PHNOM-enal PENH

  We got to Phnom Penh, just as major renovations commenced at our hotel. But at $8 per night, we swallowed the unexpected change in circumstances and proceeded to explore the city. I like Phnom Penh. It has the feel of a newly developed city, an entrepreneurial spirit and high energy, amazing considering the smoldering heat and the sordid past.

  After lazing around for weeks before, we picked up the pace and puttered around town. But our main aim was to buy some new clothes, as the current ones showed some signs of intense wear and tear. Market stalls took up a square block of area, sitting almost one on top of another and selling anything from Buddha images, clothes, jewelry, pots and domestic goods to seafood, meat and fruit. Chaos. Calls of the persistent sales ladies (“Lady, you want scarf, shirt, dress? Very cheap!”) lingered long after we left. The sweltering mugginess of the air made us wish for a long, cold shower. Moving from one market to another, we determinedly scavenged the sales and upgraded our bargaining skills, intent on the best deals. We were out of luck at some of the more local-oriented markets, as exquisite and cheap articles were mostly in tiny sizes. XXL for me! We left happy enough, hoping that the experience wouldn't have to be repeated till Vietnam.

  The next morning, our pre-arranged, non-English speaking tuk tuk driver took our welcoming committee to the airport to pick up Natalia and her friend Liz. So nice to see a familiar face. Sliwka and I spent two exciting years together, attending international politics lectures, writing long papers on human rights and discussing both over beer, while P has known her since high school years. Straight off the plane, we were whisked away to the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek, where over one million people were executed by the Khmer Rouge (one of many such sites in Cambodia) and the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, a former high school used for torture and extracting of fabricated confessions, putting theoretical knowledge in sharp contrast to the sad reality. Once again, we were reminded how cruel human beings can be to one another in the name of some abstract belief. What struck us, aside from physical and photogenic proof of the atrocities, is that most of the genocide perpetrators were well-educated people, who should have simply known better. More so, the fact that only few are being brought to justice, at a leg-dragging pace at that, just raises the hair on your neck.

Memorial stupa at Choeung Ek

Excavated mass graves

Tuol Sleng

Classrooms converted into cells

  To shake off the grimness, P decided on some experimental snacks – fried crickets, frogs and tarantulas. Mmm mmm crunchy. Throwing caution and disgust to the wind, what do you know, we enjoyed them. We then explored the budding riverfront, catching up on the last months over some cold Angkor beer, so refreshing after the muggy day. 

  Next stop: Siem Reap and the transcendent ruins of Angkor Wat.

Toodles!