Phnom Penh: SEA Games, sights, Killing Fields

Phillip and I have been in Phnom Penh, Cambodia for five of our seven scheduled days now. Although hot, it does not seem as hot as Siem Reap. More traffic, but not as much as Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. We have been averaging about 5 miles a day walking, although today we hired a tuk-tuk as our adventures took us out of town. 

We see this sign all over the city. My friend Google tells me that Cambodia is hosting the Southeast Asia Games for the first time in the history of the games. These SEA Games are a regional (11 countries) biennial sporting competition. 581 events will be held in Cambodia from May 5-17, kinda like a smaller version of the Olympics. While walking along the river on our second night here, we got to see the parade of Cambodian athletes. 

As 90% of its citizens are Buddhist, there are many wats, some more elaborate than others. We are wearing shorts, so we are not going inside any of them as the dress code requires the knees and shoulders to be covered. 

Even though the riverfront walk is about a mile away from our hotel, we've walked along it several times. The riverwalk itself is 3.5 km (2.1 miles), but it's the biggest green space anywhere near us. 

During the evening, party boats go out for short cruises on the Mekong River. This spot is where the Tonle Sap River joins into the Mekong. The boats seem too loud and crowded to us, so we won't be having that adventure.

One evening, we were on the riverwalk and decided to eat at the Night Market. For US $2.50 each, we had plates of stir-fried pork and vegetables (me) and pork and noodles (Phillip). As Westerners, we did sit at a table, not at the other food court seating area shown below!

In addition to many wats, we also come across numerous statues and monuments during our walks.  

The Independence Monument was interesting to see. Designed by a Cambodian architect, it commemorates Cambodia's independence from France in the 1950s. It was a much larger version of the above statue. Zooming in, naga (five-hooded cobras), cover the monument, reflecting the Buddhism of the country. (A naga protected Buddha from a terrible storm while he was meditating by wrapping around him and opening its five hoods to cover him.)

Because of the heat, we have only been eating two meals a day, breakfast at the hotel and dinner out. Well, that and a fruit smoothie (mango, coconut, or avocado for $1.50-$2.50) during our morning walk. Our favorite meal here was lok lak at a nearby restaurant yesterday evening. Chicken this time. We will return to that restaurant again before we leave. I'm glad I got the lok lak recipe during the Siem Reap cooking class to make it when we return home.

One of the main reasons that we chose Phnom Penh for a visit was to explore the history of the Killing Fields and the genocide of the Pol Pot regime. We are firm believers in the George Santayna quote, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Here in Phnom Penh, we went to Tuol Sleng, S-21. 

Tuol Sleng was a high school until 1975 when Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge forced over a million people out of the city and turned this school into the main political prison and torture center of the area. Of the 12,273 people (the administrators kept records that did not get destroyed) who were prisoners here, only 7 survived. The others died during torture or were sent to Choeung Ek.  

I only took one picture inside before I saw the sign that read "no pictures, please." The classrooms of two buildings were divided into many cells where teachers, monks, and other educated people were chained before being tortured or killed in classrooms of a third building.

This morning, we took the above tuk-tuk for the 17 km drive to Cheoung Ek. Cheoung Ek was an orchard when the Khmer Rouge set it up as an execution center. 17,000 people were murdered here and buried in 129 communal graves between 1975-1979. Each of those depressions you can see in the below picture contained 100 to 500 bodies when the Vietnamese finally put an end to the genocide in 1979.

Cheoung Ek is not the only killing field. According to the United Nations, over 2 million Cambodians, 25% of Cambodia's population, were executed, starved to death, or died because of torture during those years. This location is the national memorial for all the deaths. 43 of the communal graves here are not being disturbed. A Buddhist stupa containing the skulls unearthed from this former orchard was very haunting and unforgettable.

Phillip and I rewatched the Angelina Jolie movie, "First They Killed My Father," a few days ago. The historical narratives by survivors that we heard today on our audioguides at Cheoung Ek matched the story told in that movie. 

In two days, we travel to Laos where food, waterfalls, and more food will be the subject of my posts.