The Heat is On, the Heat is On-On, the Heat is... ON in Phnom Penh!

Here we are here in Phnom Penh on an extremely hot day. Holy cow! It’s so hot I’ve been sweating through all of my clothing. Ted and I may have to take a shower before dinner. We arrived yesterday in Cambodia’s capital city, Phnom Penh, via Siem Reap Airways, which was an adventure in and of itself. The airport was tiny and the aircraft tinier. We were in an A-27 (Ted thinks), which just two seats on each side. As it pulled in front of our departure gate, only one engine was on. We were hoping both were working, though we didn’t really know until the pilot turned the second one on after driving all the way down the runway, and just minutes before take-off. Other passengers were also cheering as both engines began running. The 40-50 minute flight was short and relatively uneventful, which is a good thing. I got a veggie meal, which consisted of small lettuce, cucumber, and butter sandwiches with the crusts cut off. Ted had a veggie samosa. I think I ought to opt for the non-veg meals in Asia. I’m 0 for 2.

Our taxi driver was waiting with a big sign with my name on it and the FCC logo. We’re staying at the famous Foreign Correspondents Club of Cambodia, or FCC, which is quite a bit nicer than I’m used to from my backpacking and Peace Corps days. I kind of like the upgrade! We arrived around 6:30 p.m. and were accosted by tuk-tuk drivers everywhere on our way into the hotel. We checked in and then were led to our beautiful room. A little bit of peace and quiet in crazy Cambodia. When we got into our room, all of my clothing was soaked in the backpack because water leaked out of something in my pack. I had to hang my clothes all over the room to dry out, but luckily everything was dry by this morning.

Phnom Penh seems quite a bit richer than Siem Reap and the countryside. The civil war ended only 20-25 years ago, and under Khmer Rouge regime, all educated people were massacred – doctors, lawyers, intellectuals, monks, teachers, students, professors, speakers of French, English, and other languages, etc. The ultra-communist regime created a two-class society, a working class and peasants. There are only two factories in the entire country, and they are both in Phnom Penh. That is where most of the clothing from the Gap and other stores in the US most likely comes from. There are still a lot of beggars and people who are deformed or missing limbs from the war or the landmines that are still all over the countryside. I think I read somewhere it would take more than 200 years, or some crazy number, to completely de-mine the entire country.

We had dinner at the FCC last night, which is super touristy and full of ex-pats and travelers. The food was expensive but excellent. I had my 4th or 5th dinner of amok fish since arriving in Cambodia. I absolutely LOVE Khmer cuisine. We turned in early because we had an early start on today, our only full-day in Phnom Penh.

We began this morning on a self-guided tour of the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. Parts of it reminded me of my visit to Auschwitz Concentration Camp near Krakow, Poland almost 10 years ago. Tuol Sleng, known as the S-21 Prison, was a high school that the Khmer Rouge, under Pol Pot, converted into an interrogation headquarters and torture chamber from 1975-1979. More than 20,000 people passed through the prison before the Vietnamese liberated it. We were able to view several of the detention cells and torture rooms, with blood-stained floors and pictures of the victims being tortured, as well as watch a one-hour video at the end. There were several rooms with thousands of pictures of the victims of the massacres and very graphic paintings by Vann Nath, one of only seven survivors, in the museum. The museum is intense; some of the photos and pictures made me sick. Kaing Khek Iev, known as Duch, the chief director of the infamous Tuol Sleng prison, is currently on trial in Phnom Penh; he is the first person who has ever been tried. He was a math teacher (I think) before joining the Khmer Rouge, and because of his profession, he kept meticulous notes and pictures.

After spending almost 4 hours at the museum, we were on our way to Choeung Ek, the Killing Fields. Only about half of the mass graves have been excavated to date. There were overgrown ditches everywhere, where the bodies, teeth, and bones of more than two million people were tortured and killed. The shallow graves surround the memorial, marked by a Buddhist stupa, that the Cambodians have recently erected to remember those who perished.

Our driver kept trying to tempt us to go to the shooting range, where for $30 US, you can buy a magazine of bullets and fire AK 47s, M 16s, rocket launchers, and hand grenades, but we opted to return to the hotel for lunch. After eating, we spent the afternoon touring the grand Royal Palace of the king and the Silver Pagoda and walking along the river front. Our hotel is right of the river, where the Tonle Sap and the Mekong Rivers meet. We saw several carts full of fried spiders and bugs. I started taking pictures before I was yelled at. I hope some of them turned out! It was my first time seeing a mobile bug snack bar.

Tomorrow we may try and hit up some of the markets and hopefully tour the National Museum, which is famous for Khmer art, before flying to Hanoi, Vietnam. From Hanoi, we’ll be on a 3-day boat cruise of Ha Long Bay, so there will most likely not be as much internet access and posting, but we’ll do our best. We’re having a great adventure but ready to head out of Cambodia and back to Vietnam.