Cambodia: Temples, Gods and Terrors

Cambodia Photo Highlight Album

We were in Cambodia less than a week but it was incredible and educational for its amazing history and monuments—both ancient and more recent.  And it was really, really hot.

Royal palace in Phenom Penh

Tracey went home (boo) and we took a bus across the border from Vietnam to Cambodia—pretty straightforward, especially since Jim figured out how to get the visa in advance.  Sort of like when we went from Germany into France, we could immediately tell we were in another country.  A Cambodian guide we had told us that his country is about 50 years behind Vietnam, and that made sense.  We arrived in the capital of Phenom Penh during the last few days of Khmer New Year when everyone goes back to their villages, so we had the unique experience of seeing the place surprisingly deserted and shut down.  After the frantic streets of Ho Chi Minh, it was a nice change to be able to walk across the street without fearing (too much) for our lives.   

Gas for sale

We took several tuk tuks around town, and liked that the ones in Cambodia are different than those that we saw in Thailand and Ethiopia—in Cambodia they’re a motorbike pulling a cart with four seats.   When I asked someone if we could fit us and all of our backpacks into a tuk tuk at the bus station, I was told that 10+ Cambodians ride in these.  Of course, most Cambodians are the size of Liam, but we did fine. 

In Phnom Penh we toured the gorgeous royal palace where the king lives, including the silver pagoda whose entire floor is made of silver.  The floor made a very loud ringing noise when Xander accidentally knocked over a pole onto it.  It houses several treasures including a 90kg gold Buddha covered in almost 10,000 diamonds! It also has an elephant hitching post and a door up really high where the king used to board his elephant. 

When we were in Phnom Penh, Xander, Jim and I went to tour the Tuol Sleg Genocide museum, formerly the notorious S-21 prison and interrogation center from the Khmer Rouge regime from 1975-1979.  We had watched “The Killing Fields” the night before, and Liam decided he didn’t want to go.  Xander didn’t want to either but decided that he “should witness it.” Heartbreaking does not begin to describe the horror that that people of Cambodia went through.  It’s estimated that around 20,000 prisoners were processed through that prison alone; there were 7 known survivors.  Interrogations would continue until prisoners “confessed” – but if the guard didn’t get a confession, they would end up in prison themselves. 

S-21 prison rules

The Khmer Rouge (or the Communist Party of Kampuchea in Cambodia) came to power aided by the Northern Vietnamese, the Chinese, and debatably by the chaos caused by the carpet bombing of Cambodia by the US during the Vietnam war.  The Khmer Rouge isolated the country from all things foreign, closed all schools, hospitals, and factories and abolished banking and finance, outlawed religion, confiscated all private property and relocated people from urban areas to collective farms.  Teachers, merchants, and almost the entire intellectual elite (and anyone who wore glasses, because it was a sign of intellectualism) were murdered.  The Yale University Genocide program estimates that 1.7 million (a conservative number)  Cambodians (over 20 percent of the population) died. After Pol Pot and his regime were ousted by the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in 1979, he and the Khmer Rouge continued to fight until his death in 1998.  Surprisingly, a coalition government including the Khmer Rouge was the government recognized by the UN during the 80s and 90s.  

It blows the mind to consider the far reaching implications – imagine all the baby boomer teachers, doctors, lawyers, engineers and business men and women you know in US gone? And their children?  For example, while we were in Phenom Phen we met up with a lovely family that are both pediatricians working for NGOs in Phenom Penh.  They said there is severe lack of Cambodian doctors trained in west in Phenom Penh (the biggest city in the country).  Crazy.

Bayon temple

From Phenom Penh we took a short flight to Siem Reap and switched places with all of the tens of thousands of locals who were heading back from the new year.  Serendipitous (and inadvertent) timing.  We had an incredible 3 day tour in Angkor UNESCO archaeological heritage site, which contains the magnificent remains of the Khmer empire (9^th to 14^th century).  Temples and other ruins are everywhere—including the famous temples of Angkor Thom (of tomb raider fame), and Angor Wat, the largest religious monument in the world.  Walking through the ancient temples with the intricate carvings, tree roots climbing down the crumbling walls, and huge Buddha faces serenely smiling down on us was enchanting.  Our guide taught us all sorts of fascinating facts about the history and mythology of both Buddhism and Hinduism—much of which was displayed in incredible bas-relief murals that stretched hundreds of feet around the walls.  We also one of our best question and answer exchanges from our trip with him:

Market goodies

Jim asks our guide at the moat of Angkor Wat as we look down at fish and turtles swimming in the water: “Have you ever eaten turtle?”

Guide: “Yes, it is delicious, especially the organs.  But now it is banned because they are going extinct.”

Jim shares a picture of the market in Phnom Penh with baskets of turtles and snakes for sale as food from a few days prior…

Despite the 100+ degree heat, we all loved touring the different sites—enough that we went back to Angkor Thom for a second visit the last day.  The heat was tempered by staying in a beautiful place with a great pool.

Now we’re in Sri Lanka (the tear shaped island off the SE coast of India) on our last (!) round the world ticket stop before we end up back in Rome.  The current plan is a week in both London and Paris then back to the states for a month long western national park tour in June.  Anyone want to join us at the Grand Canyon?  It’s easier to get to that SE Asia…

Senses:

Liam: The hot hair drier like wind rushing past me as we putter through the deserted street of Phnom Penh in search of our hidden Airbandb; the glittery diamond eyes of the Buddha staring back at me as I gaze at its 90kg diamond-encrusted gold body in the 6 ton silver pagoda in the Royal Palace in Phenom Penh; the multitude of peaceful Buddha faces surrounding me as I walk through the Bayon temple in the ancient city of Angkor Thom; the incredibly intricately carved domed towers coming together to make the famous scene of the amazing Angor Wat as I walk past its front gate

Xander: The fear and sadness of the S-21 prison from Khmer Rouge regime still reverberating out from the stone cells and walls; the roots of trees snaking around the abandoned Buddhist temple squeezing and crumbling its stone Khmer empire architecture at Ta Prohm; The five curved towers of Angkor Wat framed by the burning sky looming over the crowds of tourists and myths intricately carved into its stone walls; The golden sun's rays illuminating the many faces of the Buddha in a golden panoramic as the sun starts to set outside Siem Reap

Carolyn: The painful red bumps and blisters on my stomach and back itching madly as I wonder if I've caught a horrible disease to ultimately realize it’s just a nasty case of heat rash; the haunting stares of the ghosts of men women and children boring into me from the rows and rows of black and white photos adorning the walls at the gut-wrenching Toul Sleng prison genocide museum; the multitude of serene  giant Buddha heads at Bayon Temple mysteriously smiling down on the intricate bas-relief wall carvings that tell stories of ancient times in the Khmer empire; the afternoon light illuminating the many faces of the Bayon temple Buddhas as we have the site to ourselves in the afternoon sun

Jim: The curving letters of the ancient language carved into the stone monoliths in the National Museum reflecting the deep history of Cambodia; the sadness of the S21 prison and the tremendous loss of life during the Pol Pot years and the shocking knowledge that he lived until 1998 in Cambodia without being held accountable for his terror; the silvery shine of the bark of the banyon tree growing on top of the temple in Angkor Thom providing inspiration to treasure hunters and archeologists about the wealth of this sight; the red sandstone carved into detailed stories of the creation of the universe from Hindu/Buddhism religions.