So, what's Cambodia like? Hotter, more humid, more flies than anywhere else I've been, the cars are worse (all old Toyotas) and the bikes are mainly clunkly little scooters - but lovely people, fewer tourists, and some very nice places indeed. Pnomh Penh is rather decrepit - as are most places here - and the roads are lousy, even the main roads in the capital; most streets even in the capital are dirt track. But having read up on Cambodian history, I'm really impressed that the people are largely decent and friendly. Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge killed a quarter of the people between 1975 and 1979 in an insane act of genocide which is all the more horrible for its lack of reason. Most genocides happen for the sake of one country, religion or ethnic group opressing another and to make themselves stronger - but in this case, no rationale existed; the people didn't even know the name of the leader till near the end; it was an act of self extermination, attempting to make the Cambodian people into a 'dumb animal, obedient', and making the country self sufficient on rice only - destroying all education, religion, money. I mean, they killed people for wearing glasses since that was taken as a sign of intellectualism - it was amusing, of a sort, to see that one of the leaders, comrade Duc, found just 2 years ago, is now wearing glasses. They told everyone from the cities to get out and start walking, and worked them to death in the fields in the country (18 hour days on a couple of handfuls of rice). And when the Vietnamese invaded (after some Cambodian aggression), the bloody UN supported Pol Pot - presumably because Vietnam was still disapproved of after the war with America.
So I went to see the grisly sights of Phnomh Penh - Tuol Sleng or S21, the prison that some 10,000 people passed through to be tortured before being murdered in the killing fields. Room after room filled with photos of the people before death: thousands of eyes looking down at you. I came out of it vowing to change my work priorities, and go for jobs based on humanitarian interest rather than just money. And went to the killing fields themselves; a set of large holes which had contained thousands of corpses; a massive stupa filled with their skulls; a tree neatly labelled as the one favoured by the Khmer Rouge for killing children - they swung them against the trunk to split their skulls, then chucked them into the pit next to it (though for variety, they sometimes threw them in the air and caught them on bayonets). It was more economical than using bullets on them.
Everyone here has a story. One moto driver I met had his wife beheaded in front of him, and his child killed on the tree; he doesn't know why they didn't kill him. Another's father was sent to S21 just as he was born; his mother was worked almost to death in the ricefields. This one's brother; another one's whole family. Reading what I've written, it sounds like an exaggerated tale of the quintessential bad guys - but it's all true.
Anyway. More pleasant things. Met a couple of women in Phnom Penh who were going the same direction as me so I've been travelling with them for the last week or two; a cheerful Frenchwoman in her 40's, and a Dutch girl about the same age as me. So together we went down to Kampot, a town in the south - it's a rural little place, without much in it really, but I liked it - lots of crumbling old french colonial style buildings, and a friendly bunch of little children who hung around outside the guesthouse and demanded for us to play with them constantly.
Took a daytrip to Kep - quiet seaside village, renowned for its crabs, so myself and Annick (French) split a kilo for $3. The local women were rather amused by my crab eating technique, which is admittedly very messy and inexpert - one of them took pity on me and shelled my last crab or two. Had a rather unexpected encounter in the midst of one particularly tricky leg: one of the women came over and started feeling me - first the back of my neck, then my back, then the sides, and finally - as I was choking on crab, wondering what the hell she was up to - grabbing my whole breast. I swatted her away, puce with embarrasment, while the other two split themselves laughing, but she kept coming back... I think she was just trying to figure out my bra, which was a knotted bikini since I'd just been swimming. But maybe it was my crab eating technique.
And a daytrip to Bokor national park - just a tall mountain with apparently lots of wildlife and a great view. But it was cloudy, and no wildlife visible to me, nor could you venture off the road due to mines. But it was wild jungle all the way, crazy roads going through, and almost entirely empty of tourists - there is nothing like it anywhere in Europe, where all the parks are tame with every half dangerous spot neatly fenced off. Can't see any of those parks leaving a few thousand mines around for the public to fall on if careless.. The park also had a giant old casino and catholic church (one of just 2 left in cambodia, all others destroyed) - both empty and decaying, you could see how glorious the casino must have been in its former days, a massive intricate place now mossgrown and damp. I really needed the bathroom while I was there, but had been warned not to go anywhere outside the casino off the path due to mines - so since it was going to be several hours before facilities became available, I found a place that seemed as if it might have been a bathroom in previous eras - but when I later chatted with the guide, he pointed towards the place I'd just been and warned me not to go in there, there were lots of giant snakes and landmines. Guess I got lucky.
Anyway, from Kampot to Sihanoukville - or Snookey, as it's affectionately known - a big, rather touristy seaside town. Via the worst road I've been on yet, and that is saying a lot - an hour was on a road that would have been a good test traack for dirtbikes; the potholes and ruts had turned into mini hills and vales a few feet high every few feet, going in every direction. Snookey is an average town, but the beaches are lovely and empty; spent a very enjoyable day with the others clambering across rocks between beaches; massive smooth rocks just challenging enough to keep it interesting; perfect weather; turquoise sea to dip into anytime we got too hot or the sea just looked too damn tempting - bliss.
And now I'm north, in Siem Reap, doing the apex of everyone's trip to Cambodia: the Angkor temples. But not finished with them yet - still have to see Angkor Wat itself - so I'll write up on them later. Well, hopefully sooner, this time.