Holiday in Cambodia

"The past is never dead. It's not even past."

-William Faulkner

Perhaps no other country in Southeast Asia has had a more tumultuous run of things than Cambodia. Although the entire region is defined by mighty ancient empires, rampant colonial devastation, communist uprisings, American warfare, and the modern tourist trail, Cambodia stands out from its neighbors because of the dizzying glory of its triumphs and the devastating depths of its tragedies. From the untold riches of the Khmer Empire to the genocidal madness of the Khmer Rouge, the country’s history reads almost like a Greek myth. Like Cronus devouring his own children, the leaders of Cambodia turned on their own people replacing grandeur with gore and golden Buddhas with lifeless bodies. Enormous temples hearken back to a time when the highways here were the crossroads of the world, while modern signs covered in skulls remind you that to step off of those main roads is to risk being obliterated by a landmine. In Cambodia the past is very much present. The history is written in the land and on the faces of the people. A holiday here is like a walk from ancient times right up to the present day. And like all good stories we must start at the beginning.

The modern day city of Siem Reap draws its lifeblood from the country’s magnificent past. It is the gateway to the Temples of Angkor which are the official symbols of Cambodia. Between the 12^th and 14^th centuries, hundreds of thousands of workers toiled away for their god-kings to create some of the most awe-inspiring structures ever built. Even now, the great temple of Angkor Wat is the largest religious building in the world and has been in continuous use since its construction over eight hundred years ago.

We arrived at the bus station at Siem Reap and found an affable Tuk Tuk driver named Visu. “Like Visa/Mastercard!” he said with a smile.  He agreed to spend the next few days taking us around to the various sights in Angkor. This place is way too big to see in one day.

We awoke at four o’clock in the morning in order to make it to Angkor Wat for sunrise. On the road to the temples I drank in the chilled, dark, pre-dawn air; relishing every breath because I knew what roasting heat lurked as the vanguard of the rising sun. We arrived just as dawn was spreading her rosy fingers across the eastern horizon. Brilliant pink, red, and golden clouds drifted slowly across the deep blue canvas of the early morning sky. The black silhouette of the massive temple reflected majestically on the mirrored surface of the enormous moat that encircles the site.

We spent an hour or so wandering around the expansive grounds which are meant to represent the structure of the world. The massive moats and ponds are the oceans and seas, courtyards that are the size of soccer fields represent the continents, while the great towers evoke the solemn dominance of the mountains. Thousands of monks and nuns strolled around the area, collecting trash, meditating in the cool morning air or preparing for the birthday celebration of Buddha (which was that day).

Over the next few days we visited dozens of sites, too numerous to mention them all. We walked the mile-long Elephant Terrace where the god-kings of old lounged as parades of horses, elephants, and thousands of soldiers gave testament to their military might. We bathed in the cool waters of Kbal Spean, also known as the river of 1000 lingas because of the 11^th century carvings that cover the river bottom.

The most impressive site, however, was a temple called Ta Phrom. It is a gorgeous, ancient structure that is being reclaimed by the voracious jungle. Enormous trees grow up through the walls and around the stone pagodas in a seamless interweaving of the human and natural world. Crawling through the darkened corridors of Ta Phrom felt a little like the Raiders of the Lost Ark so I kept a sharp eye out for poison tipped blowgun darts and golden idols. If only I’d brought a bag of sand…

The town of Siem Reap is located near the shores of Tonle Sap, the largest lake in Southeast Asia. The boundaries of the lake change dramatically between the wet and dry seasons.  Since time immemorial, the people have found unique ways to deal with the ever-changing landscape. Houses constructed on the plains around Tonle Sap are built on stilts up to thirty feet high like spindle-legged elephants wandering through the dust of the dry season. However, during the wet season the lake water laps at the doorsill. Some residents have done away with stilts all together and actually built floating villages on the surface of the lake. These villages are complete with houses, grocery stores, schools, bars and everything else you could need... all floating on rafts. We took a boat out late one afternoon for a visit. It was truly amazing. You could live your entire life in one of these villages and never set foot on land.

Leaving Siem Reap we took the road south to the capital Phnom Penh and it seemed to me that we were taking a highway through history; leaving the wonders of the ancient world and moving into a time when the horrors of the Khmer Rouge washed over Cambodia like a river of blood. Much like the western calendar was divided into two parts when a knife cut the umbilical cord of baby from Nazareth, the history of Cambodia is also cleft in twain, but with a much bloodier knife.

On April 17th, 1975 Khmer Rouge forces, under the command of Pol Pot, entered Phnom Penh and changed history forever. As a young man, Pol Pot studied in France and became an active member of the French Communist Party. He admired Mao Tse Tung and fiercely studied China’s Cultural Revolution. With Mao in mind, he attempted to help his country take a “Great Leap Forward.” Unfortunately for Cambodia, Pol Pot must never have finished reading the Chinese history or he would have known the tragedy that was about to befall his country.

Pol Pot envisioned a country where the peasants were the esteemed members of society, where everyone lived with the common ideals of an agrarian, communist society. To make this a reality, the Khmer Rouge declared war on Cambodian civilization as a whole. In order to expunge the history of the country and cut ties with capitalist influences, the Khmer Rouge declared it the Year Zero, a new beginning. The army emptied the city of Phnom Penh of its several million inhabitants in just over three days.  City folks or “New People” were seen as the enemy and forcefully transported to the countryside to toil along side the peasants on communal farms. Temples, books, and works of art were destroyed in an attempt to purge the country of any ideas other than those of the state.

Any form of perceived resistance was met with swift and brutal execution. Teachers, doctors, scholars, and ordinary citizens were exterminated by the thousands. Wearing glasses or even having soft hands was enough to get you killed. Because all loyalty was supposed to be to the state and the state alone, the Khmer Rouge purposefully separated families in an effort to stamp out any familial loyalty. They outlawed love (seriously) along with reading and writing so that people could not communicate with the outside world.

With his new regime in place, Pol Pot proceeded to carry out one of the largest genocides since WWII, killing between two and three million people (approximately one quarter of the population of the country). City folk with no training had no idea how to grow rice so mass starvation began almost immediately. What little rice was produced was quickly sold to China in order to pay for weapons to keep the populace in line. Millions died the slow wasting death of hunger, but for others the end was much more sudden and brutal.

Courtyard of S-21

Inside Phnom Penh, Molly and I visited a place called S-21. The Khmer Rouge converted the lush green campus of a high school into one the most notoriously barbaric prisons the world has ever known. Of the 17,000 prisoners that moved through S-21 during Pol Pot’s reign, seven survived. Schoolrooms were converted into holding cells and torture chambers for obtaining false confessions. Waterboarding was one of many torture techniques used by the Khmer Rouge, and it was used in conjunction with stinging scorpions or ripping out the fingernails of prisoners with pliers. In the yard, prisoners had their arms tied to a huge scaffold originally used for tether ball and were thrown off the top to dislocate their shoulders.

Prisoners were kept in 4x6 cells in the classrooms

Most of the rooms were kept exactly the same as when they were found, bloodstains and all .

One of the last prisoners to die in S-21

Much like their Nazi predecessors, the Khmer Rouge were meticulous record keepers and photographed every prisoner who came through S-21. Their photos are on display in Building B of the compound, attached to huge boards that run for hundreds of yards. I tried to quickly walk through the building, rapidly glancing at every photo. It took more than half an hour.

Child Victims

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Of the 17,000 prisoners who went into S-21, seven survived. This guy was one of them.

View from inside the Killing Fields

Because mass murder is such a messy business, most of the actual executions for S-21 were carried out in the Killing Fields just outside of town.  Molly and I arrived on a bright sunny morning to the pastoral, tree covered fields. The warm sunshine and singing birds were a stark contrast to the dark history of the place. Over 20,000 people met a vicious end in this bucolic setting. Prisoners were brought in by the truckload. As many as 300 people a day were murdered. Unlike the Nazis who used gas chambers to exterminate hundreds of people at a time, the Khmer Rouge was much less efficient. Blindfolded prisoners were lead to the edge of a mass grave, forced to kneel and then bludgeoned to death with hatchets, farm hoes, and pick axes. They then had their throats slit with a dull knife, or sometimes the branch of a palm tree, and were thrown in the ditch. Toxic chemicals were then thrown in the pit to cover up the smell and finish off any survivors.

The Khmer Rouge would sometimes use sharp palm branches to slash the throats of the victims

One of the saddest sights at the Killing Fields is called the Killing Tree. The Khmer Rouge had a saying, “To kill the grass, you have to tear up the roots.” With that in mind they executed entire families, including children, if one member was thought to be a dissident. The babies were held by their legs and bashed against the tree until they died, then they were thrown in a pit with their mothers.

Skull fragments

Although the Killing Fields seem tranquil and serene today, there are reminders of their dark past everywhere. A huge pagoda was built to house the remains of victims. Seventeen levels of skulls and bones rise skyward enshrined in a delicate pagoda overlooking the whole scene. Then, of course, there is the ground itself. So many people were killed and buried here that they could not exhume all of the bodies. Whenever it rains, bones of the victims and the rags they wore while being murdered rise up to the surface. It rained the night before we arrived. The ground is littered with human remains. Femurs, fingers, teeth, and large chunks of skull rest idly in the mud and green grass. It is all you can do to avoid stepping on them. It is almost as if the skeletons of those poor departed souls are still calling out for justice, rising from the very earth itself to cry “Here I am. Do not forget me!”

Femur, teeth, jawbone and clothes

In 1979 the Vietnamese army finally liberated Phnom Penh, which by that time was almost completely empty, and ended the rule of the Khmer Rouge. Pol Pot and his cronies took to the hills near the Thai border and continued to fight for control of the country until 1998. In a bitter twist, the United States, still feeling animosity for losing the war in Vietnam, refused to recognize the new, post-Khmer Rouge government. We even continued to support the Khmer Rouge as the legitimate rulers of the country, sending money and aid to the genocidal maniacs still fighting for control.

After the horrors of the Khmer Rouge it is amazing that any Cambodians survived, but the thing that is most astounding about people is our resilience. The Cambodian people have an indomitable spirit that can never be broken. Eventually, the king returned and life began to return to normal. Citizens returned to the capital and began to rebuild with renewed vigor. The city is now a rising star in Asia. Molly and I spent our last afternoon in Phnom Penh touring the beautiful royal palace and silver pagoda that were thankfully spared during the madness.

We left Phnom Penh with a profound sense of sadness at all that had been lost. Heading south, we decided to take solace by the ever-forgiving sea. It was here that we found the most wonderful thing of all. Life around the coast is booming. The beautiful coastal town of Sihanoukville is abuzz with new construction as Cambodians look to capitalize on the natural splendor of their country. New businesses abound and the sound of children laughing fills the salty air. We spent the next week sipping cocktails and watching the azure water from the balcony of our oceanfront bungalow. The name of the resort was “Above Us Only Sky” from the John Lennon song, Imagine. I thought it particularly appropriate because the song itself is a prayer for all people to come together and live as one in peace. In a country with such a turbulent history, a little peace would go a long way. As I look out over the tranquil waters and at the smiling faces of the people here, I can’t help but think that they took a little bit of that song to heart. I can’t say that Cambodia has achieved John’s dream yet but it is nice to imagine.