Day 109 – Phnom Penh, Cambodia – 7:54 PM

My original intention of remaining in Phnom Penh, the capitol of Cambodia, for two days quickly changed after I arrived on Wednesday.  I met Kevin, an American from Seattle, on my bus from Vietnam and by chance we both reserved beds at One Stop Hostel.  On my first night in Phnom Penh, I walked to the night market to grab an inexpensive meal.  I quickly realized I was no longer in Vietnam as “pho” and “com” brought puzzled looks to the faces of the food vendors rather than a bowl of soup or plate of rice, as I was accustomed.  However, one vendor spoke in broken English and asked if I wanted fried rice with beef.  Growing increasingly hungry, a smile flashed across my face and I nodded my head.  Fried rice with beef would be perfect.  Anything edible would have been perfect.  I stepped out of my flip-flops and sat on the large mats that were spread out before me.  Others mingled around ordering food, shopping for gifts or eating cross-legged on the aforementioned mats.  Minutes later my plate of rice arrived and I quickly devoured it.  At $1 USD per plate I ordered a second and made short work of it as well.  I relaxed for a short time, watching the locals and tourists alike meander around me.

After finishing my water, I stood up and walked across the main boulevard to the edge of the Mekong River.  A large walkway snakes along the Mekong and provided the perfect atmosphere to occupy another hour before I returned to my hostel. Joggers puttered along in both directions, couples sat hand in hand on the seawall and traffic slowly inched by on the nearby roadway.  On the Mekong, riverboats shuttled out-of-towners on evening cruises while local fishing boats pulled their nets hoping for a full haul.  I slowly meandered south along the waterfront taking in the sights and sounds of my fourth country on this round-the-world journey.

Originally founded in the 9^th Century, Cambodia fell under the Khmer empire for nearly 600 years. In 1863, France became a protectorate of Cambodia until 1953, when they gained independence. The Vietnam War spread into Cambodia from 1969 to 1973 as U.S. bombs attempted to flush out the Vietcong. In 1970, a coup overthrew then leader Prince Norodom Sihanouk. As he left office, Prince Sihanouk pledged his support to his former enemy, the Khmer Rouge. By 1975, the Khmer Rouge, led by Dictator Pol Pot, had taken over Phnom Penh and thus began the Cambodian genocide.

Yesterday, Kevin and I, along with two hostel mates from Europe toured two infamous sites of the deadly Khmer Rouge, the Tuol Sung Prison and the killing fields of Choeung Elk.  I knew very little of the Cambodian genocide prior to my time in Cambodia and yesterday was an anguishing, eye opening experience.  We departed One Stop Hostel at 9 A.M. arriving at Tuol Sung Prison a short time later.  The prison was converted into a museum to pay homage to the victims that endured weeks and months of torture within its walls. After we entered the main gate, we received a headset and earphones.  The voice of a survivor of the regime spilled into my ears.  He described the layout of the prison and warned that many of the exhibits might be too much to handle.  Our first stop on the audio tour was the courtyard between the primary prison buildings.  Thirteen stone tombs rested before us.  According to our narrator, these white tombs represent the thirteen bodies that were still present at the prison when Cambodian authorities took over control in 1979.

Over the course of the next two hours, we walked somberly through buildings, down hallways and into cells.  Now quiet, these areas were once filled with the screams of those tortured by the Khmer regime.  Picture after picture represented the many victims of this horrible time.  While a vast majority of the victims were Cambodian, foreign victims hailed from Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, Britain, France, and the United States among others.

Perhaps the story that affected me the most was that of New Zealander Kerry Hamill.  At 27 years of age, Hamill and two others were attempting to sail around the world when they entered the waters off the southern coast of Cambodia.  Khmer patrol boats quickly intercepted the trio and arrested them. Hamill and one of his cohorts, John Dewhirst, survived the arrest and transferred to Tuol Sung Prison.  Suspected of spying for the CIA and KGB, the two were interrogated and brutally executed less than one month later.  When notes from the interrogation of Hamill were uncovered, his bravery in the face of certain death came to light.  He refused to bend under the pressure of the tyrants that ran Tuol Sung. Hamill told interrogators that Colonel Sanders of KFC fame was his superior officer and listed his telephone number as his CIA identification number.  Surely, Hamill knew death was imminent and refused to lose his sense of humor as death stared him in the face.  Being the same age as Hamill when he fell victim to the Khmer Rouge, I wonder if I would have the same strength and fortitude in the face of such adversity.

The heart-wrenching details I learned about at Tuol Sung Prison were magnified later in the day when we visited the killing fields of Choeung Elk, approximately nine miles from Phnom Penh.  Once again, an audio tour provided insight into the horrors that occurred there.  Under the sweltering midday heat, we somberly walked past large holes in the ground that are the burial places for thousands of Khmer victims.  Prisoners from Tuol Sung and a number of other secret prisons were blindfolded and transported to Choeung Elk after darkness enveloped the land.  Khmer soldiers did not want to startle locals with gunshots so they beat and bludgeoned their victims to death.  These helpless victims fell one after the other into large mass graves.  Pieces of fabric can still be spotted emerging from the ground.  Large fragments of clothing and bone that are unearthed as the years progressed are housed in large glass display cases that dot the property.  Over time, Khmer soldiers were unable to execute the increased number of victims that were brought to the killing fields each night.  Those who escaped death on the night of their arrival were housed in a large hut shackled to each other awaiting a certain death following the next day’s sunset. A memorial Stupa was constructed in the center of the property to house many of the remains of those executed years earlier. The Khmer Rouge’s impact on Cambodian society cannot be avoided upon entering the Stupa. Inside, row after row of human skulls, sorted by age and gender, stretch from floor to ceiling. After exiting the Stupa, we each sat in solitude digesting what we learned and saw over the previous hours. During the Khmer Rouge’s five-year rule from 1975-1979, an estimated 1.5 million to 3 million victims were killed at the hands of these tyrants.