A Monkey Walks Into A Bar…
Began the day with a really nice breakfast at the FCC overlooking the National Museum in one direction and the Tonle Sap river in the other.
We met our driver, Dara, and headed out the Cheung Ek ‘Killing Fields’ about 15 kilometers Southeast of Phnom Penh. A fitting memorial to the thousands of Cambodians who were killed and buried in mass graves during the four years of Khmer Rouge rule between 1975 and 1979. A large stupa contains seventeen levels of clothes, skulls and bones exhumed from the mass graves which now resemble craters dotting the area. Visitors are allowed to wander as they wish in the area, which made me feel particularly uncomfortable when our guide pointed out a handful of teeth barely buried in the dirt. Apparently remains are still washed to the surface during heavy rain. The site was chosen as it had been a Chinese cemetary where the site of bodies, and the accompanying stench, were less likely to arouse suspiousion. This is just one of many such sites which dot the country.
I have to admit the site just made be feel terribly cold – the utterly arbitary and brutal slayings of so many; beaten with blunt instruments to save bullets by a doctrinaire and paranoid regime certain of its own righteousness. Only now are some of the Khmer Rouge leaders believed to be responsible being tried – trials about which our guide was cynical as too little too late. During the ride back to Phnom Penh, Dara told us that his father had been amongst the victims of the Khmer Rouge.
For some relief we went next to the Russian Market, so named in the 80‘s when nearly all the foreigners in Phnom Penh were from the former USSR. A wonderful, bustling market full of tiny narrow little alleyways with goods piled to the ceiling. Ally and I are still far from expert bargainers and we were probably seperated from far too much of our money, but I did pick up a ‘legitimate’ North Face rucksack for USD$21. If it gets me through the trip I’ll be estatic. We picked up some T-shirts and other tourist nick nacks, but the real joy was just wandering through the incredible, dynamic space which so well typifies modern Cambodia. Energetic, enterprenurial and irrepressable.
After the relief of the market we returned to our melancholy mood as we visited Toul Sleng, the former detention and interrogation camp of the Khmer Rouge. A converted high school the site has become, along with the Killing Fields, a symbol of the barbarity of Pol Pot’s rule. What shocked me was the improvised, makeshift, nature of the gaol and torture camp created from four non-descript buildings in the center of Phnom Penh – where classrooms were rudely partitioned with brick or timber cellds, the front of the buildings strung with barbed and razor wire, and gym equipment became the apparatus for torture. Nothing characterised the place better than the security regulations posted in the courtyard.
After lunch at the FCC we made the prilgramage to Wat Phnom – considered the founding hill of Phnom Penh. The pagoda at the top of the hill was lovely, but it was the gorgeous French-inspired park which surrounded it that we really appreciated. Complete with Parisian lamp-posts, monkeys, elephant rides, children playing and vendors selling various snacks. It was so far removed from the Phnom Penh I expected to find – this city was virtually emptied by the Khmer Rouge who sought to create a rural idyll in Cambodia, yet it is among the most charming capital cities I have visited in Asia. The riverfront, where the FCC is situated, is composed of unspoilt, low-profile, colonial period buildings, and fairly bustles at night.
We wandered along the esplanade up to Grand Palace to take some photos, intending to dine at Friends restaurant, which gives employment and training to former street kids, but they were already full and Ally was feeling pretty ordinary with an upset stomach. We returned to the riverside, chosing a restaurant almost at random.
After dinner Ally turned in and I wandered up to the bar at the FCC for a nightcap with Jo and Greg. As we watched Phnom Penh pass below us a monkey ran along the electrical wiring and into the bar on the other side of the road! It took about ten minutes for anyone there to notice, during which we considered the protocols surrounding informing them about the rogue primate. After he made himself known, and a waiter gave chase with a broom all appeared to be peacefully resolved, but we still don’t know whether he managed to get his drink or not.
