death is everywhere, or, people suck part II

tim and i awoke totally exhausted in phnom penh, but tim made me get up anyway and go get breakfast (which we thought was included in the room price). two slices of toast and an orange juice later, i was fed and ready to go. WAIT! breakfast ISN'T included in the room price, and we owe $28! crap.

we decided to begin our trip to cambodia on a happy note--by visiting the tuol sleng museum, otherwise known as S-21 prison, otherwise known as the genocide museum. most of you know that between 1975 and 1979, pol pot and the khmer rouge took over cambodia in an attempt to create an entirely agrarian society, by beginning again in "year zero". (if you know all this already, move ahead.) in their attempts, they managed to kill off 2 MILLION cambodians (let me repeat that again: 2 MILLION, or two maines, or a brooklyn, or some other equally horrifying number) in a variety of hideous ways: shooting them, beating them with bamboo sticks or spades, or shooting them, or, in the most shocking of all, bashing children and babies against trees so as not to waste precious bullets.

back to tuol sleng. it is widely known that there are two must-see memorials in phnom penh: the tuol sleng museum and the killing fields (where 3,000 people were killed and left in mass graves). we decided to start with the prison. S-21 is where 20,000 cambodians were imprisoned (according to our guide) and only 7 survived. they were kept in tiny cells, with shackles on their ankles. most of the cells had no light, and they had no toilet facilities. the prison, which had been a high school before the evacuation of phnom penh, also had a gallows (formerly for gymnastics) and a bunch of mass graves in the back. the whole place was pretty horrific--we began with the graves of the last 15 prisoners to be killed there, moved on to the cells where the 15 people were found (with pictures to commemorate their gruesome deaths, which i shall not go into here), went on to a section with the photos of the khmer soldiers/cooks/guards who worked there, and then photo after photo of the prisoners, who most certainly all died. from there, we saw the cells, and then moved on to a section devoted to the history of the khmer rouge. our guide was a lady in her mid-50's, and in the last section, she pointed to a map of cambodia which had the routes by which everyone left phnom penh. completely expressionless, she showed us the route that her family used to flee the city. her little sister (5 years old) died somewhere outside of phnom penh. then, in their first destination (near the vietnamese border), her 6-month old baby and father died of starvation. then, one brother and an uncle died at their second destination. another brother and his wife were killed at the killing fields. her husband, a pilot, was beaten to death with bamboo, she told us as she pointed to a painting depicting the same act. she was the only one to survive. she was sent to the rice fields, and, being mid-to-upper class, she had no farming skills, and she had to work very hard just to survive.

these stories are everywhere in cambodia. if you ask practically anyone over about 30, they will tell you this story first hand. if you ask younger people, they will tell you these stories about their grandparents, parents, sisters, brothers. it's impossible to even contemplate.

in the museum, we ran into the irish girls from the bus. we walked back through the museum without our guide, and talked to elinor and catriona. then, we watched a movie about a cambodian couple who was separated and then killed by the khmer rouge. exhausted, overwhelmed and depressed, tim and catriona and i went across the street to a lovely cafe for lunch. the other two joined us, and we spent a lovely 3 hours in the cafe, out of the rain, talking about things that had nothing to do with genocide (like katie holmes and tom cruise: who are they kidding?). we had some beautiful sandwiches and bored tim out of his mind with girl talk. then, we went back to their hostel to see if we could book a bus to the killing fields for the next day. no. so, tim and i walked across town, back to our hotel in the dark. phnom penh is an interesting city--very modern and clean, but at night it seemed a lot more sinister. we stopped for some "dinner" (from a gas station--hooray for processed food!) and then bought some oranges (to counteract the pringles) and went home to sleep.

except i couldn't sleep. i stayed awake most of the night thinking about all those poor people and what even the survivors have been through. (tim, of course slept like a baby--insensitive creep!) and then, the next day, it was on to the killing fields! we got a taxi from the hotel, and as soon as we were out of the car, we were mobbed by children "lady, want picture? 1, 2, 3, smile!" we told them maybe when we got back, and we went in. despite the fact that so many people were slaughtered there, the killing fields are remarkably peaceful and serene, and even beautiful. they are out in the middle of green rice paddies, with flowers and trees and an inordinate number of butterflies. as you walk in, you are faced with a giant tower. as you get closer, you realize the tower is full of skulls. from the mass graves. row upon row of skulls. and as you walk around the grounds, you pass signs that say things like "mass grave. 1,576 bodies" next to a remarkably small hole. most of the butterflies are around the mass graves, which seems appropriate.

of course, there was drama at the killing fields. we were approached by a bunch of kids inside "1,2,3 smile!" and i said i would take their picture, knowing they would want money. so, i took the picture and then tim tried to give them the money. suddenly, another 5 kids appear and tim is surrounded. he tried to give the money to the head girl, but another (unbelievably cute) kid snatched it and ran away. cue the group tears. the first group of kids start wailing and telling us that they are so poor and the other kids don't go to school and they need money. so we gave them more money. it was at that point that we decided not to give anyone any more money in cambodia.

after the killing fields, we had our driver take us to the wat phnom, which was where we saw our first landmine victims (men with no arms or legs, sitting on the stairs to the wat, begging). the wat was nice, and then we had our driver take us to the national museum. upon arrival at the museum, we were immediately surrounded by a bunch more landmine victims selling books, but we went down the street to the friends cafe, which is an NGO supporting street kids in phnom penh. after lunch and visiting the store, we went to the museum, which was very lovely indeed. the best part is the garden in the middle, which is full of monks (smoking! am i wrong, or should monks not smoke?!) and other tourists. on our way out, we ran into the irish girls again. mags had just been to the palace, but she couldn't get all the way in because someone was visiting. it was the thai king, we told her-- our taxi driver told us! we said goodbye to the girls and went to the palace ourselves.

by the time we got there, we couldn't get in at all, but it was obvious there was some kind of state visit. we took some pictures of the palace (and of an elephant in the street!) and then got a tuk-tuk home to the hotel. in the tuk-tuk, our driver kept asking if the president was paying for our room at the intercontinental. no, crazy man...but suddenly, when we got to the intercontinental and went to the newly established metal detector, it became clear. the president (not the king) was staying in OUR HOTEL! now, just so you know, this is the second time we have stayed in the same hotel as important heads of state--a dutch prince was in our hotel in hanoi. anyway, we have now realized that it must have been the thai PM, because there is no thai president, but that's beside the point. the point is that we went to dinner in the hotel restaurant (tim was to grumpy to go anywhere else) and THE SECRET SERVICE WAS THERE! yes, we dined with the thai secret service, and despite the fact that i kept saying 'there's nothing i wouldn't do for the thai president', they didn't even shoot me. (of course, there isn't a thai president, so they probably just thought i was on leave from the hospital.)

also, it was cambodian independence day, so there were FIREWORKS! i love me some fireworks, and since we were on the 9th floor, we got to see it all from our window. it was some kind of fancy, let me tell you. it almost distracted me from all the death we had been seeing. almost.