Phnom Penh

While there is a very somber side to Phnom Penh, as we discussed in our last posting, it’s also a fun, interesting city, which you’ll see here. It’s a struggling city, however. The Pol Pot era has set the city behind at least a generation.

Traffic is organized chaos! The roads are largely shared by pedi-cabs, tuk-tuks, bicycles and motorcycles. The number of cars is increasing, but is still a minority of the traffic. Of the cars, 80-90% are Toyota and Lexus, with lots of good-sized SUVs. A stoplight means to drive through an intersection slowly and there is no regard for lanes. To make a left turn you start about a block ahead, move into the oncoming traffic and work your way over to the left side by the time you get to the intersection. To cross a street you just start walking and the traffic separates around you—scary the first time!

The Royal Palace is beautiful. The Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot did not destroy much in the capital, even though they forced people to move to home villages. These public places were the vision given to the outside world. During that regime, the King was in Phnom Penh, working to get recognition at the UN. Following that he was placed under house arrest and eventually left the country.

Picture 1 shows the King’s audience hall. Photographs of the interior of these buildings are not allowed. We had only a brief glimpse of the interior before we were rushed away because the King was coming and he didn’t want the presence of we mere mortals! Picture 2 is the famous Silver Pagoda. The floor is covered in 5 tons of solid silver, most of which is covered with rugs. The tiles were made in France and have the French fleur-de-lis on each one. Also in the Silver Pagoda is a life-size image of Buddha made of 90 kilos of gold with over 9000 diamonds.

Surrounding the Silver Pagoda is gallery 600 meters long, with a painting of Cambodian history around the entire length. Picture 3 shows just one small section. It’s not in good repair, but there’s a Polish team there refurbishing the paintings—should be spectacular!

Finally, from the Royal Palace, we could not resist photographing the Cannonball Tree, shown in Picture 4. It has thorns, beautiful flowers and inedible fruit that grows to the size of a cannonball! The fruit was currently orange size, so not quit so impressive.

One of our delightful experiences in Phnom Penh was a “foodie” tour. We were picked up in a tuk-tuk by the lovely young couple shown in Picture 5. We started with cocktails on top of their tallest open building (there are taller ones that are not yet open). Rick recorded the lovely sunset through the bar in Picture 6. We went on to appetizers at a more western restaurant. The main course was at a local restaurant, where we were the only westerners. It included a vegetarian dish, fried frogs, fried pork and a chicken stew—all good, although not as spicy as we had hoped. Finally we had dessert at an upscale local restaurant, where, again, we were the only westerners. Picture 7 records dessert and our “specialty” cocktails—Rick finally found someone who could make a Manhattan!

The following morning we took a Cyclo tour of Phnom Penh with our guide. Picture 8 shows Rick in his pedi-cab. The drivers were about the size of our 10-year-old granddaughter, Morgan, so I’m sure we larger westerners were a lot of work. We visited Phnom Penh’s oldest Buddhist temple, shown in Picture 9. In itself, it was nothing too special, but look what we found further back on the grounds! Phmom Penh does not have a crematorium within the city. So the bodies are put in simple coffins (which are reused), stored in a garage at the temple (Picture 10) and transferred by hearse (Picture 11) to the crematorium outside town.

Our final stop was the central market, which was built by the French, during their occupation. It’s a large domed structure with 4 wings, one of which is shown in Picture 12. The “fancy” stuff is shown inside, while the every-day stuff is outside. Picture 13 shows one of the dried fish and shrimp stalls.

Our 4 days in Cambodia were great. We experienced the 10^th to the 21^st centuries. It’s a country that needs a lot of work to catch up with other countries in the area, like Thailand and Viet Nam. But it’s delightful.

We flew to Ho Chi Minh City and re-boarded the ship. More on Viet Nam later….

The Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot

Like Nazi Germany, you wonder how any group can kill large portions of their population for no apparent reason. In Cambodia it was genocide—killing across all groups of people in the country.

Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge came to power in the mid 1970s, promising a utopian communist solution to all the country’s problems. Today this is called extreme communism in the country because the Communist Party is still the largest political party in the country. The goal was to return Cambodia to “earlier times”. Everyone in the city was told to go back to their family homes in the country and become farmers. Schools and healthcare institutions were dissolved and the Intelligencia—teachers, doctors, lawyers and all educated people—were traitors to this new environment. So they were killed. From 1975 to 1979 at least 1.7 million Cambodians were killed by this regime, 21% of the Cambodian population at that time.

Interestingly, like the Nazis, the Khmer Rouge kept records and pictures of the prisoners, even the ones tortured to death, so a lot of families were able to gain closure about what happened to family members, but not all. Our guide, who was 15 when Pol Pot came to power, lost his father and they have no idea where or how. He could not grieve because he could then be executed as a traitor. He had to act like his father was wrong and the action was appropriate.

In 1977, the number of killings increased, according to records. There had been a couple coup attempts against Pol Pot, so members of the Khmer Rouge also became suspect and were executed if someone turned them in. An estimated 25% of the Khmer Rouge was executed from 1977-1979.

Cambodia has chosen to memorialize the victims in 2 places. The first is the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, which is housed in S-21—the secret designation for Security Department site 21. It is housed in an old high school, which had been closed. In 1979, the Vietnamese invaded Cambodia and Pol Pot was removed from power. The Khmer Rouge disappeared into the jungles. When S-21 was liberated, 11 bodies were found and 7 prisoners still alive. Those prisoners were allowed to live because they had skills the Khmer Rouge needed: watchmaker, photographers, etc. Picture 1 shows the courtyard of S-21, including the graves of the last 11 victims.

Prisoners were chained to their beds, like the one shown in Picture 2. The wooden box was their toilet and the each had a bowl for their Spartan meals. They were tortured until they confessed that they were members of the CIA, KGB or some other “bad” group of people. With the confession, the Khmer Rouge now had a reason to kill them and they were sent to the Killing Fields (more later).

Picture 3 shows the rules of the prison. As stated, torture was mostly electric shock and lashes, although there was some evidence of hanging from a gallows and shoving heads in filthy water. After prisoners started committing suicide in prison by jumping from the 3^rd floor, barbed wire was placed around the porches, shown in Picture 4.

As mentioned earlier, there were 7 survivors of S-21. Two are still alive today. Picture 5 show Rick with Chum Mey, one of the 2 survivors. He spends most days at S-21 and sells books, including the one he wrote called “Survivor”. We have it and look forward to reading it.

The prisoners who “confessed” were taken to Choeung Ek, one of an estimated 300 Killing Fields throughout Cambodia. This one is close to Phnom Penh and today has been turned into the Choeng Ek Genocidal Center. Picture 6 shows the Memorial Stuppa for the estimated 20,000 people they found buried here. The memorial is chilling. Inside the superstructure of the stuppa is a huge glass-enclosed case of rows and rows of skulls (over 8000) and other bones of the victims. Picture 7 gives some idea of the immensity. Picture 8 shows just one layer. Where enough evidence remained, the skulls have been analyzed and marked male or female, along with the method of execution. Most were killed by trauma to the head. Bullets were too expensive, so logs and metal bars were used to smash heads and necks.

Picture 9 shows one of the areas where 450 bodies were found in a mass grave. 86 mass graves have been excavated at this site. There’s an estimated 43 more that have not been excavated.

Whole families were often brought for execution. The Killing Tree in Picture 10 was used for killing small children. The children were held by their feet and their heads smashed against the tree. Nearby a mass grave was found with just women and children.

Unfortunately, time and weather cause the ground to shift and there are bodies still to find. Unfortunately, bones and remnants of clothing continue to rise to the surface, like those in Picture 11. As they emerge, guests will retrieve the bones and place them in a pile, waiting for proper treatment and identification.

We asked our guide what children are taught today about this period of time. He told us that if we had a younger guide we would hear a different story. Children are taught that Pol Pot was a very bad man and caused all of this. They are told to forgive the Khmer Rouge because they had to follow orders or be killed. There is some truth to this, but this is still a country where the Communist Party (Khmer Rouge) still yields much influence.

Why do we visit places like this? Because we want to remember. One hopes that if everyone understands the terrible things human beings do to other human beings, the killings will stop and the world will be a better place. One hopes….

Angkor Temples, Siem Reap, Cambodia

To say that the Angkor Temples are amazing is one of the great understatements of all times!  The Khmer people were the ancient people of modern-day Cambodia. They built temples as palaces to the gods, not as a place of worship. In some cases, the temple also enshrined the remains of the king. The temple was in the center of a village that supported the temple: monastery, wooden houses for workers, etc. Temples have been uncovered from as early as the 8^th century. The ones we visited, however were from the 10^th to 13^th century.

We started at Angkor Wat—the big one. This is the largest religious building in the world. King Suryavarman II, who built Angkor Wat created it as a palace to the gods and also as his final resting place. His ashes are encased in the uppermost tower. Most temples are entered from the east. This one, however, has its main entrance to the west. We entered from the east to avoid the crowds (which are horrendous!). Picture 1 shows the first view of the temple after crossing the 150 meter-wide moat and entering through the east gate. Picture 2 gives a view across the entire eastern side.

We found the most interesting thing about the temple to be the stone carvings. In this case the whole first level has an gallery with bas-relief carvings around it. Picture 3 shows one corridor and the effect of these carvings. In this temple the carvings feature major wars. Picture 4 shows a close-up of some of the carvings. Interestingly, these carvings are fairly shallow and difficult to photograph. The next temple, Angkor Thom, has much deeper carvings that seem more spectacular. One set of carvings in Angkor Wat that spread throughout the temple features 57 carvings of women, each with a different hairstyle. Picture 5 shows one example.

Within the temple there are 1000 Buddha images. Each one is missing its head, like the one in Picture 6. Much of this is attributed to the Khmer Rouge control in the late 70s, although there’s some thought that some disappeared with trophy hunters.

There are 3 levels to the temple, connected by very steep and narrow stairs. On the first level, additional outbuildings have been added. Picture 7 shows the royal crematorium that was added later.

Finally, the ponds in front of the temple provide a wonderful reflection of Angkor Wat (Picture 8). Unfortunately, they’re experiencing a moderate drought and the pond has almost dried up. Additionally, we were covered in a layer of fine dust!

Our second stop was at Angkor Thom. The Temple is significantly smaller than Angkor Wat and not as well preserved. The king who built Angkor Thom followed the one who built Angkor Wat and the grounds of the two temples are adjacent. The grounds, however, cover a much larger area. The bas-relief carvings are amazing because of the depth of carvings. Instead of battles, these carvings are of every-day happenings.

Picture 9 is part of a section that showed hunting from elephants. Picture 10 is a close-up of the elephant. Picture 11 is in another section showing creatures of the sea. In this case, a man is being eaten by an alligator.

One thing we noticed at Angkor Thom is that the King who created the temple was fond of his own image. Picture 12 shows a tower with his image on all 4 sides. The images were everywhere.

Our third temple was Ta Prohm Temple. This temple has deteriorated significantly, largely because the trees have invaded, producing some spectacular sites. Pictures 13 and 14 are just a couple of examples.

The carving in Picture 15 is from Ta Prohm and the subjects are most interesting. The top figure is a rhinoceros, which isn’t terribly unusual, since they used to inhabit this area. The bottom figure, however, leads to lots of questions. It looks like a dinosaur. How they came to carve this is unknown.

Our 4^th temple was Banteay Srei from the 2^nd half of the 10^th century, the oldest temple we saw. It’s called the Ladies Temple because it is small and the carvings delicate. It is also the only temple we saw that was not a royal temple. It was built by one of the king’s counselors.

Picture 16 is a view of the entrance and it’s reflection in the small pond. Once inside, you notice the spectacular, intricate carvings. Picture 17 is a view of the innermost part of the temple. Picture 18 is one of the gates with the elaborate carvings above. Picture 19 shows 2 monkey gods. Incidentally, the circular pillars in the background were actually turned on a lathe. Remains of a lathe were found near Angkor Wat. Finally, Picture 20 is one of those shots that just turns out right!

Our final temple was Banteay Samre, a relatively simple temple from the 12^th century. Picture 21 shows the entrance. Picture 22 shows the causeway leading to the temple. Each temple had at least one causeway that crossed the moat and allowed entrance to the temple. This one is in disrepair, but gives an idea of what it was like. Finally, Picture 23 shows a close-up of some of the turned pillars.

There are hundreds of these temples throughout Cambodia, but the greatest concentration is here. This was the ancient capital of Cambodia. One could easily spend a week or so visiting the many temples. But unless you’re an archeologist, they would probably get repetitious. We left wishing for a few more—another day would have been perfect.

Georgetown, Malacca and Lumut, Malaysia

Georgetown and Malacca are combined to form a World Heritage Site for their colonial history and architecture. This area was originally colonized by the Portuguese, then the Dutch and, finally, the British. Both cities were key ports on the Malacca Strait, through which 1/3 of all shipping traffic around the world passes. The Malacca Strait also has the honor of being home to the most acts of piracy in the world—many more than the Red Sea. Piracy is small time, however, and generally involves container ships around the 1^st of the month, when crew have just been paid. They quickly board, get whatever money and electronics they can and disappear. Cruise ships are not victims—way to many people to deal with.

Picture 1 shows the huge Kek Lok Si Buddhist Monastery of Supreme Bliss outside of Georgetown. It’s a climb of a couple hundred steps though souvenir shops to get to the top, with lots of Pagodas and Buddha images. The pagoda on the right is the Pagoda of 1000 Buddhas. It’s interesting because the lower floors are Chinese in style, the middle floors are Thai style and the gilded pinnacle is Burmese. There were hundreds of red and gold lanterns hung in preparation for Chinese New Years. The main celebration of New Years was this past weekend, although the celebration continues through mid-March.

Picture 2 is the Blue House, the home of Cheong Fat Tze, who in the 18^th century was the wealthiest man in Asia. The house has 38 rooms and currently is a guesthouse. The extensions on either side house the guest rooms around a courtyard. In the center of the main house is the courtyard shown in Picture 3. The latticework, lacquer work and carvings were amazing.

From Malacca, Picture 4 is the heart of the oldest Chinese temple in Malaysia, Cheng Hoon Teng. This is a Taoist Temple and the main area is surrounded by smaller altars, where worshippers pray to a variety of gods, including the Tiger gods shown in Picture 5. The Chinese people consider the tiger the King of Beasts and Tiger gods can dispel bad luck, afford prenatal protection, calm crying babies and assist in business ventures. Interestingly, the statues of Tiger gods, such as this one, are placed in a niche below the altar.

Also from Malacca, Picture 6 is the oldest mosque in Malaysia. Malaysia is an Islamic country, but is very religious-tolerant. You’ll see about 50% of the women dressing in Islamic fashion, but the remainder are western-dressed Moslems, Christians, Buddhists and Hindus.

Picture 7 is Dutch Square, or Red Square, in Malacca. It was the heart of the Dutch colonial period. It’s called Red Square because all the buildings are painted red. The buildings were built from bricks carried from Holland as ballast in the ships. They were then painted this very distinctive color. The church is Christ Church, which was built in 1753 and lacks many interesting features inside.

Picture 8 is Villa Sentosa, a typical rural Malaysian house. It’s part of the Kampon Morten Living Heritage Museum. Built around a central courtyard, Picture 9 shows the very open interior—good for air movement, but not for privacy!

The final 5 pictures are from our stop in Lumut. It’s not well-known or colonial, but offered a couple interesting sites. The most interesting stop was the turtle sanctuary. This part of Malaysia is a nesting area for green turtles. Picture 10 shows a maturing turtle with its natural color, which is brown. So why is it called the “Green” turtle? Its body fat is a nasty green color!

With the population of green turtles declining, the sanctuary pays locals for finding turtle eggs. Prior to this, people would rob the nests and sell the turtle eggs in the market. Now, it’s easier to bring them to the sanctuary. Once there, the eggs (typically 100-120) are buried in the sand for the incubation period. Picture 11 shows one of the sites where eggs are buried. You’ll notice this one is covered with a fine mesh net. These eggs will turn into male turtles. To get female turtles you bury them in the sunshine! The 5-degree difference in temperature is what determines the sex of the babies.

Once the baby turtles hatch from their ping-pong-ball-sized shells, they are delivered to the ocean, where most are quickly eaten! Only 10% survive to reproduce. But that’s a lot more that survive than used to, prior to the presence of the sanctuary. A small number of baby turtles are kept at the sanctuary to insure that a future generation is available for breeding. Picture 12 shows a baby that is between 1 and 3 days old—how cute is that!

We also visited the Tua Pek Kong Chinese temple in Lumut. This is a Temple of Prosperity, where you go to get rich. Picture 13 shows a view across the temple from the wall. It was kind of a cross between a temple and Disney World! There was even a giant dragon you could walk through that represented the Under World. Picture 14 shows just one example of the terrible things that can happen to you in the Under World—how would you like to be hung upside down, stabbed and thrown to the sharks?????

It has been great seeing some of these lesser-known places in Malaysia. The culture is fascinating. The next stop is Bangkok, where we will disembark and head to Angkor Wat and Phnom Penh in Cambodia. I’m sure there will be beautiful and chilling sights there. We’ll rejoin the ship in Saigon.