Where are Tinus and Barrie?

And so, here we are, our first country in Asia: the fabulous Kingdom of Cambodia. After an excruciating trip of almost 20 hours (Istanbul – Kuala Lumpur, a 3 hour layover, then on to Phnom Penh) we arrived in the capital. My first impression of the place: chaotic, like a heap of ants, but somehow weirdly working properly together.

Our first challenge on Khmer ground was pretty humble: crossing the street. A seemingly never ending flow of cars, tuc-tucs and most of all mopeds (or motos, as they like to call them here) puzzled us: how do people get to the other side of the street here? Eventually, we found out: it’s just a case of going with the flow, and slowly making your way through the heaps of traffic. People drive really slowly here, so it’s actually not as dangerous as it seems (although we did see a spectacular moped sliding, the driver was fine).

That dreadful cliche “go with the flow” does seem to be the best modus operandi over here. When haggling with tuk-tuk drivers, just stay calm, don’t get angry, smile, make stupid jokes, and eventually you pay $10 instead of $20 for a roundtrip to the Killing Fields.

Don’t step on the mass grave…

Those Killing Fields (officially Choeung Ek Memorial Center, because there were over 300 killing fields in Cambodia, the one here is just the most well-known) were our destination for today. They are a vivid reminder of the years of the Khmer Rouge, the terrible regime of Pol Pot. During Pot’s regime, almost a quarter of all Cambodians were brutally murdered in awful ways.

Little children, barely two years old, were beaten to death on a tree, just because their mother or father was a supposed traitor. Because bullets were expensive Pot’s slaughterers used pickaxes or bamboo sticks to beat their victims to death.

Killing tree

The center of the Killing Fields is a memorial stupa with over 5000 skulls found at the graves on the location.

It’s weird to think those things happened less than 35 years ago, and Pot only died 15 years ago. Many people of the Khmer Rouge are still alive today, and only very recently a few of them have been punished. For example, Kang Kek Iew, “Duch”, the boss of one of the most infamous prison camps was sentenced to life just a year ago.

That prison camp, S21 (or Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum) was next up on our list. We got there by tuk-tuk again, which is an attraction in itself. On very rough roads, with holes as large as fridges, we had a bumpy ride to our destination.

S21 was a pretty depressing experience as well. This place, a former school, was used as a prison camp for the supposed traitors of the Pol Pot regime. Here they were tortured and interrogated until they made a confession. After that, they were loaded on trucks and brought to Choeung Ek. A combination of loudly played revolutionary songs and a diesel generator prevented the people living around the place from hearing the screams of the murdered prisoners.

The museum shows the place pretty much as it was in those days, including the bloody footsteps in some of the rooms and the bare prison cells were people were tortured. One of the few exhibitions is a series of portraits of the prisoners.

Well, that sure was enough genocide for one day.

To get out of the somewhat low mood we decided to get to the night market. It’s a cute place with t-shirts for as low as $2, and delicious mango and banana fruit shakes. We also had a sampling of some local and Asian dishes, like Vietnamese spring rolls and some fresh vegetables and meats.

Tomorrow there are elections here, and it seems the current reigning party, the Cambodia’s People Party (CPP) will win once again. I’m curious if we will see some festivities around here.

Our beaver and monkey-friendly bed

Tinus posing with a skeleton on Kuala Lumpur airport

There are really weird water brands here.

You’re so full of crab…

Tuk-tuk adventures