Asia

After Myanmar we flew to Malaysia, where we stayed outside Kuala Lumpur for 3 nights.  Honestly, we didn’t do anything of any interest; we swam, exercised, and used the (thankfully) awesome wifi to pay bills and start prepping for taxes.  That’s all I’m going to write about Malaysia, as we really didn’t do anything cultural.

From there, we flew to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, a city once called the “Pearl of Asia”, but sullied in the 70s by the brutal Khmer Rouge regime.  Beginning in 1975, the regime executed the majority of educated or religious people, and turned the country into a farming society.  It has been estimated that anywhere from 1.5-3.5 million people died during the four years of Khmer Rouge rule.

We first visited the S-21 Tuol Sleng security center, a former high school reconditioned as a jail during the war.  Of the 12,000 people tortured and imprisoned here, only 7 are confirmed to have survived.  The modes of torture, mostly too abhorrent to write, are on display, alongside the leg shackles and metal beds on which prisoners were found murdered.  A place of unspeakable horrors, this is a very distressing piece of Cambodia’s history. 

The killing fields. The name says it all. This is a place where an estimated 17,000 people were brought to be executed, then buried in mass graves.   A walkway winds between the mass graves, where pieces of clothing are still visible, and from which, after heavy rains, pieces of bone and teeth emerge.

In the midst of the graves is a large tree, assigned the grotesquely ironic moniker of “the magic tree”, from which speakers were hung to mask the cries of the dying.  

Hundreds of skulls are displayed, broken and fragmented as a result of the different methods of execution: axe, bludgeoning with bamboo stick, bayonet.  Bullets were too precious to waste, so other methods were used to kill.  Perhaps the most upsetting area of this horrific place is the tree, against which Khmer Rouge officers smashed babies, swinging them by their feet.

I don’t write these things to shock, but mainly because not everyone, especially those born after 1980, may know of the horrible things that occurred in this country.  And, having visited these sights, I feel like I should share.  I don’t want to sound like I’m preaching or anything, but making others aware of what happened to so many innocent people not that long ago is the only tribute, insignificant though it may be, that I can give them.

And the food.  So good.  I’ve written too much about food in the past, and don’t want to go into detail here, but Cambodia’s geographic position in the center of Southeast Asia means that the food has all the best qualities of the surrounding countries. Lots of Thai influences, and curry and lemongrass and fresh fruit and delectable fish.  Anyone who comes across a Cambodian restaurant should definitely give it a try.

The atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge in the 70s have not been forgotten, but the city doesn’t seem to dwell on the past.  Instead, modern cafes are popping up all over, and everyone is very friendly.  Phnom Penh is a bustling, colorful, lively city.