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In my opinion, the main answer to the question of why to go to Phnom Penh is to visit the places that bear witness to the brutality of the regime that dominated Cambodia in the second half of the 1970s.
Reasons for being killed in Cambodia in the 1970s.
- have studied
- foreigner
- Having performed intellectual tasks
- having worked for a public company
- Have a relative who had any of the requirements listed above
- wear glasses (so be a reader and therefore intellectual)
- Have fair skin (so don’t do outdoor work)
- Not knowing how to climb a tree (so not being a farmer)
I would basically have no escape because I would have all these characteristics. A very good movie that deals with this topic is.
Pol Pot’s communist regime
I remember in the late 1990s when I read in a newspaper (with glasses) about Pol Pot ‘s death. I did not know much about that story but I understood that the world would be a little better from that day. Indeed, with the end of the former dictator, the civil war that had lasted almost 20 years after his regime had already ended also ended. He died of old age, and for all those years he had continued to create suffering because he was financed by the Chinese.
As was the case a little bit all over the world, in Asia, since the postwar period, the Cold War was not all subterfuge and worry as in Europe. Russians (to some extent along with Chinese) and Americans, were seriously shooting at each other, albeit indirectly and without saying so. Generalizing a lot, with the departure of European colonialist regimes (primarily French); Americans supported right-wing regimes, which were opposed by Russian-friendly communist ones.
Right or left, American, Russian, Chinese or colonialist, more or less always oppressive regimes were involved, and the populations suffered, although the Cambodian regime reached its peak. Between coups (which in some countries in the region, continue to this day); there were the Korean and Vietnam wars. The latter actually involved Laos and Cambodia as well, but at the time you could not tell, and in fact in Laos (one of the most bombed countries in history) they called it a secret war.
Going to Phnom Penh to empty it out.
In Cambodia just before the Americans were also defeated in Vietnam; the Khmer Rouge came to power. Fanatical and cruel, many of them were very young, all very ignorant and poor. When they moved to go to Phnom Penh, initially the people were delighted with that because of the end of the other regime, and there are incredible pictures of celebrations. This lasted a very short time, just 3 hours, then they proclaimed the evacuation of the city.
The justification was an impending U.S. bombing raid; everyone had to set out for the countryside, without taking anything with them (because they would be back soon), without knowing the destination: immediately.
Cambodia’s capital at that time had a population of 3 million, including many refugees who had fled areas already heavily affected by the civil war; it was reduced to 50,000. Already during the exodus many died in the streets, and extermination immediately began. The goal was to depopulate the cities and for everyone to work only in the countryside. They even destroyed all the pots and pans and dishes so that people would be forced to eat in canteens and thus controlled.
Going to Phnom Penh for the museum
The genocide museum in Cambodia’s capital is one of hundreds of prisons of the regime that exterminated about 3 million innocent people out of the country’s population of 8 in not even 4 years. In these prisons people were tortured and then killed. The torturers sought information to find others from the middle class to kill; they only wanted peasants and unschooled people in the country.
Of the many stories, I was struck by one about a young man from New Zealand who was on a sea voyage with friends to Thailand and got lost due to a storm during an excursion. His only fault was that he was not Cambodian, thus a spy. People exhausted by torture would say anything to stop. He admitted he was CIA, but he had the strength to tease them by saying his boss was the owner of a famous (not in Cambodia) American fast food company.
Some of these stories are given in the prison museum, and there is a long roundup of photos of prisoners; the Khmer Rouge catalogued everything. I will spare you the description of how babies and small children were killed, but also how people had their throats slit, since they did not waste ammunition.
Why go to Phnom Penh if you don’t go to the museum?
At home I had already filled out and paid for two different documents/visas to enter the country. They had sent me the okay. But once I got there one no longer fit and frankly I didn’t understand in what. They had me redo it (identical in my opinion) in an available tablet; I officially entered Cambodian territory happy that I didn’t have to pay anything back.
Already in the lobby I was greeted by various proposals for transportation, but I was already convinced to take the bus. As soon as I left the airport, coming from tame Laos, I immediately found myself in another world. The first scene was a motorcycle going the wrong way on an 8-lane road. At the entrance to certain buildings there was a sign that it was forbidden to enter not only with guns, but also with hand grenades: better to specify, just in case.
Otherwise I took a walk along the riverfront (always the Mekong seen in 3 different cities on this trip) and went to the Royal Palace: $10 to see little because most of the buildings were closed. I looked for the mythical war correspondents’ club, often mentioned by Titian Terzani, as a place of mythological characters and incredible anecdotes. From my sources it had become an upscale bar; instead, as I passed it was a construction site. Who knows if purchased by some American sandwich shop or at any rate by yet another banal international chain.
Phnom Penh has become too modern and is not particularly interesting; especially compared to Laos, for me Cambodia is definitely less authentic. Then I am greatly annoyed by those who propose something to you at every turn, whether it is a tuk tuk or a shag.
Links
Home trip Travel to Laos and Cambodia with inadequate guide
Previous stop Slow boats and fast trains the transportation in Laos
Next stop with video from Phnom Penh Video from Laos and Cambodia
Video from Phnom Penh Prison: Phnom Penh Genocide Museum
Trips taken, travel stories divided by continent
Countries visited in my travel stories
Anecdotes, divided by type in travel narratives
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