My boss and I got an obnoxiously early flight and jetsetted off to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. We were going for a final wrap-up meeting of a Sustainable Collection of Wild Medicinal Plants project. Successful meeting and successful trip.
The national monument at night. I didn't realize I was trespassing until the guard started yelling at me in Khmer. Oops!
We stayed in Phnom Penh for four days and I did some sightseeing while, ahem, "working" from the hotel. I took a visit to the royal palace and national museum. I also went to the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, which is a school in the middle of the city that the Khmer Rouge turned into a torture prison from 1976-79 (now a museum), before taking victims out to the Killing Fields (an equally popular tourist destination) to be bludgeoned and buried in mass graves. It's strange that these places have become the big tourist draw in Phnom Penh. Literally every tuk-tuk driver that sees a foreigner will say something like "Hi lady. I take you to killing field." Creepy.
One of the temples in the royal palace.
Exploitation of the human obsession with disaster aside, these places do bring to light the horrendous truth of the reign of Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge. Equally sickening is that the UN supported the Khmer Rouge during and after all of this was happening. Needless to say, my visit to the former prison was a profound and disgusting experience. But as someone I met in PP advised me, "Go to the Genocide Museum, and then afterwards go sit in local cafe, drink a cup of coffee, and watch daily Phnom Penh life. The contrast is astounding and inspiring"
At the prison
So I did, and he was right. Like in Viet Nam, another country with a war-torn and bloody past, Cambodians have reestablished themselves and moved forward with their lives and country.
Thanks. I have a student from Cambodia, and he regularly wears an "Angkor Wat" T-shirt. When I told him my step-daughter was there, he was very pleased.
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