Friday, March 22, 2013

Chilling in Kep and Kampot

While I didn't get the chance to make it to the Cambodian beach and backpackers paradise that is Sihanoukville, I did decide to make a stopover in the nearby charming smaller towns of Kep and Kampot on my route to the Mekong Delta in Vietnam. Such a great decision! Kampot was the perfect place to just chill and Kep's un-crowded beach 35km away was just delightful (even if I got to visit it only very briefly and didn't get to try any of the local crab). I just wish I could have stayed longer!

A morning view of the Chhou River at the base of the Elephant Mountains in Kampot , Southeastern Cambodia

It should be noted that the roads down to Kep, Kampot and Sihanouville are pockmarked dirt things that are thoroughly enjoyable if, like me, you love bumpy rides but, which can make a journey in a large bus take rather longer than it does in the (small, un-airconditioned and frequently rather packed) local share-taxis which also ply the route.


The Ruined French Colonial Church on Bokor Hill

While I loved the rural-ness of Kampot (being the only foreigner in the local market was super fun), it was not my primary reason for going. In addition to sporting lovely beaches and a swimable/kayakable/tubable river, the Kep-Kampot area was used as a countryside retreat by the French during the colonial era. Abandoned after the civil war, the region is now dotted with numerous crumbling and over-grown colonial structures. Hoping to see some of these, I managed to convince some of the staff and other travellers staying at Naga House (located on the river, awesome staff, perfect for those loving a chill party and backpacker culture and only $2 US/night) that we should rent motorbikes and ride them (or, in my case, that someone should take me on the back of theirs - Thank you Chanda!) up to the National Park on Bokor Hill to see some of them (it's also possible to take $10 day tours to see them). Although somewhat marred by the heavy real estate development now going on up top, the adventure still turned out to be well worth our while.

Watching the mist come up over the side of the mountain from the ruined terrace of one of the old colonial hotels. This particular ruin was undergoing some restoration but was still fun to explore - especially in areas where some of the original flooring was still visible.

Sunday, March 17, 2013

The Angkor Ruins

Being me, one of the main objectives of my going to visit Cambodia was to see the Angkor ruins up near Siem Reap. Although most people are aware of the World Heritage Site (and Wonder of the World) that is Angkor Wat, few are aware that the Angkorian ruins in the area cover hundreds of square kilometers, with many ranging even further afield. The Angkorian Empire (AD 802 -1431) did, after all, at it's height cover all of what is now Cambodia and Laos as well as most of Thailand and much of Vietnam. Fortunately, my mother, with whom I was travelling at the time, is similarly interesting in archaeology and, so, we not only got one, but three days, to explore the temples in the area - including Banteay Srei to the North and the Roluos group to the East. Sadly we didn't have time to make it to the temples further up the mountains to the north, but they are meant to be especially beautiful in wet season, which it was not. Below is a selection of some of my favourite sites.

Main Site
One of the five  four-headed gates into Angkor Thom. Angkor Thom is the largest of the ruin complexes, covering an area of 9km square and encompassing many other sites within its walls. Definitely a must see. My favourite temple inside was Bayon - imagine a pyramid topped with 54 many-headed towers. The Terrace of the Elephants and Terrace of the Leper King with their many carvings were also nice to see. Angkor Thom itself was built by King Jayavarman VII in the late 12th and early 13th centuries AD and was the last great Khmer (Angkorian) Capital, housing up to as many as a million inhabitants.

An end of day photo of Angkor Wat itself. This photo was actually taken on my birthday after I had cycled back up from town to watch the sunset, catching it from the uncrowded back gate. Angkor Wat is the most complete of the temples in terms of what remains. It was built in the mid 12th century as the temple and mausoleum for King Suryavarman II and is home to incredible bas reliefs which cover the hundreds of meters of walls in the first gallery which surrounds the inner temple. As the temple was initially dedicated to Vishnu, the reliefs depict scenes from central Hindu myths such as the Ramayana and the Churning of the See of Milk.

A view of the Jungle from atop the towers of the central  sanctuary.

One of the still red-painted Apsara dancers carved on the walls. Apsara is a traditional Indian-Indochinese dance form with holy connotations for both Buddhists and Hindus in the region and, so, such carvings are found undestroyed on many of the temples. The red colour comes from when all the temples were converted (re-converted in some cases) to Buddhism in the 16th and 17th centuries - long after the area had ceased to be the Khmer capital. ( The capital was moved south after the invasion of Siam in 1431.)

Ta Phrom - easily one of my favourite sites as it's so overgrown with massive trees! It was originally built by Jayavarman VII around the same time as Angkor Wat and was dedicated as a Buddhist Monastery. Subsequent (re-) conversion of the area to Hinduism in the period following meant that many of the carved Buddha's on the walls were defaced, destroyed, or turned into Hindu ascetics as at most of the other temples from the period. Based on an inscription at the site, it appears that twelve thousand people lived at the monastery with almost eighty thousand villagers supporting them. 

Banteay Kdei. Another of my favourites. Dating from the same period and located close to Ta Phrom, but not quite as tree covered, Banteay  Kdei is still a lot more rubble-filled and less reconstructed than many other temples. It is also less touristed, giving it a much more peaceful air.

Looking down from the top of Phnom Bakheng. Built on top of a small mountain, it is actually the oldest temple at the main site, built by Yasovarman I in the late 8th century AD. As the hill on which it's built rises 60m above the rest of the plain, Phnom Bakheng provides a wonderful view of Angkor Wat and other temples rising out of the jungle as well as of the Tonle Sap lake to the south. Strangely (to me at least as it lies northwest of it) the site gets flooded with tourists in the late afternoon who hike up to watch sunset over the Angkor Wat, leaving it nearly empty in the early morning and throughout the day.

North Group

Banteay Srei might be one of the prettiest of the Angkor Temples. Built in the  10th century, it;s like a pink sandstone, much more delicately carved version of some of the later temples. Definitely worth visiting (possibly after you've seen the others so that you have something to compare it to), it lies 30km north of the main sites through some great countryside (I wouldn't recommend cycling it (we certainly didn't) unless you have a lot of energy and most of the day). The Mine Museum is also on the way.


Roluos Group
Before the capital was at Angkor, it was a dozen or so kilometers east of Siem Reap at Rulous. The Rulous group is now comprised of three main sites: Lolei (not pictured here but which sports adorable tufts of hair-like grass on top of its four towers and is home to a Buddhist monastery, orphanage and language school),  Preah Ko and Bakong.

Built as a Hindu funerary temple for his ancestors by Indravarman the first, Preah Ko is a fairly small site. The best part about it is Dy Proeung's stone carving workshop opposite. A master architect and carver who survived the Khmer Rouge purgings, now 80-some odd year old Dy Proeung has carved miniatures (which are still several meters large) of many of the main temples. He was even recognised by the former king for his work. Go visit him.

On of my favourite of all the temples, this is Bakong (with my mother in the foreground).  The oldest 'temple mountain' (pyramidal temple) in Cambodia, it has some delightful statues, nice crumbly bits, a lovely moat, beautiful flowers, stairs on every side and many, many fewer tourists than the other sites. As it's the oldest, the carvings also differ, with many of the women on the central towers doing things other than dance.

In terms of getting to the temples from Siem Reap. A number of options are available. You can easily hire a tuk-tuk for the day for up to four people (should be around $20-$25 US for the day depending on the number of people and whether or not you are making your poor driver wake up for sunrise), rent motorbikes (not sure of the price), join a tour, or, my personal favourite way as the area is mostly flat, rent a bike ($2-5 US/day depending on the quality) and cycle. Bear in mind that if you are cycling, the closest ruins are 10km from the city (took about 23 mins on a not-great-bike) and cover an area much larger than that - in other words, if you are cycling, bring a lot of water and sunscreen and be prepared to take some rests in the shade.  It's also possible to hire guides for the day ($20-25 US for English, other languages are more expensive, add five dollars for sunrise, likely more if you expect them to cycle with you). Most of the local children around the ruins sell knockoff guide books with excellent info in them if you want to do it yourself. Temples are all open 5am - 6pm (except Banteay Srei which closes an hour earlier). Entry to the sites (including the main site, Roluos group and northern groups) is $20 US for one day, $40 for 2 or 3 and $60 for 7, you can enter and exit as many times as you want per day with no penalty.

Siem Reap itself is very much a tourist town, but a cute one for all that. Other things to do are to explore the countryside or take a boat ride out on the Tonle Sap (which floods so much in rainy season that it becomes Asia's largest freshwater lake) to visit the floating villages (be prepared to pay $10-20 US/person).

Friday, March 15, 2013

Kampong Thom and Sambor Prei Kuk

About midway between Phnom Penh and Siem Reap along Highway Six, lies the small provincial town of Kompong Thom.  Kompong Thom is fairly sleepy apart from the buses whiping through en route between two of Cambodia's major destinations and those few tourists who, like us, have stopped off to see the 7th century pre-Angkor ruins of Sambor Prei Kuk which lie about 30km to the northeast of town along some charming country roads.

The drive along elevated highway 6 is, in itself, absolutely stunning. Not far out of Phnom Penh, you already find youdself surrounded on either side by bamboo houses soaring high on their stilts and dry season floodplain agriculture characterized by endless rice and lotus fields. Indian cattle with their characteristic neck humps saunter lazily across the road, blocking traffic composed of tuk-tuks, motos and flatbeds crammed with everything imaginable (and people on top), vans acting as share-taxis and the odd inter-city bus. In areas where the road crosses a river or flooded plain which has not yet dried up, locals poll along on punt-like canoes and live in floating houses along the banks. I so wish I had a picture on my phone to share! This scenery becomes even more intensified along the red dirt backroads that are best experienced by bicycle, moto or tuk-tuk. Added to this, is the fact that people in Kampong Thom were among the friendliest (among the already super friendly Cambodians) we met, with all of the children eager to say hello and breaking out into beautific smiles when we responded in kind as we went past.

One of the tree covered towers in the North Group which I may or may not have enjoyed exploring thoroughly.
Sambor Prei Kuk itself was also fun to visit. Much less touristed than its younger, Angkorian cousins to the north (I think we saw maybe 5 other tourists the whole time we were there), the North and South groups were built by the Chenla-era king Isanavarman I in the 7th century AD and still boat beautiful carved reliefs of 'flying palaces', while the central tower is all that remains of the slightly younger Central group. All of these groups acted as important temples in the Chenla area capital of Ishanapura.

Our guide through the ruins was a former monk who now volunteers his time teaching the local kids English and getting them to help pick up trash and keep the surrounding area clean. While I loved the country feel of Kampong Thom, I worry it might soon change as they are looking to add Sambor Prei to the list of World Heritage Monuments which will wrest control of the tourism industry away from the locals.

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Phnom Penh & The Khmer Rouge Killing Fields

Seeing all the warm smiling faces of the people in Cambodia, it is hard to believe that the country experienced what was effectively a brutal genocidal war led by a homicidal regime that had Khmer (the Cambodian term for their people) killing Khmer less than forty years ago. An estimated 2 million people - out of a population of only 8 million - died, either from starvation, sickness, or outright murder, under Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. That's a quarter of the population gone in less than 5 years (1975-1979) - 5 years! . The scariest part of this? The Khmer Rouge were recognized as the legitimate government of Cambodia and allowed to keep their seat at the UN despite all of this until 1987, as western governments were loathe to lend their support to the Vietnamese backed opposition.

As a fair warning, much of what I'm about to type (and the photo captions in particular) will be upsetting - and it should be. Cambodians say that it is their duty to remember and educate so that nothing like this ever happens again.

The Victims Memorial Stupa at Choeung Ek Genocidal Centre - also known as 'The Killing Fields' just outside of Phnom Penh. Although by no means the only such site, this one is the biggest and most well know, with 8,985 corpses found in in the 86 (of 129 total) mass graves excavated. As bullets were expensive, many were killed with blows to the head from a hammer. Children were smashed against trees, women stripped of their clothes, and 'traitorous' Khmer Rouge cadres were beheaded. As numbers increased in later years, many were not even killed outright, but pushed into pits, covered with DDT and left to rot. To make matters worse, many victims killed at Cheong Ek had already been held and tortured at the notorious Security Prison 21.
First, a quick run down of recent Cambodian history for context. After being home to a great civilization, which, at it's height, covered nearly all of Indochina, from about AD802 until AD 1594 when Siam finally captured the capital, Cambodia became somewhat of a vassal state, subject to tributes demanded by invading Siamese (Thai) and Vietnamese forces. In 1863, King Norodom was forced to negotiate away mineral and timber rights to the French in exchange for military protection from Cambodia's neighbors. In this trade, France also gained the right to chose Cambodia's future kings. In 1941, shortly before the outbreak of WWII and invasion by Japan, 18 year old Prince Norodom Sihanouk was chosen in place of his farther. After the war, whilst France was occupied with the rebellion in Vietnam, King Sihanouk was able to successfully negotiate for his country's independence - officially granted in May of 1954. At this point, Sihanouk abdicated, appointed his father as King, and chose to run in the elections. His party won every seat. However, in 1960, when his father died, Sihanouk appointed himself 'Chief of State', effectively remaking himself king and causing some unrest. Around this time, Sihanouk also tacitly agreed to allow the Viet Minh to establish some of their bases along the border in Cambodia, prompting a rash of fly-over bombings by the US in those areas and his eventual deposition by Prince Sisowath Matuk and General Lon Nol in 1970 while he was out of the country. Whilst in exile, Sihanouk initially lent his support to a supposed rag tag group of communist farmers called the Khmer Rouge, encouraging his people to go out to the jungle and fight for their country. Sadly, all of this culminated in a civil war which led to the eventual take over of the country by the Khmer Rouge in 1975. Tragically, this war would not come to an end until 1998, after defections by high level Khmer Rouge and the death of leader Pol Pot. Even more tragically, the country is still home to a great deal of unexploded ordinance (such as landmines) bringing remnants of the horrors of war into the present day.


One of the torture chambers at S21 (Security Prison 21) in Phnom Penh - now Tuol Sleng Genecidal Museum.  Prior to its use as a detention and torture centre, Tuol Sleng was actually Tuol Svay Primary and Secondary School. This was a classroom. When the Vietnamese arrived they found 14 severely decomposed bodies in each of the torture rooms.

Although the Khmer Rouge were initially welcomed with open arms when they marched into Phnom Penh on April 17th, 1975, emotions changed rapidly when all of the city's population - including the old and the sick - was forced to march out into the jungles and begin a life of farming devoid of any outside aid. The vision of the (largely French educated) Khmer Rouge inner circle, was to abolish education, hospitals, religion, technology and all forms of knowledge, turning their country into a 'self-sufficient agrarian paradise' (ring any bells?). As people - including children - were forced to work in the fields with little or no food, true medicine or relief day in and day out, many died. Still more were outright killed or forced into battle. Although it was only intellectuals (including anyone who wore glasses), government workers and Lon Nol soldiers who were initially killed, numbers rose drastically in later years as Pol Pot became more and more paranoid, killing off anyone he thought might oneday pose a threat - including his own troops.

Bricked up prison cells, normal prisoners were held here and tortured for 2 to 4 months, political prisoners 6 to 7. An estimated 20,000 people passed through Tuol Sleng en route to their deaths. Between only  7 and 21 people are known to have survived. Two of these, Bu Meng and Chum Mey, now in their 80s, volunteer at the museum, selling their memoirs and discussing their memories. Of the survivors, all have forgiven their day to day captors, many of whom were forced to preform their duties - and some of whom even had to watch their parents go to their deaths. Kaing Guek Eav, or Duch,  the former head of S21and the first of the former Khmer Rouge leaders to stand trial for war crimes, has also said that those under him cannot be blamed, taking upon himself full responsibility for the atrocities carried out under his directive at Tuol Sleng and the Choeung Ek Killing Fields.

Brought into the fray by raids across it's borders, liberating Vietnamese troops finally marched into Phnom Penh and the greater countryside in 1978, setting up a government with Khmer Rouge defector Hun Sen at it's head. After many years of vicious fighting, particularly in the Thai border regions where the Khmer Rouge had fled, a UN Transitional Council was set up to aid the country in holding elections which boasted a 90% turnout in 1993. Although Prince Norodom Rinariddh's FUNCINPEC party appeared to have won, he was forced into a coalition with Hun Sen's Cambodian People's Party by Hun Sen. In some form or another, the two men have been leading the country ever since. It should be interesting to see what this year's up coming elections hold. 

1993 also saw the re-coronation of the still much beloved King Sihanouk - this time as constitutional monarch. Despite Cambodia's turbulent recent history and his role in it, King Sihanouk's loss was heavily mourned by his people when he passed in October of 2012. The current King, his youngest son, Norodom Sihamoni, who was appointed by council upon Sihanouk's medically-prompted and unexpected (second) abdication in 2004, also appears to be well loved by his people - he's also the only siting monarch who speaks Czech and is a former classical dancer. Both are wins in my book.

Chum Mey's cell. To give some idea of the horrendousness of the conditions, in his memoir, Chum Mey writes this about his visit to one of the Nazi Concentration camps as a tourist later in life: "When I was taken to the camp, I thought of Toul Sleng. There was the same kind of killing at these two places. [...] It was also different from Tuol Sleng because they had many beds and didn't have to sleep on the floor. They could bathe, too, so Tuol Sleng was worse." (Chum Mey, 2012 p.44)

For more information on life under the Khmer Rouge and the slow process of bringing the perpetrators to justice, check out:
First they Killed my Father: a daughter of Cambodia remembers by Loung Ung
When the War was Over: Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge revolution by Elizabeth Becker
Survivor: the triumph of an ordinary man in the Khmer Rough Genocide by Chum Mey
Choeung Ek's Website (www.eccc.gov.kh/en)
The Tribunal Website (www.cambodiatribunal.org)

Thursday, March 7, 2013

Phnom Penh

With its wide tree-lined boulevards, smiling friendly people, overabundance of tuk-tuks (motor cabs), magnificent mix of traditional Khmer and old-school French colonial architecture, and hodge podge of vendors, Cambodia's Phnom Penh exudes a unique sort of charm that is all its own.

Thus far, I've loved what I've seen of the city that was home to such great sufferring not so long ago. This place truly comes alive in the early evenings - particularly now as it's hot season. Sadly, my picture of the late afternoon traffic circling the National Independance Monument really doesn't do the city justice. Hope you enjoy it anyhow - that's one of Phnom Penh's many Wats (temples),Wat Lanka, in the background on the right.

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Farewell Gwangju

Sadly, all good things must come to an end. Time's come to say Goodbye Korea, Hello world. I am really going to miss this place! 

A picture of my empty classroom *sniffles*

안녕히계세요! Until next time!