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Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Cambodge.
Well I got back last night from a long weekend in Cambodia. Talk about culture shock. It made Thailand look as wealthy as America when in reality, Thailand and Cambodia are both 3rd world countries.
First, we (Kasey and I) went to Phnom Penh. We stayed at a really cool guesthouse (hostel) right in the heart of the city and very close to a tourist restaurant/bar strip. I assumed that since Phnom Penh is the capital of Cambodia that it would be more developed than the other cities, but I thought wrong. Of course they had some really nice hotels for tourists and beautiful temples, but other than that, it was very poor.
On Saturday, we spent the day at the Killing Fields and then went to the Toul Slang Prison (also known as S21). The Killing Fields, which I'm sure most of you have read about, is one of the many places that Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge took Khmer people to be executed. They murdered anyone that had higher education, taught as a profession, spoke against the regime, or showed any signs of Westernization. These killing fields were the grave of over 20,000 people. And even worse--they murdered the families of the people they aimed to kill because they feared that they would one day seek revenge... babies, children, mothers, fathers, grandparents. They beheaded people, beat them to death, slit their throats, and they killed babies/children by holding them by their legs and slamming them against a tree. It was horrifying to stand on the same ground that these acts took place.
Afterward, we toured the Toul Slang Prison which is where they kept the 'prisoners' for days, weeks, or even months before transporting them to the killing field. The Khmer Rouge took over a high school in Phnom Penh and then transformed it into this prison. We saw the rooms they used for interrogation (the rooms they would torture people in for hours until they confessed to something they didn't do) and the cells that they kept them chained in. In one of the buildings, they had giant displays of the photographs of each of the prisoners--the Rouge photographed each person before imprisoning them, and even took pictures of those that didn't survive the interrogations. Those photographs, of the slaughtered and tortured people, almost made me sick to my stomach right then and there. Needless to say, Kasey and I were speechless for several hours after we toured these places.
The next day we left for Siem Reap early in the morning. It only cost $4 to take a bus between the 2 cities, a 6 hour trip. We drove through the heart of Cambodia which gave me the most immense culture shock I've felt since I've been in Asia. Our idea of a 'house' doesn't exist in Cambodia--everyone lives in stilted wooden huts with roofs made of banana leaves and hay. The people dig through trash to find food to eat and rarely have enough clothing for all of their children.
Siem Reap was a strange place. It was full of tourists coming to see Angkor Wat and fancy hotels on every street corner. White people are viewed as walking wallets, basically. Everyone wants your money and they'll do anything to get it. I can't even count how many times we were harassed by vendors or tuk tuk drivers. Every exchange of money became a moral debate for Kasey and I... we knew they were charging us too much, but at the same time we knew they needed the money. The children were the most depressing, though. Every tourist guidebook or pamphlet about Cambodia tells you to never give money or food to the children because they're most likely (9 out of 10 times) forced to beg by adults that abuse them physically, sexually, and emotionally. If you've seen Slumdog Millionaire, it isn't too different from how the children were treated in the movie. So basically, by not giving the children money or food, you're actually helping them. The more you give them, the longer the abuse will take place.
Angkor Wat was phenomenal, though. I think my favorite places around Thailand have been the ruins, and this rivaled them all. It was HUGE and beautiful. It amazes how much detail the Angkorian people put into every stone they built the temple with. I have over a hundred pictures, so those will be on Facebook sometime this week.
Okay, now I'm running out of time because I have to write a paper due tomorrow. First real homework of the entire semester! But to wrap this up--basically, Cambodia was a serious eye-opener, the epitome of an emotional roller coaster. I'm not sure I could ever bear to visit again, but I'm very glad I had the opportunity to do so while I could.
(Also: the title, "Cambodge", is actually how they spell "Cambodia" in Cambodia... The G sounds like a Y, so it's pronounced CAM-BODE-YA.)
First, we (Kasey and I) went to Phnom Penh. We stayed at a really cool guesthouse (hostel) right in the heart of the city and very close to a tourist restaurant/bar strip. I assumed that since Phnom Penh is the capital of Cambodia that it would be more developed than the other cities, but I thought wrong. Of course they had some really nice hotels for tourists and beautiful temples, but other than that, it was very poor.
On Saturday, we spent the day at the Killing Fields and then went to the Toul Slang Prison (also known as S21). The Killing Fields, which I'm sure most of you have read about, is one of the many places that Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge took Khmer people to be executed. They murdered anyone that had higher education, taught as a profession, spoke against the regime, or showed any signs of Westernization. These killing fields were the grave of over 20,000 people. And even worse--they murdered the families of the people they aimed to kill because they feared that they would one day seek revenge... babies, children, mothers, fathers, grandparents. They beheaded people, beat them to death, slit their throats, and they killed babies/children by holding them by their legs and slamming them against a tree. It was horrifying to stand on the same ground that these acts took place.
Afterward, we toured the Toul Slang Prison which is where they kept the 'prisoners' for days, weeks, or even months before transporting them to the killing field. The Khmer Rouge took over a high school in Phnom Penh and then transformed it into this prison. We saw the rooms they used for interrogation (the rooms they would torture people in for hours until they confessed to something they didn't do) and the cells that they kept them chained in. In one of the buildings, they had giant displays of the photographs of each of the prisoners--the Rouge photographed each person before imprisoning them, and even took pictures of those that didn't survive the interrogations. Those photographs, of the slaughtered and tortured people, almost made me sick to my stomach right then and there. Needless to say, Kasey and I were speechless for several hours after we toured these places.
The next day we left for Siem Reap early in the morning. It only cost $4 to take a bus between the 2 cities, a 6 hour trip. We drove through the heart of Cambodia which gave me the most immense culture shock I've felt since I've been in Asia. Our idea of a 'house' doesn't exist in Cambodia--everyone lives in stilted wooden huts with roofs made of banana leaves and hay. The people dig through trash to find food to eat and rarely have enough clothing for all of their children.
Siem Reap was a strange place. It was full of tourists coming to see Angkor Wat and fancy hotels on every street corner. White people are viewed as walking wallets, basically. Everyone wants your money and they'll do anything to get it. I can't even count how many times we were harassed by vendors or tuk tuk drivers. Every exchange of money became a moral debate for Kasey and I... we knew they were charging us too much, but at the same time we knew they needed the money. The children were the most depressing, though. Every tourist guidebook or pamphlet about Cambodia tells you to never give money or food to the children because they're most likely (9 out of 10 times) forced to beg by adults that abuse them physically, sexually, and emotionally. If you've seen Slumdog Millionaire, it isn't too different from how the children were treated in the movie. So basically, by not giving the children money or food, you're actually helping them. The more you give them, the longer the abuse will take place.
Angkor Wat was phenomenal, though. I think my favorite places around Thailand have been the ruins, and this rivaled them all. It was HUGE and beautiful. It amazes how much detail the Angkorian people put into every stone they built the temple with. I have over a hundred pictures, so those will be on Facebook sometime this week.
Okay, now I'm running out of time because I have to write a paper due tomorrow. First real homework of the entire semester! But to wrap this up--basically, Cambodia was a serious eye-opener, the epitome of an emotional roller coaster. I'm not sure I could ever bear to visit again, but I'm very glad I had the opportunity to do so while I could.
(Also: the title, "Cambodge", is actually how they spell "Cambodia" in Cambodia... The G sounds like a Y, so it's pronounced CAM-BODE-YA.)
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