Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Val here.

Phnom Penh. A truly interesting and lively city. Phnom Penh is larger than Siem Reap and somewhat less touristed because there is no Angkor Wat nearby. It has its own charms, however. There is a lovely walkway by the river - that is if you can dodge bicycles, motorscooters, hawkers, and walkers. But it is all with lively spirit and a sense of communal comfort. We met a American who left Cambodia when he was 8 years old, and his sister (Virak and Leak) and went on a long walk with them to the amusement park and the casino. The amusement park had the usual rides. The roller blade arena was the most popular spot. We went on a sunset cruise - had the boat almost to ourselves and watched as the sun sank behind the city.

Phnom Penh holds a tragic past. We visited:

1. The Killing Fields - this is a huge field which you walk through to remember and honour the individuals who were killed here. In this one extermination camp many Viet Namese political prisoners, intellectuals, teachers, thinkers were killed, often along with their families. A shortage of bullets eventually resulted in prisoners killed by bludgeoning and thrown into a pit. The site's focal point is stacks of skulls stacked in a memorial in the middle of the compound. This lovely field cries with the sadness and horror that occurred from 1975 to 1979 during the Pol Pot regime.

2. S- 21 - This is a school which was turned into a prison for incarceration and torture of anyone the Pol Pot regime thought might be an enemy. Prisoners were shackled to their beds and tortured mercilessly until they confessed to whatever crimes they were accused of. Then, if they survived the conditions and torture, they were shipped off to an extermination camp and bludgeoned or shot to death. The sight has photographs of the people who were incarcerated in this facility - men and women. It is, like the killing fields, a memorial to the victims of these horrors. Pol Pot and his political cronies, like the Nazis, kept detailed records of these "criminals" so sure were they of the necessity of this genocidal brutality.

3. Phnom Penh - Pot Pot emptied the entire city of its 1,500,000 inhabitants shortly after he came to power. After studying and breathing in the communist idealogy of China he decided to send all the urban dwellers to work in the fields and live in communes. And yes, as unbelievable as it sounds he used adolescent brainwashed thugs to clear the city of Phnom Penh in 24 hours.

The horrors of Pol Pot's regime are in no way yet forgotten. The country still has much healing to do and it will take many more years to recover economically from the trauma of those years. The government is quite corrupt and has made little effort to punish the people responsible for the horrors of the Pol Pot - Khmer Rouge years. Pol Pot himself died in bed a few years ago. I suspect the survivors are hurt and angry at the lack of political will to punish these criminals.