Lest we forget

Today I went to Tuol Sleng, or S-21. TL was a high school before it was turned into a prison and center for torture during the Pol Pot regime. The prison has been turned into a memorial museum for those detained there. Portraits of prisoners and guards line many rooms. I didn't take any photographs, as it didn't feel appropriate for the gravity of the place. The estimated figure for prisoners who came through this site from 1975 to 1978 numbers 20,000. Only 7 people survived their internment.

This is what I wrote immediately after visiting.

Faces--young, old, strong, fearful, resigned, defiant, impassive. Showing evidence of maltreatment, or as yet untouched. So many of them. A cross-section of life, from mere children, to someone's grandparent. Some portraits moved me to tears--the fear and despair palpable. Others held a fascination resembling awe or respect with a strong tilt of a chin. Collectively, the sheer weight of the numbers caused tears to stream down my face by the end. Others around me seem to have had the same reaction.

Juxtapositions are jolting. As it used to be a high school, adjacent to a room filled with portraits of the dead is a school lectern. The gymnasium equipment was converted into torture devices.

There are two layers of ghosts here. One, the children and teachers of the former high school. I imagine I can hear chairs creaking as they shift in their seats. The same tiles as found in schools everywhere remain. The second layer is less peaceful. The moans and whispers of those killed during the years of the Khmer Rouge persist as I sit here. As with any of the historic sites I've been to in Cambodia, and elsewhere, my mind strains to see it as it once was.

Today, small group of quiet tourists wander these halls, paying their respects to the dead and gone. Birds sing, trees are full of blossoms, and I sit on a park bench overlooking a courtyard. I find myself being willingly distracted by birds now roosting in the eaves of what once was such a terrible place. What remains is a reminder of those atrocities, and a call to extract our heads from the sand we've happily buried them under to stop this from happening elsewhere.

I have never been much of a news person. It seems it's either too awful, or people have become desensitized to the goings on of the world. My mother tried unsuccessfully to get me to watch, and on one occasion having acquiesced to watching--at perhaps age 12, I turned and said "Why would you ever want me to watch that?" . . . But in the face of the alternative, how can you not.

I'm not brave enough to now go on to see the Killing Fields as many others here will. My heart aches and wonders how this small nation has survived. And how have so many others through history faced similar horrific events. Unthinkable.

I am off to find my tuk tuk driver to take me away from this place, and all I can think of is his parents, grandparents, and neighbours, and what stories he must have to tell. I don't have the gall, nor the will to ask.

**********

I'm officially a big nerd.

Today I had a meandering day wandering the streets of Phnom Penh, turning down tuk tuk drivers left, right, and center. They don't seem to understand that some westerners actually *want* to walk. I even had one follow me for eight blocks. Until I taught him what the English word "creepy" meant :)

I had a great brunch. Kate's right, the reason for travel throughout Asia is fairly heavily dominated by the food :) I also love the addition of sweetened condensed milk to my tea. Great idea, that.

First I wandered northward and saw the Wat Phnom. According to legend, the birthplace of Phnom Penh. The story reminds me of the Romulus/Remus story about Rome from 7th form Classics.

The Wat itself was nothing to get excited about, but there were a few encounters with creatures. Some cute monkeys eating beans and lotus seeds.

And at the top of the Wat, you could buy birds from this little boy to set them free. Presumably to signify your benevolence or as a symbol of peace . . . Phnom Penh having had a terrible history of genocide and human rights issues. I haven't yet made it out to the killing fields/genocide museum. It's currently slated for tomorrow.

Then I wandered through the Old Market area. There are some interesting looking fruits I want to try. I'm just not exactly sure how to eat them.

I guess I should get to telling you why I'm a big nerd.

So, instead of seeing the sites and wandering around Phnom Penh in the afternoon, I got distracted.  I found the cutest little NGO library, Au Livre Ouvert. It has books to read/check out, and some to buy. The books appeared to be in Khmer, English, French, and a few other languages.

Their mission is to propagate the pleasure of reading through quality books. It may not be the biggest library, but I was really impressed by their choices. Many would be called classics, but there's a good variety of new books, too. Look mum--the boxcar children!

Got entirely distracted by a beautiful french water colour book about Paris. Mmmm.

This is a translation/summary of their "help us" page. . . which, happily for me, is in French :)

Au Livre Ouvert exists on sales on books, memberships (as far as I can tell, $15 lifetime member), and private donations. If you're in Phnom Penh, you're welcome to help out covering books or playing with the kids (I had a great time playing duplo with a little Cambodian boy). They're interested in any sponsors who have an interest in education in Cambodia, and all money is used for more books and to keep the space free for users.  If you want to send books/games that you no longer use, their address is:
Street 240, #41, Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Their email address is openbook240@yahoo.com, and it appears that it's run from Singapore.

Oh, and to finish a great day, I had 6 ice creams. Yes, you heard me correctly. Granted, each one was about the size of a marble. Awesome. I chose Durian (blech--only blech one), Sour Fruit, Caramel Crispy, Raspberry Yoghurt, Mango/Passionfruit Sorbet, and Irish Coffee.

Now I just have to make sure I don't go read lovely children's books in French tomorrow, and actually see some of the history/heritage of this fascinating city. Hmmm.

Ko Russei, Cambodia

After a few busy days exploring temples, I decided to go check out Cambodia's coast. It's supposed to be much less busy than Thailand, and at least for now, that's true.

My bus took me to Sihanouk Ville. I don't have much good to say about Sihanouk Ville, except that they have a nice internet cafe, which I'm utilising right now. From what I gather, large numbers of tourists have been relatively new to Sihanouk Ville, and as a result it is a coastline under construction. In the last year and a half a whole number of hotels, bars and restaurants have sprung up. It is also ripe with locals pressuring you to buy their goods.

I only stayed in Sihanouk Ville waiting for a few hours for my boat, and traipsed immediately out to the island Russei, to the resort Ko Ru. The boat ride was fun, and to disembark we tumbled into the surf, as there's no pier. Make sure to waterproof your valuables just in case.

Ko Ru is on the quiet side of the island, and is the only "resort" there. It is quiet, and has a nice atmosphere of fun, but relaxation. Accommodation in the dorm bungalows was $3 a night, and there-and-back boat trip was only $10.

I spent my days reading multiple books, napping, eating, swimming (the water is lovely), playing volleyball, meeting new friends, and sitting by the bonfire listening to tunes on a guitar. It was hard to leave. As long as mass commerce doesn't make its way out there, I'd recommend it to anyone. The food was great, and both the western and Khmer staff seemed to be having fun, and genuinely enjoying each other. In the evenings the locals would come hang out and enjoy the beach with us.

The place was a bit of a menagerie, with chickens, goats, dogs, and lizards running about the place. Watch out for the largest goat, it likes to play. I woke up to the sound of the surf and chattering monkeys in the trees in the morning, and dogs running around the bungalow playing--our bungalow had a door installed on the last night I stayed there, but we didn't use it anyways.

At night, the beach is perfect for sunsets. It's also nice for night swimming . . . the water retains its heat, and it's great to swim under the stars. If you move your hands through the water you disturb tiny creatures that are phosphorescent, so the bubbles appear to glow.

Perfect :)

On our way back to the mainland, I think we were all a little sad to be leaving.

Angkor Silk Farm

Before leaving for the coast I went to a silk farm in Siem Reap called Artisans d'Angkor.

I was able to see the entire process--from the fields where they grow the plants/leaves (Mulberry) for the silk worms to eat, to the finished products. The workers experiment with different varieties of Mulberry to get the quickest/healthiest growing plants, with leaves that the silk worms like to eat.

Once the silk worms have eaten enough (a very short time period--days) they turn a yellow colour, and start to spin silk cocoons around themselves.

The silk worms from Cambodia produce a golden, rather than white thread. As a result, the silk from this area is called Khmer "golden"silk. Their business is conducted using natural colourings from dried grapes, bark, leaves, rust, chili powder, and other natural ingredients.

One thing I learned about the weaving process, is that while some of the pattern is derived from using different threads, part of the pattern is often from tie-dying threads using plastic ties, placed strategically to make a consistent pattern. This kind of seems obvious, but blew my mind :)  On the very complex patterns, sometimes only a meter of cloth is produced in a day's work.

If you're looking for ultra cheap Cambodian silk, this isn't the place for you. This is the place you go for high quality, and peace of mind. It's fair trade, and from what I could see the people there were treated very well, and are paid a fair wage. Part of the business is a school, in which certification takes a year. Each worker starts by being taught each part of the process, and then after a time they specialize into the area of silk making that they are interested in. All in all, a very beautiful, interesting, and humbling experience. When I go to buy a piece of clothing, it's nice to have each part of this process in mind, so as to appreciate all the work and thought that has gone into it--whether or not it is factory or handmade.

Beautiful.

Angkor

The area of Angkor has a plethora of temples and ancient cities. Angkor Wat is but one of these, built in the 12th century. Some of the sites date as far back as the 8th century.

I was lucky to stumble upon two new friends on the taxi ride into Siem Reap from the border. I wandered for three days with Laura from Massachusetts, and Pedro/Kim from South Korea, and our tuk tuk driver, Pip. My ambitious idea of bike riding solo around the temples was quashed pretty quickly, as I saw the traffic. I managed to discern two road rules: keep right when you can, and bigger vehicles have right-of-way and win in all one-on-one encounters. There was a crash near our hostel the first evening I stayed there that resulted in a fatality. Definitely one of the more dangerous systems I've seen, what with the interactions between buses, cars, tuk tuks, motorbikes, bicycles, pedestrians, and livestock. Also, the people seem to be able to load their vehicles up with more than you'd ever think. So far we've seen three live pigs strapped upside down to a motorcycle (sorry, PETA) and two women with three babies and four big bags of produce on a single motorcycle--no helmets to be seen.

This was our first view of the entrance to the main temple area.

Sometimes it was a little overwhelming choosing where to go and what to look at.

 The carvings throughout the Angkor complex were beautiful.

I like how the lichen grew politically correct on these Apsara dancer reliefs.

Bees are alive and well! They were a little scary to walk under.

Poverty was pretty desperate and sad around Siem Reap and Angkor. Some of the kids trying to sell things to us were only a little older than this wee one. I was happy to see that from Sunday to Monday there were many fewer kids, hopefully meaning that they were in school.

 Laura and me, struggling up the steep steps of a temple. We look a little hot and tired, I think.

Introducing Laura and Pedro.

At the end of our first day wandering through Angkor, Pip took us to a local street carnival for a beer. It was the one place in Siem Reap we weren't hassled to buy things, as it was all locals. We didn't stay for long, because after a day at the temples we were pretty dusty and tired, but the ferris wheel looked like it was spinning quite quickly. Could have been an interesting experience. Apparently everyone turns up just after the sun goes down, so as to be a bit cooler.

Elephants were present in carvings, sculptures, and as part of the tourist experience.

Like many, Ta Prohm was one of my favourites. I took as many pictures of the different trees and buttressed roots as my camera would allow. I just love how it looks when nature takes back the land.

The second day we got up early for the sunrise. Not a great one, but nice to be up in the cool of the day, and the view from the top once we climbed into and up Angkor Wat was beautiful.

Sometimes we took a break and just sat in the temples/buildings, as they retained their coolness throughout the day. Good thing D.C. prepared me slightly for this heat and humidity!

On our last evening in the temples, we went up to a temple on the top of a hill, and waited for the sunset (as recommended to us) . . . but as the climb was quite harrowing (standardly harrowing) we wondered what everyone was going to do to get back down in the dark. But, we were kicked out before dark, which makes me wonder how someone is supposed to see a sunset, yet come down before dark? Seems like the "sunset tour" might be a bit of a misnomer? As with the sunrise, it was very cloudy, so I'm not sure our sunset would have been anything to write home about anyways, so we weren't too disappointed (and perhaps slightly relieved, as I was the only one with a headtorch--thanks, Janet!).

 There were monks at the top, I think trying to practice their English. I haven't quite figured out the rules of monkdom in this part of the world, but it's definitely not what I expected.

Today I have to decide where I'm going next. I'm thinking to an island called Russei off of Sihanoukville. I got some insider's info from a Mr. Ken Ryan that Sihanoukville itself can get pretty sleazy, so I'm attempting to find a nice place elsewhere (yet still beachside) to relax before going on to visit Phnom Penh and make my way to India. So far, so good.

The Numbness Was Worth It

Having been told I was silly for trying to go overland to Cambodia, when there are perfectly reasonable flights from Bangkok into Siem Reap, I feel justified. Yes, my butt was ridiculously sore. Yes it was crowded and dusty and smelly at times. But it was beautiful, and as a geographer, very grounding to see the landscape change. I only wish I'd taken more photos.

But, here are some beautiful ones for you, with the mist rising in the early morning (did I mention the train left at 5:55am?).

This wee baby and his family kept me entertained for many hours of this journey :) 48 baht (2 NZ dollars) well spent.

I say "bah" to those who told me to fly.