Khmer New Years

a monkey on the street by the post office. We watched them get chased by a dog, only to smarten up and chase it back. All around the city you could see them chilling in the awnings.
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On our first night in Phnom Penh, we took a walk along the river. A lot of people were camped out on the corniche – it was unclear whether that was usual or just during the Khmer New Year’s Celebration, which was still happening. A lot of the tuk tuk and cyclo drivers just slept in their cabs overnight, so it wouldn’t be surprising if others also slept on public land. It was definitely a party atmosphere. Kids yelled out “Hello! How are you?” whenever they saw a pack of white people coming through. We responded with “Happy New Year’s!” in Cambodian, which sounds something like “Suiciday, Chanap Tomai!”

The elephant and me.
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We stopped for drinks at the Foreign Correspondent’s Club. One pitcher of beer turned into many, and we pretty much parked there for the night. We sat at a table on the third deck overlooking all the action on the river, corniche and street.

Day of Misery. Day of Jubilation!

Misery Morning is the only way to describe a tour of Tuol Slong and the Killing Fields. Tuol Slong, a.k.a. S 21, is a museum that the Khmer Rouge used as a torture center/prison. Originally, it was a public school. Our tour guide, Ron, was a child during the regime and shared his story: his parents were both educated but knew how to farm, so they went with workers into the fields. The children were all rounded up and put in a teenage work camp, where they farmed all day and got one bowl of porridge for dinner. The party leadership frequently encouraged the kids to rat out their parents and peers. Anyone suspected of being educated, or who disobeyed any orders, was sent to a discipline camp or straight to the Killing Fields.

A VIP cell at S21
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S21 was a last stop on the way to the Fields for many prisoners. VIPs were interrogated in the old classrooms. The guards used many forms of torture – the evidence of a lot of which is still in the museum.

Pol Pot tried to institute a Maoist philosophy for the entire country through a system of eradication. The first to go were the educated people: the thinkers, artists, scientists, doctors, engineers, businesspeople, and writers. Ron had us line up and told us we all probably would have been killed at the start of the Revolution for being pale (no tan from working in the fields), wearing glasses (a sure sign of education), and soft hands (not used to hard work).

A mass grave site in the Killing Fields
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Large mass graves formed craters all over the Killing Fields. A stupa (a monument resembling a temple) full of skulls and femurs sits in the middle of all the graves. The guards employed many awful rituals to kill their victims – sometimes as a final form of torture and sometimes just to save bullets or energy. Sadly, more and more bones are washed up each year with the rains. We saw little chips of bones as we walked along the graves.

It’s amazing that with all the recent hardship, the Cambodian people are so positive. Those who we talked to who suffered through the various wars said it’s partly due to the Buddhist principle of forgiveness and partly the simple need to move on.

some skulls in the monument at the Killing Fields
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On the drive back into town from Tuol Slong and the Killing Fields, masses of children were throwing white powder or water balloons at each other. The water symbolizes cleansing away the evils of the year past and the powder is for good luck and prosperity in the year to come.

Back in Phnom Penh we tried to check out the Silver Pagoda, where the entire floor is constructed of silver bricks, but almost everything was shut down. I left Sara in an internet café and walked back to the hotel. Along the way, kids with water balloons attacked me. At first they were reluctant to throw them at me, but after I waved at them, the game was on. When we ran out of balloons, they just followed me down the street. We ran into an elephant, who a café waiter was feeding. He let me and all the kids offer food to the elephant’s trunk – when the food was gone, the elephant kept trying to eat my camera! Woman with babies would walk back and forth under the elephant’s head and trunk – another act for good luck. With the monkeys by the post office that we saw earlier and the elephant on the side of the road, it was a happy new year!