Cambodia: Killing Fields of Phnom Penh

“Since He Is Of No Use Anymore, There Is No Gain If He Lives And No Loss If He Dies”

~ Pol Pot (The Savage)

Running late, as usual, I have 45 minutes until my flight takes off for Bali via Kuala Lumpur and I am only en route on a tuk tuk (Asian taxi) to the airport in Siem Reap. Finally, I see a sign for the airport and the panic subsided as the thoughts of plan B were racing through my mind just in case I miss my flight. Luckily, Air Asia check in counter, which was closed when I arrived, made an exception for my check in and even obliged me with a window seat. Thanks Air Asia!! Once I relaxed the creative energy started flowing I had to pen out my experiences in Cambodia, more precise my day in Phnom Penh!

Let’s start at the beginning; I arrived in Phnom Penh three days ago by bus from Mue Ne, Vietnam (12 hour ride) just for a day, to see the killing fields and to be on my way to Siam Reap, as my main purpose for Cambodia was mainly Angkor Wat. The bus ride wasn’t too bad, pretty good actually as I am short, so fit into the sleeper bus seat perfectly. I was riding with a young Canadian couple from a town near Montreal, whom I met on New Years day in Ha Long Bay, Vietnam (where we almost died on a ferry, but I’ll save that for a different post). Luckily, I ran into them in my hostel when I got to Mui Ne. We were all heading in the same direction, to Cambodia, so traveling together made perfect sense. We heard from other travelers that Phnom Penh was not worth the visit except for the Genocide Museum (which we unfortunately did not get to see due to time constraints) and the killing fields of Pol Pot, who murdered 8 million Cambodians. So once we got into Phnom Penh, we purchased an 11pm bus ticket to Siam Reap before heading straight to check out the killing fields. We took a tuk tuk there, which was about a 45-minute ride.

The general feel of the city carried a very sad energy, at least for me. As I looked around I felt such heaviness pressing on my soul. It is one of the poorest cities I have ever visited, even though the people of the country are strong, they are survivors, but I couldn’t help feeling a deep sorrow for them. They are a forgiving nation as they are not holding a grudge and just face the reality of their historic events, the horrific genocide. When they speak about it, the general consensus is “well it happened, we are rebuilding and moving on”, I give them a ton of respect for not fostering hate against each other and having a positive outlook on the future. I did notice that there were no older folks, no one past the age of 45, and that just makes my mind race of the horrible ordeal the nation went through. To sum up the overall feel of the day: heartbreaking, however I am glad I visited the killing fields, it was very educational and in reality this happened less then 40 years ago. So many people in the world are not even aware that the Cambodians experienced mass murder on such a grand scale. Pol Pot and his goons massacred everyone they felt were unnecessary to their cause: babies, kids, elderly and everyone in between. I saw the graves and bones of the butchered bodies, adult and children’s skulls with bullet holes or holes made by other metal objects, kids clothes, bones peaking out of the unmarked grave sites. This is a prime example of everything that is wrong and cruel with this world, the degree of evil that walks the earth among us is bone chilling. It was the saddest day in my entire Southeast Asia trip. It was very difficult to witness and hear the stories via audio tour at the killing fields. The space looks so peaceful and green, visitors are walking around with headphones, listening to the stories in silence, but the stories and corpses these grounds harbor are devastating.

On the way back we asked our driver to recommend a local place to grab a bite. The local restaurant was located near the square, which hosts the independence monument in representation of peace between Vietnam and Cambodia. The fare was delicious and cheap, outfitted with plastic chairs and tables just like most yummy local mom and pop food spots are in Asia. The square is gorgeous when lit up at night, with kids playing and their parents socializing with their friends nearby. It was a nice mood changer to see the locals smiling and hanging out. It uplifted our spirits after an emotional day. We strolled around and eventually made our way back towards the bus terminal as we had another 7hour (200 miles) journey ahead of us to Siem Reap.