some of the monks let me jam with them in the temple....it was awesome!
After the Royal Palace we had some time to burn so we went to the mall in Phnom Penh. No biggy except for two things. 1- I bought my first pair of sunglasses….ever. nice pair of Gucci sunglasses for $5 (you like how i "pretend" like i'm trendy:) 2- and even more importantly, I had Swensons for the first time…and it was love at first sight...i mean bite!! Seriously the best ice cream i….have….EVER…..eaten! granted it might be the fact that I haven’t had legit ice cream in over a month, they actually gave me a decent portion, they had peanut butter!, and it was blistering hot, but I stand by it: BEST ice cream EVER!
After the swensons discovery we went on a boat ride/barbecue down the Mekong River. It was the perfect end to a physically and emotionally exhausting day. Just to sit on a boat with a cool breeze and the chance to talk with each other about what we have been experiencing. Just throw in a spectacular sunset and you have the perfect end to an amazing day in Cambodia.
Okay, so while Toul Sleng left me feeling heavy and depressed, the Killing Fields, while no less horrific, left me with more of a feeling of awed reverence and solemn sacredness. The killing fields is where they found nearly 10,000 people buried in mass graves. They made a stupa in memorial of the people that died there. Conserved in the stupa are all the skulls of the victims that they found. I found that I have a really hard time viewing things like this and Toul Sleng. It hurt to see evidence of the terrible things that humanity is capable of. There were still bits of bone and cloth that was visible on the ground that had worked its way up after it rained. Nonetheless, there was a reverence that I felt here. It was a hallowed ground and a pristinely beautiful place.
Crossing the border from Thailand to Cambodia was quite the experience. It was extreme culture shock all over again. The poverty was devastating and the people were….different. We had to be very careful because there were beggars and pick-pocketers everywhere. Everywhere we went people were trying to rip us off and milk us for all we were worth. It was frustrating but as I was there I got to know a little bit more about the country and the people and I could understand a little bit more where they were coming from.
Sadly enough, most people don’t know very much about Cambodia. Cambodia actually has a painful history. In the late 70’s a radical government party, the Khmer Rouge, came into power and completely obliterated the Cambodian economy, culture, and society. They were a poor group that came from the country. They wanted to go back to a completely agrarian society so they redistributed the urban population to the country and forced everyone into harsh farm labor. Furthermore, they executed and killed anyone who opposed them, anyone who was educated, anyone in the military, anyone who wasn’t 100% Khmer, it was the Cambodian holocaust. Estimates of 3 million people were tortured and killed during the Khmer Rouge regime. That is ¼ of the country’s population! Their own people! It is incomprehensible to me. This genocide took place just before I was born! It really wasn’t that long ago. AND, I had never even heard of this until I came to college and took a geography class about southeast asia. 3 million people!!!! Completely meaningless slaughter. While in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, we were able to go see Tuol Sleng (the Cambodian equivalent of Auschwitz). It was a hard place to visit. It is hard to explain but my soul felt heavy. I felt bad being there casually viewing the atrocities that are so foreign and removed from me that I couldn’t hope to understand, but were so real to the people that suffered there. And I felt sacreligious casually wandering the prison taking pictures like I was a spectator at a zoo. I did, so that I can remember what I felt and what I saw and because I think that it is important, but I will only select a few to share with you. Sorry for the downer blogpost but I think that it is a story that needs to be told. Anybody in Thailand over 40 lived through the Khmer regime. Its affects are still deeply imbedded in Cambodian society. That is why everyone in Cambodia seems to live as though today is their last, because that is the mindset they were forced into by the Khmer Rouge. It was frustrating to deal with it offered some explanation for their behaviour.
They took pictures and had biographies for everyone who went through Tuol Sleng. There were rooms and rooms full of pictures similar to this one. Only 5 people survived.
