I've been in Phnom Penh, Cambodia's capitol city, for a couple of days now and, for the first time on this trip, I'm not really liking a place. There are all kinds of reasons why I should like it - broad avenues, good food, friendly people, lots to do and plenty of culture; but for some reason it's not moving me like other places have.
My first day here, I toured the Toul Sleng genocide museum also known as S-21. It was a local high school that the Khmer Rouge turned into a torture prison and holding area for the Killing Fields 15Km away. Of the scores of thousands who were imprisoned here during the five years of insanity that swept this nation, only seven survived. Seven.
Right after, we were taken to Choeung Ek also known as The Killing Fields where thousands of truckloads of peasants, teachers, ex-soldiers, politicians, businessmen, women, children and the elderly were made to kneel down, then clubbed and had their throats cut, then dumped into pits and buried in mass graves.
Sounds like the same old 20th century story, doesn't it?
Maybe part of why I don't like it here is the shabbiness of these two sites. I guess I was expecting something more moving, more feeling, with more of a sense of import. The museum where so many were betrayed, tortured, (including waterboarding interestingly enough,) and condemned to mass execution, is falling apart and looks like crap, and the exhibits are thrown together without any apparent care. The fields where all those people died is covered in mud, weeds and litter, with open pools of nasty water, and there are beggars and livestock roaming all around. It's like they don't even care, but I know that can't be the case.
Maybe it's the way the same people who take you to these chilling places try to convince you to go to a shooting range immediately after to fire AK-47s, toss grenades, and I've even heard rumors you can shoot a rocket at livestock for kicks. I have no problem with guns and I like target shooting, but the thought of firing a weapon the genocidal killers might have used right after visiting the grisly results of their insanity is distasteful, to say nothing of what an RPG would do to a cow. What kind of person would be in that business and who would want to go do that?
Sick people.
I try to tell myself that it all happened just a couple of years ago, (the Khmer weren't completely eradicated until 1998!) the wounds are still too fresh and the people are still dealing with the horror of their own government killing about a third of the population. It must be some country-wide case of PTSD and I should give them some slack, I know...
Maybe it's the way the local population mistreats their own world. There is a huge amount of rotting garbage and flies everywhere - much more than any other place I've been. And it seems 
that everyone, with no effort to hide what they are doing, just goes to the bathroom anywhere. Now I've done way more than my share of taking a leak in nature or behind a dumpster after a long night out, but here I see it 20 times a day, at least - and no one even turns around to do it. One little naked kid almost peed on my feet, and I was walking in the road at the time!
that everyone, with no effort to hide what they are doing, just goes to the bathroom anywhere. Now I've done way more than my share of taking a leak in nature or behind a dumpster after a long night out, but here I see it 20 times a day, at least - and no one even turns around to do it. One little naked kid almost peed on my feet, and I was walking in the road at the time!(Wow, I sound like a prude!)
I know that poor farmers are flocking to the city to try to make money and they might not know about basic sanitation, but why isn't the government trying to do some education just for health reasons?
Things I like:
I went out to dinner last night at a beautifully decorated restaurant named Romdeng, it's a training restaurant for street kids but you would never know it. The food was wonderful - all authentic gourmet Khmer, and the service was, well, perfect.
I like the way so many Cambodian and International Organizations are here helping the homeless, limbless, parentless, penniless, and hopeless learn trades so they get make a living and don't have to just beg until they die.
I've walked all across this city these last two days and absolutely everyone is friendly - my smile is always instantly returned and people rush to help me if I look lost or struggling to communicate something.Phnom Penh reminds me a of a city I love, Buenos Aires, there are lots of wide boulevards with parks running down the middle, and European architecture and balconies with plenty of green plants hanging down. There are lots of cute little art galleries and native music performances, and they seem to really be doing a good job of preserving and supporting local handicrafts, too.
I really love roaming the local markets, trying to figure out the meats and produce, (trying to ignore the blood and smells,) and everyone smiles at the lone white man squeezing through the crowds along the narrow walkways. I try very hard to keep my size 11.5 hobbit feet out of the displays;)
My hostel is nice, the other guests are super friendly, and the staff is fantastic.
I really like the cafe culture around the city, lots of rattan, ceiling fans, and cool corner balcony bars where you can sip G&T's and watch the Orient slip by... I just need a linen suit and a planter's hat!
So why am I feeling such antipathy? I thought maybe I'm just in a little mood because my fun in SE Asia ends in less than a week; but I am REALLY looking forward to the Seychelles, so that's not it.
I guess in the end, it doesn't much matter. Just becasuse a place is new and exotic doesn't mean I have to fall in love with it. A place is just a place like any other - some good, some bad - and I'm off to Saigon in the morning!
Good Night,
Clement
