Doshisha Days

When you cross the streets in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, you do so with equal amounts of trepidation and urgency. Stop signs and traffic signals are routinely ignored by the myriad assortment of cars, tuk-tuks, motor cycles and bicycles that drive up and down the tree lined boulevards. The French influence still dominates the city with its street-side cafes, and large villas with balconies open to the street. Milo and I stayed at the Lyon D’or, across the street from the Tonle Sap River. Phnom Penh is were the Tonle Sap and Mekong River meet and then diverge again, giving it a strategic location that has been used for centuries by the Cambodians, the French, the Vietnamese and now the Cambodians once again.

Our first stop in the city was the Royal Palace, home of King Norodom Sihamoni, and location of the Silver Pagoda, known for its delicate floor of silver tiles. The king actually made an appearance while we were touring the grounds and came within about 100 meters of us, admittedly not handshaking distance. From there we took a quick tour of the National Museum, housing the largest collection of Angkorian art anywhere in the world.

In the north of the city is the French Embassy, where in April 1975, hundreds of Cambodians and foreigners were sought refuge when the Khmer Rouge, Cambodian Maoists on steroids, took the city. Although the foreigners in the embassy were in the end expelled from the country, the fate of the Cambodians was much more insidious. Stripped of there possessions and forced out into the countryside, as many as 3 million people, over a quarter of the population, died over a 4 year period from starvation, disease, and at the hands of their fellow Cambodians.

One of the major centers where men, women and children were taken to confess their - in almost all cases, imaginary – crimes and to be disposed of – was Tuol Sleng, also known as S-21, located in the heart of the city. Once the Vietnamese invaded their neighbor and drove Pol Pot and his men into the areas by the Thai border, they opened up the prison as a museum to both reveal the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge, as well as to justify their invasion and occupation. The prison no longer caters to Vietnam’s patrons from the Eastern Bloc, but from tourists from all over world. Inside are cells where the Vietnamese found corpses still shackled to box spring mattresses, thousands of mug shots and files documenting the various prisoners who were interrogated, forced into falsely confessing and incriminating others in an endless lethal spiral and then sent to the killing fields. From the photos, one can see that neither children nor the elderly were spared this tragic fate. The head of Tuol Sleng, a man know as Duch, is still under house arrest on the docket of a painstakingly slow legal process which hopefully will bring him to justice before he dies, and like Pol Pot is left to the ashes of history.

From the museum, we visited the killing fields, where in 1981, mass graves were discovered and exhumed by the Vietnamese military. Now, there stands a white pagoda, a huge edifice filled with human skulls organized by age. Surrounding it are pits that were formerly filled with the remains of hundreds of victims of the one of the worst crimes of the twentieth century (although I feel that it would be inaccurate to label what happened in Cambodia Genocide, I do feel that the absence of this label should not diminish from the ghastliness of the crime itself).

We finished our trip in Cambodia on a high note, shopping in what is quaintly referred to as the Russian Market, due to the large amounts of Eastern Bloc nations that shopped there during the 1980s, watching the sun set over the heliotrope sky from along the river front, and indulging in a final meal of Khmer specialties. Our time in this fascinating country with a history of both grandiose empires and unimaginable human suffering, had reached its apex, and it was time to continue our wanderings. Still it was all but assured to both Milo and myself that this was not the last we had seen of Cambodia and I for one was already looking ahead to the next time I walk the streets of the “Pearl of Asia.”

It was around 6 pm when we touched down at the Bangkok International Airport under overcast skies; our plan was not to stick around very long, simply to find somewhere to hang our heads for the night and head out as soon as possible to Siem Reap, Cambodia, the closest towns to the glories of Angkor. We dropped off out bags in a rundown guest house on the notorious Thanon Khao San, grabbed some street food, and arranged for our transport. The following day, the bus was an hour late, and we arrived at the border in the afternoon, and did not board the bus on the Cambodian side of the border until 4 pm, which was when things started to get interesting.

Our Cambodian bus did not have the amenities such as air conditioning, nor did the road have any modern trappings such as pavement. Our bus ambled along the road, torn up due to the eventual construction of a paved road. Being one of the larger vehicles on the road (fortunately) the bus was playing a constant game of chicken with the oncoming traffic and was passing every vehicle in our lane with abandon. We finally arrived at a guesthouse on the outskirts of Siem Reap around 10 pm, 150 kilometers in 6 hours! After some negotiations, we were driven closer to the city center where we found a place to stay.

The following day, the 11th and our first full day in Siem Reap, we hired a tuk tuk – a motor bike with a two wheeled trailer capable of fitting up to 6 people – and made our way out to the further afield ruins of Angkor. Our first stop was Kbal Spean, River of a Thousand Lingas”, a carved river bed deep in the jungle to the Northeast of the main sites. After a 50km ride on red clay roads, we arrived at the site, hiked into the forest and up to the part of the river where you can see the carvings, intricate symmetrical pillars that have been worn down over the ages as well as carvings of the Hindu gods such as Shiva and Vishnu.

After climbing down we headed to our next destination, Banteay Srei – “Citadel of the Women” - known for its treasure trove of Angkorian art. Dedicated to Shiva, the sandstone here has a reddish tint and the carvings are some of the best preserved of all the temples. Although not as majestic as Angkor Wat, or as eerie as the Bayon, the carvings in the red rock were a site unto themselves.

Having wrapped up our sightseeing for the day, we made our way back into town to sample the local cuisine. Amoc is the local dish, steamed freshwater fish from the Tonle Sap in coconut cream served in a banana leaf. While lacking the fiery taste of the Thai curries, the Amoc was delectable in its own right. The beer of choice was Angkor, which was your standard lager, but at the price, no complaints seem appropriate.

The following day we woke up an hour early due to a watch error on my part and so spent our time wandering the local market and sampling the local food, coconut rice and banana, and various fruits. Once our driver arrived, we made our way to the mother of all temples, Angkor Wat. Over 5 kilometers in circumference, with moats almost 200 meter's wide, Angkor Wat is the largest religious complex in the world and the slow approach to the temple, watching it unfold before your eyes, is simply breathtaking. Comprising both Hindu and Buddhist sculpture, it would take days to take it all in. While there were throngs of people in the central areas of the complex (particularly on the upper levels where you almost need a running start to get up the steep, eroded stair case and death grip an iron railing when coming down), it was still not too hard to make your way to the back part of the temple where you could find some more serene environs. Neither words nor pictures truly do it justice. Please see it for yourself!

We next went to Angkor Thom, which was the main palace of the Angkorian empire. We focused most of our attention on the Bayon where every pillar is dominated on four sides by these giant faces of the king, Jayavarman VII. Whether it was just the result of one man’s ego trip is beside the point, it lends the temple a mystifying appeal.

We finished our trip with two more lesser know temples, including one that was overrun with massive trees that have done more damage than any person could. The temple was in this case literally swallowed whole by the jungle. It was an appropriate end to the glories of Angkor and there is no doubt in both our minds that some day will return.

Rest of the photos from Milo and I can be seen here.