Genocide and Beauty

I realise I've forgotten to write anything about our time spent in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia.  Firstly, it's allot bigger than Siem Reap, 2 million vs. 120,000.  And it's more of an actual town, not a hub of shops/restaurants/hotels catering to the tourists.  Instead of writing a post I'll show it a few pictures what we did in P

S-21 - The prison camp at Tuol Sleng.  Previously, Toul Sleng was a high school.  The Khmer Rouge turned it into a prison and torture centre.   It's estimated that 14-20 thousand people were held here and then subsequently executed.

  A prisoner's bed at S21

The Rules of S-21

1 – You must answer accordingly to my questions. Don't turn them away
2 – Don't try to hide the facts by making pretexts this and that. You are strictly prohibited to contest me

3 – Don't be a fool for you are a chap who dare to thwart the revolution

4 – You must immediately answer me questions without wasting time to reflect

5 – Don't tell me either about you immoralities of the essence of the revolution

6 – While getting lashed or electrification you must not cry at all

7 – Do nothing, sit still and wait for my orders. If there is no order, keep quiet. When I ask you to do something, you must do it right away, without protesting

8 – Don't make pretext about Kampuchea Krom {Cambodia} in order to hide your secret or trader

9 – If you don't follow all the above rules, you shall get many lashes of electric wire

10 – If you disobey any point of me regulations, you shall get either ten lashes or five shocks of electric discharge

Brick cells in S21

 

Monks in a Tuk-Tuk!!!

The Killing Fields of Choeung Ek.  Previously, Choeung Ek was a Chinese graveyard for the local Chinese community.  The Khmer Rouge turned it into a mass grave site.  Between 1975 and 1979 they executed ~17,000 people

During the rainy season, bones and clothes are often brought to the surface

The Killing Tree
Babies were held by their legs and bashed against this tree and then flung into a nearby pit.  The bodies of more than 100 women, children and babies were found in that pit

In contrast to the chilling sites of S-21 and The Killing Fields, the Royal Palace was beautiful and serene.

The grounds of the Royal Palace

Juvenile monks out on a field trip to the Royal Palace

A miniature of Ankor Wat

Less old buildings, most still standing

Forty-eight hours ago I was in Phnom Penh, today I saw two camels (or maybe it was the same camel twice), a tomb of a great king of India, monkeys going at it in the street, sunrise over Delhi, I was the subject of countless Indian photos (it's like being a celebrity here, they all want to take their picture with you! I ended up covering my hair after this happened a handful of times and that seemed to lessen their fascination). I saw semi-trucks the size of small ocean liners, at least 16 people stuffed into the Indian version of a tuk-tuk, Cera and I were gently but insistently man-handled by of couple of old Indian women...oh, and I saw the Taj Mahal. No big deal. Last week it was the great temples of Angkor, today it was the Taj. It's a hard life travelling the globe. :) The Taj was just as stunningly beautiful, white, amazing, wondrous and large as everyone says it it. It was also full of Indian tourists. This is the first time I've been to a famous landmark and not been one of countless Caucasians. It was the same at Fort Agra and the Tomb of Akbar; Indian tourists everywhere and only a handful of Caucasians. It was an interesting experience.

I realized today that when I'm seeing 'THE sights' in a country, I don't feel like I'm really experiencing the country. Sure Angkor Wat (Siem Reap) and The Killing Fields, S21 and the Royal Palace (Phnom Penh) and the Taj Mahal (Agra) are all incredible sights to behold, but they're only a fraction of what's really there.

Finally, I'm a tourist in my own city

Wow, what a week it's been. Cera and Derek came into town on Sunday and since then it's been Go, Go, Go. It's been a whirlwind of showing them around the town I've lived in for the past 3 months; decided which are the most important/worthwhile/interesting places for them to see and deciding which of the many places that I frequent to take them to eat. Our schedule has seriously revolved around where we're going to eat. ;) I've finally gotten to do the touristy things around Siem Reap! On Monday we went to see Beng Mealea, a temple ~2hrs outside town, via tuk-tuk, and almost completely overtaken by the jungle and which Laos described as, “old buildings, some fall down.”. A few walkways have been added to help you get around but other than than it's been left undisturbed (unless you count bombing by the Americans and deconstruction by the Khmer Rouge 45 years ago). We had a great time clambering over fallen rocks and exploring the ruins. After an exhaustive morning we rewarded ourselves with some pool time. Everyone deserves some pool time after spending 5hrs in the sun! :) On Tuesday I took them on a bike ride through the countryside, similar to the one I did 10 weeks ago, but not nearly as long; we were out to enjoy ourselves, not see how far we could bike in 7 hours. :P We went up Phnom Kourm, met a lovely Indian chap who didn't believe Cera lived in India until she spoke a few words of Hindi and stopped for iced coffee with milk at the coffee shop across from Grace House. Tasty tasty! We made our way back into town and after a refreshing lunch we called up Laos, our tuk-tuk driver, and went to visit the silk farm. I'd been there before, but it's quite an amazing place; they show you the whole process of making silk, from the mulberry trees they grow to feed the worms to the room of looms where they weave the cloth to make the pretty things. The people who work at the silk farm have to go through 6 months of training, where they learn to do each step of the process, then thy choose a speciality and spend a further 6 months learning that speciality. The average wage is $130USD a month. The women weaving women earn more than the spinning women and amongst the wavers, the ladies who weave patterns earn more than the ladies who weave one colour. After the silk farm we tried to make it to the temples to watch the sun set, but to no avail, which was sort of alright, it'd been a long day already, and we were set to start at 5am the next morning, to watch the sun rise. And so, bright and early Wednesday morning, off we set for sunrise and temples. It's almost cool at 5 in the morning, if only it was that temperature more often! As we made our way up the road to the ticket booth we were joined by many other tuk-tuks and their charges, all making their way to the temples, eager to get there before the choice spots to watch the sun rise were taken. It was quite an amusing sight. Sunrise over Angkor Wat was spectacular, as was watching the other camera toting tourists click away, trying to capture the most perfect shot, the three of us included. We ate breakfast while sitting on the steps of Angkor Wat, looking out at the surrounding grounds. It was stinking hot, and only 8am. :P After Angkor we went to Bayon, in Angkor Thom, and then Ta Prom, famous because some of “Tomb Raider,” with Angelina Jolie, was filmed there. It's meant to be the 'jungle temple,'all overgrown and mysterious. Compared to the other temples we'd seen that day, it was, but compared to Beng Mealea, it was a manicured garden. The old trees growing out and around and over the temple were cool though. After 8 hours of temples and sun we decided we'd had enough, even though we'd seen barely a quarter of the temples/ruins included in our temple pass. I can totally see why people get 3-ay or 1 week passes; there are SO many temples. On the other hand, by the end of the day, they were all running together in my head, each was a pile of stone in some state of disrepair and they all had a similar architectural feel to them. We spent the rest of the afternoon recuperating by the pool. :) While there we got to watch a coconut tree get harvested! A wiry guy shimmed up the tree, with a machete and a length of rope, hacked out a bundle of coconuts, tied them to the rope and lowered them down. Someone on the ground would untie them while the guy in the tree tied the other end around another bundle of coconuts. It was fascinating to watch. Wednesday night was my last night in Siem Reap; very bittersweet. As per tradition, we went to Tapas night at Soria Moria and then headed over to Crazy Bamboo Bar for a drink. It wasn't quite the same without all the other volunteers, but at least I had Derek and Cera. :) Thursday morning we went out to Grace House, so I could show them where I'd been working for the past 3 months. It was nice to see the place one last time and properly say good-bye to the Khmer teachers. Sophea (the Khmer teacher I worked with) had our students say 'Thank You Teacher!' and they all mobbed me with hugs. It was the best farewell I could've asked for. We spent the rest of Thursday on a bus to Phnom Penh. Four and a half hours of barrelling down the 'highway,' avoiding collisions with cows, motobikes, bicycles, other mini-buses and HUGE trucks. I was thankful we arrived in one piece. :P We arrived at our guesthouse without any mishap. It's luxury compared to our accommodation in SR; we've got A/C and a fridge and a huge bathroom....swanky. PP is a metropolis compared to SR. 2 million residents to a mere 120,000. So much more traffic and people on the streets (who aren't foreigners), bright lights and wide avenues, a Ministry of such and such or an embassy on every other corner and even a few tall buildings. It's like I've been in the country for the past 3 months. I can only imagine how Delhi is going to blow my mind. 

Pictures will be added when I have a faster internet connection. :P 

Bamboo train, the Golden Gate Bridge(s) of Cambodia, Fish Fighting, 365 steps and then 2,000 more, an abandoned train station and some local kids.

My last day of school was on Monday. It was a bit of a let down because there weren't any classes. We spent the day cleaning classrooms. Normally, on a volunteers last day, the school gathers for a circle and Bridget makes the announcement that it's your last day and all kids clap and say 'Thank You Teacher!!!' But because we didn't have normal class on Monday, there was no circle and no 'Thank You Teacher.' Everyone likes to feel appreciated and when you don't get recognition it's a bit of a let down. I didn't dwell on this for too long though, on Wednesday a fellow Globalteer and I hopped on a bus and headed to Battambang, the second largest city in Cambodia. I was surprised to learn that Siem Reap wasn't the second largest, but then, a large portion of its 'population' is tourists, and they don't count. The 3hr. bus ride there was uneventful and we arrived in a bustling city very different from Siem Reap. SR thrives on the tourist industry and most of the city that I interact with on a daily basis is the tourist parts. Battambang doesn't have as large of a tourist hub, so most of the city is just that, a city, not full of shops and stores and restaurants and travel agents catering to the tourist crowd. We checked into out hotel (the staff were surprised that Alex and I wanted one room with two beds) and then we set of to find adventure. Our first stop was an old abandoned train station.

Next stop, a few pagodas, all decked out with decorations for Khmer New Year. We stopped at a sugar cane juice trolley for a cool refreshment in the heat of the day. While we were enjoying out drinks, the daughter of the owner (my assumption) decided that she wanted her own drink. She was too short to reach inside the orange cooler to fill her cup with ice, so she found herself a stool filled her cup, poured out the juice, fixed herself up with a straw and took a long drink. A huge grin spread across her face, she looked at Alex and I and said, 'Awwww.' It was the most adorable sequence of events. 

We spent some time at Wat Kandal. There was a temple/shrine/room/porch/thing whose walls were plastered with posters and quotes and magazine covers and articles and pictures all about peace and justice and refugees. It was interesting. While we were reading, a storm blew in and we decided it'd be better to wait it out in the peace room, rather then try and venture our. So we settled in to wait out the storm. There was one particularly loud clap of thunder, and I'm quite sure it gave me a small heart attack. It was like the world was exploding, and the epicentre was 500m from where I stood. It was quite a while before my heart rate returned to normal. :P

That evening we went to the Battambang 'circus.' It was phenomenal! The show we saw was a representation/expression/description of the Khmer Rouge, using modern dance and acrobatics. My favourite act was one that reminded me of the ball machine/contraption that used to be in front of Science World in Vancouver. There's a bunch of balls and ramps and elevators and roller coaster type rails that the balls ride on. The circus act was similar, the performers had bamboo poles that they used as the rails and one guy was the head juggler/ball master, catching the balls and placing them on different bamboo ramps. Then the ramp dudes would make a new formation and.....it was all so incredibly timed and choreographed, simply amazing. There were other acts that conveyed the violence of the Khmer Rouge, how the Cambodian people were tortured and their actions beaten down until they were too scared to do anything for fear of being killed. 

 The next morning we set off bright and early with our Tuk-Tuk driver, Mr. Phi Lay, who was recommended to us by friends in SR. Mr. Phi Lay's tuk tuk wasn't a small, simple city tuk-tuk, it was the Hummer of tuk-tuks, and as the afternoon progressed, we found out why. On our journey around Battambang, we travelled some truly treacherous, and bumpy roads that would've had a city tuk-tuk falling to pieces at the first hole in the road! We saw fish fighting, two Cambodian Golden Gate Bridges, rode a bamboo train, saw a brick making factory, and visited two temples. Both were on the tops of 'mountains.' 356 steps up one and 2,500 steps up the other. The views from the top were spectacular. 

Attempting to teach some kids how to make a frog with their fingers

Fish Fighting

A Bamboo Train 'Car'

Dismantling our bamboo train car

Bricks drying before they're fired

Clambering up the outside of the kiln

A Cambodian Golden Gate Bridge

365 steps up

 

Wat Banan

Wat Banan

 The second temple, Wat Sampeau, is known for the Killing Caves which are nearby. These limestone caves were a convenient disposal sight for some 10,000 people killed by the Khmer Rouge. It was a sobering sight.

The hole through which 10,000 bodies were thrown

The view from the top of Wat Sampeau

  To lighten the mood, on the other side of the 'mountain' we saw monkeys!! These guys had absolutely no fear. They even made a grab at the cup of ice Alex was holding. I'm quite sure they would've jumped up on us, if we'd let them.

 By the time we made it back to the bottom, my legs were shaking from all the steps we'd climbed that day and I was ready to fall into bed, but we had one more stop on the itinerary, an abandoned Pepsi factory. Production shut down in the 70's and it hasn't been touched since then.

Me and Alex and Mr. Phi Lay, our trusty Tuk-Tuk driver

Sunset from the top of our hotel

My days in Siem Reap are numbered. Derek and Cera arrive tomorrow, we'll do the touristy things in SR, head to Phnom Penh and then fly to Delhi. I've got 8 days left in this town. I can't believe I've been here for 3 months already.

My shrine

Today I start dismantling my room in preparation of leaving Siem Reap.  Over the past 12 weeks I've collected a few odds and ends, bits and pieces that I've saved.  I started putting them on top of my T.V., to hide the thing and it's turned into quite a lovely shrine.
There are:
Seeds from jackfruit, longuns, custard apple and mangosteens
A rose that I received from a friend
Flowers that I used to decorate my hair one day
A paper boat from the day we made origami boats in class
A drawing of balloons that one of my students did
A shell from Sihanoukville
My name, written in Khmer

Packing up my room here is almost as bittersweet as packing up my room back home was. :P

I got a diploma today!

Today I have graduated! From The Khmer Ceramics and Fine Arts Centre. :)  I've even got a diploma to prove it.  The writing below my name is my name written in Khmer.

 These are the pieces I got to create.  You make three but then you only get to keep one of them, unless you want to buy the others. I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to cart a clay cup around SE Asia, but I did enjoy making it, and getting my hands dirty :)

The Best New Year Party!!

I just had one of the best New Years parties ever; and it was with a bunch of school kids. :) Next weekend is Khmer New Year and next week the school is closed, so today we had a New Year party. My class played games like three-legged race, egg and spoon race, tie a balloon to your ankle and try not to let the other kids pop it and a game with hula hoops on the ground that were an island and the kids either had to be in the island or in the water, depending on if the teacher called 'sharks' (stay on the island) or 'tigers' (get in the water). It was grand fun. They kids had a blast playing all the games. There was so much squealing and yelling and laughing. The prizes for each game were oranges. :) After games we had snack; more oranges, a biscuit and a cup of pop. There was no pushing or shoving to be the first to get their food. The kids were quite orderly and stayed seated while we handed out the treats. They are so respectful here. After a short break the staff and volunteers got to have a little fun. We played a Cambodian version of the pinata game. Instead of paper mache, we had to hit a clay pot. Instead of raining down candy, talcum powder is spewed everywhere. We played boys vs. girls and the girls totally won! Alan wanted us to get a 'team picture' afterwards and as we so dutifully posed for the picture he whacked the pot above us, showering us in what talcum powder there remained in the pot. We fell for it hook, line and sinker. It did make for quite a good laugh. The best part of the day was the dancing afterwards. We had speakers set up and music was played from someones cell phone, a mix of Western club music and traditional Khmer dance music. It was SO hot, but every time I tried to leave someone would say, 'No Cha, dance!!!' It was great. After a much needed lunch (dancing in the heat for an hour, after playing games for 2 hours, is tough on the stomach!) the kids finally decided they'd had enough dancing and went home. The volunteers and staff went to the pagoda to get blessed. The staff came too because it's the New Year, a good time to get blessed. The day ended with all of us hanging out at the local soda shop, drinking beer/sprite/soyabean milk/coke and eating green mangos and teasing the head teacher about his recent trip to Australia. Happy Khmer New Year!! 

Testing out the tug-of-war rope

The winning team competing to determine the winning person

TIGERS!

DANCE, DANCE, DANCE

Our social hour after the party :)