Phnom Penh, Cambodia – January 5th – 9th, 2017

In contrast to bus travel days, the flights from Chiang Mai to Bangkok to Phnom Penh, Cambodia went incredibly smoothly. Within minutes of clearing immigration (which was bewilderingly disorganized) and picking up our luggage, we got cell phone coverage at one of the booths outside the airport. For $8 we got a sim card, 4 GB of data, and 60 min. of talk time with nationwide coverage. We were yet again floored by how unnecessarily complicated and expensive it is to get a cell phone plan in the US!  We took a tuk tuk to our hotel, settled in, and went out to dinner near our hotel (which was very nice by the way – I think we got far too comfortable in Chiang Mai and we were unable to lower our standards right away).

As the capital city of Cambodia, one of the main tourist attractions in Phnom Penh is the genocide history museum and killing fields. However, since our first full day in Phnom Penh (January 6^th) was my 31^st birthday and I did not want to be even more depressed on the day I turned one year older, we held off on visiting the genocide sites until the following day. Instead, Andy planned a full day of activities, starting with a Khmer boxing and self-defense class. The class was through a non-profit organization (NGO) which provides a translator so local artists (and in this case, boxing coaches) can teach tourists their craft. Even though the “boxing gym” was actually just rubber mats set out on a slanted dirt floor behind a house (concrete slab structure) which backed up to a cesspool, we had an incredible time. Our coach was very passionate about boxing and even trains many boxers who compete professionally in Cambodia. Through his instruction, we learned how to take down an opponent with barely exerting any effort at all! We really enjoyed practicing on each other. After boxing, we went back to the hotel to attempt to scrub all the skin off our now black (and definitely diseased) feet, before heading out to a Khmer restaurant for lunch. Sticking with the NGO theme, the restaurant was a training center for impoverished young adults to enter the hospitality/tourism industry. Although the restaurant also served fried tarantulas (a local favorite), the food was delicious! Across the street from our lunch spot was a day spa where Andy (the saint husband) had arranged for me to spend 2 hours getting a traditional Khmer massage while he picked up cupcakes from a local bakery. I blew out a virtual candle and we chowed down on cupcakes in a riverside park. After walking through the French quarter and people watching along the river, we made our way to the restaurant Andy had made a reservation at for dinner (see the photo collage to see how necessary the reservation was – spoiler alert: we were the only people there). The food was good and the price was right: our entire meal came out to less than $5! Even though I had to swallow the fact that I am gradually approaching “old”, it was an incredible birthday!

My birthday in Phnom Penh.

We knew that traveling full time would have its challenges, yet one of the challenges we did not foresee is the lack of control over your diet and inability to work out regularly. Although you walk a lot, eating out three meals a day and never getting your heart rate above mild exertion does not exactly lend well to feeling good about yourself. So, in an attempt to prioritize exercise, the day after my birthday, we ventured to the 1964 Olympic stadium for a stair workout. I have a track record (pun intended) of creating impossible workouts and forcing myself (and in this case Andy too) to finish the workout – this was no different. I seriously almost threw up. Thanks to my extreme stubbornness, we did, however, finish the workout and felt quite accomplished for doing so. Now sweaty and exhausted, we walked to S21, a museum on the site of a genocide torture camp. The old high school was converted to a prison and torture camp after the Khmer Rouge gained power in 1975. The classrooms had been cleared to make room for torture devices and about 6 square foot cells with shackles to hold prisoners between torture sessions. Here, city dwellers and anybody with an education (teachers, engineers, doctors, foreigners, people that were bilingual, etc.) were tortured until they confessed to being spies, cohorts to the CIA, or in some way opponents of the Khmer Rouge. After the prisoner confessed, they (and the rest of their family) were immediately sent to the killing fields for execution. I’ll go into more of the horrors and our impressions of the genocide history in a later paragraph… After collecting ourselves and arising from a shocked stupor, we made our way to a local TV studio to watch some live Khmer boxing. Although neither of us are too keen on watching two people beat the crap out of each other, it was a really cool experience. The Cambodian people are VERY into their boxing.

Day 2 in Phnom Penh. 

The next day, we visited a market and spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon strolling the streets of Phnom Penh. We saw Independence Monument and the White Building, which is a massive rundown building which houses many poor families. In the afternoon, we made our way to Cheung Ek, better known as the Killing Fields. Similar to S21, we utilized an audio tour to make our way through the grounds while learning about the horrific history of the site. The Cambodians do not hold back when attempting to educate and prevent a re-occurrence: there is a massive monument in the center of the site which is filled to the top with skulls and bones of some of the victims (including babies and children) that were murdered there. Additionally, remains of clothing and fragments of human bones scatter the hundreds of mass graves around the site. At S21, large graphic photographs show the victims that were found dead in the classrooms you were visiting. You can’t blame them for being upfront, after all, 1 in 4 Cambodians (about 2 million people) were murdered or starved to death at the hand of their own people in a span of less than 4 years. 

Now stunned and pensive, we made our way to a rooftop bar overlooking Phnom Penh to watch the sunset and discuss the terrible truths about the genocide and unfortunately, the US’ involvement. We were shocked to find out that the US dropped more bombs on Cambodia between 1969 and 1973 than all of the Allies combined during World War 2. Our country murdered over 100,000 Cambodian people by carpet bombing rural areas to “cut off Vietnamese supply routes”. When the US withdrew in 1975, they left the country in turmoil. Just three days after the US’ retreat, the Khmer Rouge took power over the Khmer Republic, the military coup in power, which had been backed by the USA. Rightfully so, many Cambodian people were thrilled, believing that they had conquered the US, the country which had brought fear and death to their country over the previous decade. Unfortunately, the Angkar, the leaders of the Khmer Rouge, had a diabolical plan to create a utopian communist society. The core premise involved empowering uneducated and angry young men and women from rural areas to carry out the Angkar’s plan. Within 48 hours of taking power, city dwellers were forced out of their homes to work in labor camps farming rice (even though nobody knew how to farm). Two classes of people were created, the city dwellers and anybody with an education (the “new people” who were persecuted), and the farmers and villagers (the “old people” who were elevated to power). The basic idea was to abolish education and create an ignorant mass which was easy to manipulate and control in order to sustain the new self-sufficient agrarian society. These ignorant masses were forced to torture and murder anybody the Angkar deemed capable of rising against the Khmer Rouge. To tie up loose ends, the entire family of the victims, including babies and children, were also murdered and thrown in mass graves. Apart from the shock of learning this horrific truth, we were absolutely appalled that none of this is taught in the US curriculum (at least for both of us, the “secret war” and Cambodian genocide history was never mentioned at either the high school or college level). If we are truly to learn from the past, perhaps teaching it would be a good start.

Day 3 in Phnom Penh. In the top right picture I am attempting to open a coconut after drinking the coconut water. The center and center-left photos were taken at Cheung Ek. 

As far as big cities go, Phnom Penh is pretty great. The city does not feel overcrowded and the people are ridiculously friendly and genuine (although perhaps slightly more shy than the Burmese). The spattering of old French colonial buildings makes the architecture interesting and wandering the streets is rewarded with lively neighborhoods and an abundance of friendly locals. We were shocked to see that many locals were sporting US apparel (shirts and hats with US flags) and were very friendly towards us – even after we told them we were Americans. After bombing their people, then retreating and abandoning them in their darkest hour, we would have thought they would be spiteful at best. However, after many formal apologies from US presidents and millions of dollars in aid, it seems that the majority have forgiven and are keen to move on. After all, the Khmer Rouge operated under great secrecy and most of the world was supposedly “ignorant” to what was happening while they were in power. Inexcusable perhaps, is the fact that not only did the US and the rest of the world turn a blind eye, but we actually funded the Khmer Rouge both during their reign and after the Vietnamese had forced them from power. Yup, we were shocked too…