Cambodia: Phnom Penh

Warning: This post contains photos from S21, the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, where prisoners were tortured by the Khmer Rouge.  It's disturbing material.  If you'd rather not see them, don't click through at the jump break.


"Tuk-tuk?  Killing fields?  Genocide museum?"

So called the tuk-tuk drivers, advertising the most popular tourist "highlights" of Phnom Penh.

With attractions like that, Phnom Penh sounds like a rather grim destination.  B. would agree, I think (exacerbated by the fact that he spent most of our time there in bed feeling miserable).  And yet, I found Cambodia's capital to be charming and exciting.

Phnom Penh sits at the confluence of the Tonle Sap, Mekong, and Bassac rivers.  It was once considered to be the "Pearl of Asia", one of the loveliest French-built cities in Indochina.  In the 1970s, however, the Khmer Rouge shelled and then forcibly evacuated the city; during their genocidal reign from 1975-1979, approximately 1.7 million people -- 21% of the country's population -- died.

Since the overthrow of the Khmer Rouge in 1979, Phnom Penh -- and, indeed, Cambodia as a whole -- has been rebuilding.  It is, in many ways, a very young city and a very young country.  I loved the city for its rawness and its potential.  For the palpable feeling that, if we return in 5 or 10 or 20 years, the city will have grown and exploded and regained more of its former glory.  I look forward to that day.


On a decidedly less sentimental note... by the time we'd reached Phnom Penh, B. was several countries overdue for a haircut.  We found a bright orange, super inexpensive hair salon with a bit of English on the door and figured they couldn't mess up his hair too badly.  The ordeal involved several electric razors that couldn't cope with B.'s quantity of hair, a broken electrical outlet, and ultimately resulted in a haircut was a bit short on the sides, a bit long on top, the front was gelled to a point... and the hairdresser refused to change anything, despite our laughing insistence.  That's what a $3-4 Cambodian haircut gets you.  (Note: this wouldn't be the last time an Asian hairdresser had her way with B.'s hair and then refused to change anything.)

Click "read more" below to see photos from S21, the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum.

Cambodia: Angkor Wat

The Angkor temples exist in various states of reconstruction.  Some are still scattered piles of stone with trees growing through.  Others have been largely restored to their original glory.

See those numbers written on the stones?  In order to reconstruct Baphuon, the temple was taken apart piece by piece and the original location of each stone was carefully noted.  During the reign of the Khmer Rouge, the inventory was lost, turning the reconstruction project into a massive puzzle in three dimensions.

Buddha reclining

Angkor Wat

Bullet holes from the Khmer Rouge

Our tour guide

It's extremely popular for tourists to visit Angkor Wat for sunrise, crowding around the reflecting pool to catch the iconic shot of the sun rising through the towers.  Instead, we caught the reflection of the tourists.

And then watched the sunrise from Bakan, the uppermost terrace of Angkor Wat

The Angkor temples have suffered the ravages of both time and men.  In many places, statues and decorations have been stolen and sold on the international black market, winding up in private collections and at famous museums abroad.  The push is increasingly toward preservation, though, and some of these stolen pieces are now being repatriated.

Ta Prohm temple has been left partially-reconstructed with gigantic trees growing through.

It has a cameo in "Tombraider" with Angelina Jolie.

Cambodia: Siem Reap

When so many well-traveled friends tell you not to miss Angkor Wat, you listen.

One goes to Angkor Wat to see ruins of an empire, to ogle at the scale of the temple complexes, the delicate detail of the buildings, the technology required so long ago, and to wonder at the fact that all of it was abandoned -- forgotten -- literally reclaimed by the jungle -- for hundreds of years.  It's stunning and breath-taking and tragic.

For photos from the temples, see the next post.

We flew Cambodia Angkor Airways from Bangkok (BKK) to Siem Reap (REP, the city closest to Angkor Wat) on their second day of operating the route.  Conversation on board started with jokes about whether the pilot had been flying for more than two days (he had.  It was a perfectly smooth hour-long flight on a prop plane) and then invariably shifted to genocide and Cambodian history.  It was a stark contrast from Thailand, where the conversation centered around beautiful beaches, partying, and relaxation.

At the tiny Siem Reap airport (one of three international airports in Cambodia and the busiest one in terms of passenger traffic, according to Wikipedia), we had the surreal experience of watching our passports get passed, hand-to-hand, down a line of 7 Cambodian officials while Gangam Style played in the background.  Before Psy finished singing "Eh, sexy lady", our visas were granted.

While the temples dominated our time in Siem Reap, we also took an ATV tour through the surrounding area and stopped at the Landmine Museum.  Given that Siem Reap is the gateway to Angkor Wat and that millions of tourists pass through each year, the area is remarkably underdeveloped.  Nearly 30% of the country lives under the poverty line of $1 per day; even near the relatively prosperous tourist sites, there are communities without electricity.  We saw endless rice paddies, many waving children, and a gorgeous sunset.

* The official Cambodian currency is the riel, which currently exchanges at approximately 4000 KHR to 1 USD.  In practice, US dollars are used for most transactions, especially in the cities; even the ATMs dispense dollars.  We picked up a few thousand riels in change from vendors, but that's about it.