Week 7: Ho Chi Minh, Phnom Penh and Siem Reap

Week 7: Ho Chi Minh, Phnom Penh and Siem Reap

We arrived to Ho Chi Minh City at night and sped through the city again dodging motorbikes and the like as we made our way to our Hotel. I said before that Hanoi was a city full of crazy moped drivers, but this place was even worse. One of our guides said it was a city of 8 million people with 4 million mopeds. We were only there for a day, and most of that was consumed by our visit to the Cu Chi Tunnels, just outside of the city. The tunnels were instrumental during the war for the Viet Cong’s defeat of the American forces in the area. We got to crawl through one part of the tunnels which was really intense. It is dark, you have to crawl, ventilation is obviously poor, and there are crossroads within the tunnels. If you aren’t sure where the person in front of you went, it gets really scary. I can’t imagine how they did it back then, I only crawled through about 60 meters and that was enough for me! There were videos covering the war in this area and they even highlighted a Vietnamese war hero who received three honors, among them was the poorly translated “killing many Americans honor”. Sitting there, feeling somewhat uncomfortable, watching the European and Canadian tourists laugh at lines like that only make me wonder how we’ll be perceived in Iraq 30 years from now.

We left Ho Chi Minh for Phnom Penh on a bus that seemed to be smuggling in duty free items to sell in Cambodia. Every seat on our bus had baby clothes in plastic bags shoved underneath it. The bathroom wasn’t available for use until after we crossed the Cambodian border and the bus crew unloaded all of the exports. The countryside was beautiful, the houses were all on stilts once we crossed into Cambodia. Some have roofs made of dried leaves, others of corrugated metal, which I’m sure would be delightful during a rainstorm for the occasional tourist, but would probably get old during the intense rainy season. The fields were a very vibrant shade of green as the rainy season has just ended. We got to the capital city, Phnom Penh around dusk. We stayed for 3 nights. Phnom Penh is many things: it is home to more NGO’s and expats than we’ve seen anywhere else on the trip, the Royal Palace for the King of Cambodia, and apparently the place that the Lexus RX300 SUV goes to die: the late 90’s model dominated the roads of the capital city but strangely the newer model was not seen.

We visited Choeung Ek and Tuol Sleng while in Phnom Penh. Choeng Ek was one of dozens of sites in Cambodia that were known as a “Killing Fields” from 1975 to 1978 under the Khmer Rouge reign. Urbanites and intellectuals from Phnom Penh, perceived as a threat to the newly formed “Democratic Kampuchea” were forced out of the city or imprisoned at Tuol Sleng and then taken to be killed at Choeung Ek.

The objective of the Khmer Rouge’s “Democratic Kampuchea” was to create a modern agricultural economy that would make Kampuchea independent from the west, globalization, etc (although ironically their plan relied heavily on the export of rice). The Khmer Rouge saw intellectuals as a major threat to their utopian society, even though Pol Pot and the other leaders themselves were from wealthy families and were educated at university in France. School was outlawed, it was believed that children should work Iin the fields for the common good. Doctors, perceived as part of the oppression were put in prison and/or killed, and replaced primarily with peasant women that had been given only 3 months of training to run the hospitals. They were mostly illiterate and unable to understand medical documents. Western pharmaceuticals weren’t used, instead pills that were a combination of human gall bladders and plants, were manufactured. They used these for most kinds of illness, and usually made people more sick. The amount of rice production demanded by the government to be produced was impossible to be cultivated with the tools that farmers were given. As a result, farmers would send what was required by the government to not get in trouble and get by with less for themselves, which led to starvation. Money was abolished, forcing people to work in exchange for food.

Tuol Sleng was the prison in Phnom Penh, formerly Phnom Penh High School. It was converted in 1975 and was the site where prisoners were tortured, did hard labor and were housed prior to being taken to Cheong Ek where they were executed. The regime lasted until 1978 when the Vietnamese Army came in and pushed them out. It was a devastating time, and yet many of the criminals have only recently been put on trial, if even that. There have been complications with the recognition of the crimes by the UN, which make the situation muddy for some reason or another that I still don’t fully understand.

A total contrast to the brutality and devastation seen at those sites was the visit to Siem Reap province, and more specifically the magnificent temples of Angkor. The seat of what was once the Khmer (pronounced Ca-mai) Empire, over 1,000 temples built between approximately 800 and 1400 AD are located here. The capital of the empire, Angkor Thom at its peak was a city of nearly 1,000,000 people, compared to London which was only 50,000 at the same time. All buildings were constructed of wood with the exception of the Temples which were stone. They are all that remains today within a jungle that has grown over many of the sites, which were more or less abandoned from the 15^th to the 19^th centuries when the Khmer people migrated towards Phnom Penh. The temples show the progression of the architecture from the beginning to the end of the Khmer Empire, and feature amazing bas relief carvings depicting everything from everyday life to the circus to great battles of the time. The temples underwent several conversions back and forth from Hinduism to Buddhism and in many places the sculpture and carvings were modified to reflect whichever religion was being worshipped at the time. The Khmer Rouge, after they abolished religion, cut the heads off of many of the statues and buddhas and sold on the black market.

We explored the temples for the last two days and have one day left to visit tomorrow. Next week we’re off to Bangkok and then starting the final month in India after that!

Photos:

01: Farmland, Outside Phnom Penh

02: Farmland, Outside Phnom Penh

03: Choeung Ek Mass Graves: Approximately 8,000 were killed and buried at this site. OutsidePhnom Penh

04: Tuol Sleng Prison, Formerly Phnom Penh High School, Phnom Penh

05: Truck with Bananas, En route to Siem Reap

06: Farmland, En route to Siem Reap

07: Bayon Temple, Angkor Thom

08: Stones, Bayon Temple, Angkor Thom

09: Sunrise, Angkor Wat

10: Bas Relief, there are approximately 800m of it at this temple alone, Angkor Wat

11: Tree growing over wall. In the late 19^th century, the French decided to leave this temple in its “natural” state as it had been overgrown by the jungle. The trees and stone support one another, if the tree dies, the wall will collapse as well, Ta Prohm

12: More ruin, Ta Prohm

13: This tower was separating, so they’re keeping it together with rope, Banteay Kdel