Phnom Penh: Our First Taste of Cambodia
A quick dive into our initial thoughts and feelings of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and what we got up to during our short time there; Live music, a visit temple, Killing Fields of Choeng Ek, and making a new friend.
Arriving in Cambodia, I (Jess) didn’t have any expectations or pre-conceptions on what the people or culture would be like, but it didn’t take long to realise what a history-rich, wonderfully friendly and overall beautiful country this was.
We first arrived in Phnom Penh on a flight from Ho Chi Minh City, and although it’s a neighbouring country of Vietnam, we could already feel a difference in how people were, how the buildings looked and how much poorer the place was in comparison. We jumped in a TukTuk at the airport and were taken to our accommodation, which was a lovely room on the top floor of a building above a coffee shop - The Artist Residence. Being late at night, the owner was asleep in the coffee shop but woke up and greeted us with a great big smile and showed us around. We immediately felt welcome in this new country we’d found ourselves in.
We didn’t have any big plans for Phnom Penh, but I knew it was important for me to visit the Killing Fields (more on this later), so I could get more of an understanding about the fairly recent evil history of the place during Pol Pot’s time as Prime Minister, and what he subjected these innocent people to during this rule.
Another thing we were craving was some live music and decent beer, and so we went in search of “craft beer” and “live music” on Google Maps. We came across a bar that was pretty close to our place called Craft. Before checking out Craft, we wanted to do some more cultural sight-seeing and so, on our first morning in Phnom Penh, we went for a walk through town to a temple called Wat Phnom Daun Penh; Wat meaning Temple. Wat Phnom Daun Penh is the tallest temple in the city of Phnom Penh, and was built in 1372 but has been worked on several times since. The last time being in 1926 when the sanctuary was rebuilt. It was interesting to see a Buddhist temple in Cambodia after seeing all the temples we saw in Thailand. It was quite different - especially the decoration of the giant terracotta mythical cobra-looking creature that followed the staircase all the way from the top to the bottom. We later learnt that this creature is called a Naga, and it is significant in Khmer Buddhist culture as it represents many things including protection, prosperity, cosmic balance, water, and rebirth.
Walking up all those steps was thirsty work, so we decided to end our wholesome day trip and call into Craft. We were pleasantly surprised to see a band already setting up, and some actual craft beer on the menu. At last! The band members were husband and wife - Colin and Keiko. Colin is originally from England, and Keiko from Japan. They were very interesting characters and great musicians! We thoroughly enjoyed our evening getting to know them, and listening to their unique sound - Keiko on the Japanese drums and Colin on harmonica and vocals.
The following day, I decided it was time to go to the Killing Fields of Choeng Ek. Tor had previously been to Cambodia and went to the Killing Fields during that trip, and as it isn’t a place you’d want to visit more than once, they decided to stay home and let me visit alone. I was quite happy to do so, as it’s one of those places you need to be with your own thoughts while you take in the harrowing reality of what the country went through during the rule of the Khmer Rouge.
For anyone that doesn’t know, Pol Pot was the Prime Minister of Cambodia from 1975 - 1979, and his goal was to start over again - this meant no history, no books, no universities, hospitals, schools or money. He wanted all people of Cambodia to work in agriculture and that’s all they were allowed to do. He also wanted to essentially demolish big cities, and sent residents to villages to work on land. Anyone who worked in any profession that required intelligence, were generally sent to various camps around the country to be tortured and executed. The Killing Fields of Choeng Ek was only one of such places, but saw so much tragedy during those four years.
Since the closure of the Choeng Ek Killing Fields, the remains of 8,895 bodies have been exhumed. The executions were brutal, and often people were tortured, beaten, raped and humiliated before being murdered - often the murders were by pickaxes to preserve bullets. There was even a tree where the information board read “This Tree which the executioners smashed the children’s heads against it”. It really did make me feel sick to the stomach and brought tears to my eyes. As well as seeing this, there was a display of all the clothes of the victims that had been dug up from the mass-graves. Another harrowing sight. I could really understand why Tor wouldn’t want to re-visit this place, but I was still glad I went, because to truly understand something like this, I feel you must stand in the footprints of those who suffered, and really put yourself in their shoes. It’s totally different to just reading about it.
After the hour-or-so I spent there, I got back in the TukTuk of the driver who’d taken me and waited outside for me. I was feeling solemn and quite disturbed. My driver then said to me “both of my parents are in there”. There… as in the Killing Fields. He said his mother was a doctor and his father a teacher… And for this, they were both taken to this place and murdered. I couldn’t believe it. Suddenly everything I’d just heard about and read, became a reality as a real-life victim of the Khmer Rouge was driving me back to my hotel. These things you read about while travelling, often happened hundreds of years ago, and there aren’t really any surviving victims left to tell their side - but in this case, the history was so recent, that the son of two innocent, well-educated people was sitting right in front of me, casually letting me know about his parents’ devastating ending.
On a lighter note, we spent the following evening with a friend of a friend - Sophavin. Sophavin was a student of my friend Sandy who I met on a previous trip to Vietnam around 6 years ago. Sandy mentioned that she lived in Phnom Penh and recommended we meet up, so I reached out to Sophavin on social media and we made some arrangements. She knew a local restaurant/bakery and so we met her there. We immediately felt her warmth radiating as she met us with a big grin and a tight hug. She was as excited to meet us as we were to meet her, and with that, we sat down and she ordered us a variety of Khmer specialities! Don’t ask me what any of it was, but she ordered loads!! And each one (apart from one of them that I didn’t like) was delicious. We chatted about our future travels across Cambodia and what we hoped to do, as well as her own life - she was working in a computer repair shop when we met her, but I believe she’s since become a baker herself. Her dream was to own a shop and have children of her own. She was really the sweetest person, and when we said goodbye, she gifted us a beautiful embroidered piece of material each with an image of Angkor Wat on it. One of them is now proudly displayed in our van.
