Cambodia: On Genocides and Ancient Civilizations

October 12, 2007

Cambodia was amazing! I honestly was not looking forward to this country as I longed to stay in Vietnam and even go to central and northern parts of that country….We started out our journey by taking a flight into Phnom Phen. After obtaining our Cambodian visas, we headed off to our buses. We had parents joining us with me as the trip leader for both buses. Thank goodness, Mike (one of the parents) volunteered to help out so he took the parents and their kids on bus 3 while we went on bus 2 and away we went. After checking in to a very nice hotel located across the street from the U.S Embassy (the building alone without land cost $65 million U.S. dollars!) and a tempe which is a safe haven for free roaming monkeys and an elephant, we went to a sunset cruise. After the cruise, we had an amazing dinner at a famous and for Cambodian standards, expensive restaurants. Of course the meal was included in our trip so all we had to worry about were the drinks. After relaxing that evening, we woke up early the next day to have a really great buffet breakfast.

Our entire group made our way to the Genocide Museum. The Cambodian Genocide, led by Pol Pot (athough so many other individuals and even nations should be held just as responsible for this!) is one of humankind’s worst tragedies. We were stunned and moved to tears as we saw pictures, heard stories, and went inside the prison where intellectuals and suspected enemies of the Khmer Rouge were tortured mercilessly. What was more tragic in our eyes was the fact that for most of the students, this was the first time they were really learning about this historical event. One woman questioned why we only hear of some genocides but not all and why don’t we know about this one which has resulted in over 2 million deaths? After that, we went to the Killing Fields. It was a chilling experience – we walked over remnants of clothes, bone, teeth from that time. We also went to a shrine built there which housed hundreds of skulls from the victims. This was just one of a large number of “killing fields” in the country. Tens of thousands were killed here including children and even babies in front of their parents before they were murdered as well. This experience really bonded our group, particularly the 23 of us on our bus (bus 2). When we went to the Russian Market afterwards, it was a somber group and although there was some shopping involved, many of us chose to sit down at a nearby “café,”, ordered sodas, and talked about what we had seen thus far. We were particularly touched when our tour guide shared with us that his mother was killed in one of those prisons by the Khmer Rouge and that every Cambodian has had at least one member of his/her family murdered during this genocide. It was a different atmosphere in the afternoon that we experienced as they took us to the royal palace, temples, and museums. They were all very beautiful locales. The royal palace was amazing and students were pretty awestruck. We kept marveling at the architecture, art, color, cleanliness, etc. By the end of that day, no one wanted to leave the city and the country.

That evening, we flew out to Siem Reap (defeat of Siam (old name of Thailand) where we immediately went to a cultural show and dinner. It was great except for this weird moment. At the end of the show, dozens of Japanese tourists ran up the stage as the dancers (mostly women) took their final bow. The Japanese started taking pictures with them, one even tried to kiss one of the dancers. It was distasteful and you can see and feel the strong discomfort of the Cambodians on and off the stage. About a dozen SAS students ran up as well but thankfully, most of the others just looked and told their friends that it seems inappropriate. It was so weird – the women dancers were being treated as if they were some kind of Disney characters there for the pleasure of the tourists. I doubt it if at the end of a play in the U.S. or Swan Lake in England would a group of tourists run up to take posed pictures and kiss the prima ballerina! Later that night, we checked into our hotel – an amazing place again – and had a message in our room. It was a traditional Cambodian massage similar to Thai massage but slightly more painful.

The next morning, we got up at 4:30 am and went to see the Sunrise at Angkor Wat. Although it was too hazy and cloudy, it was still so cool to be there before the hordes of tourists came. For a while, it seemed like our private place (well, private in a sense that there were hundreds, not thousands of us at the moment). After going back to the hotel and having breakfast, we went to several temples in the area. They were all magnificent. I can’t even tell you the names (I Have them written somewhere else) and I am not sure my pictures will truly capture all that we saw. We climbed, ducked, walked inside, under, over, various ruins. I can’t put to words what I saw but I can tell you that I was overwhelmed and humbled all at the same time. I get teary eyed thinking of the beauty of that place, of the remarkable artistry and architectural genius of her people. I get so sad too thinking of what Cambodia has been through – that they have remnants of this great past and at the same time, they continue to clean up unexploded land mines all over their country, they have to deal with sex slaves, child labor, and pedophilia.

We left Cambodia wishing that we could have stayed a little longer. All the students and parents loved it and most were thinking of when they could go back. We took from us the warmth of the people, the beauty of the country, and a reminder that we need to be more responsible for knowing about history so that genocides and wars will cease to begin. Cambodia is a must see place so I hope you all have the chance to go there!