was the S-21 museum. Originally a school, it was converted to a prison during the Khmer Rogue and subsequently turned into a museum afterwards. The prison held close to 17000 prisoners during the four year reign and where many people were tortured and held in awful conditions. What were classrooms are now filled with thousands of photos of the S-21 residents. Hearing statistics is painful, seeing the faces of victims is such a powerful, shocking image and one that should haunt those still alive who accompanied Pot in his diabolical rule.
I end this blog with a handful of quotes by Pol Pot.
'My conscious is clear.'
'I want you to know, everything I did, I did for my country.'
'Since he is no use anymore, there is no gain if he lives and no loss if he dies.'
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