Phnom Penh
We travelled by bus from HCMC to Phnom Penh, which took
around 6-7 hours in total. Crossing the Vietnam-Cambodia border was an
experience in itself as we had been told that our driver would arrange our
visas and return our passports to us on the bus. However, when we arrived at
the border we were ushered from the bus and given no further instructions,
which led to us standing around for quite a while having no idea what to do.
Eventually our driver returned and we were quickly swept through the customs
offices for exiting Vietnam and entering Cambodia (with customary eye scanning
on arrival).
We arrived at our hostel in Phnom Penh a few hours later and
as usual we dropped our bags and went exploring. In Phnom Penh I learned a lot
about the history of Cambodia (which I will come to shortly) but I also learned
a lot about the predicament of the current Cambodians too. Poverty is
unfortunately everywhere, as large numbers of people are sleeping on the
streets. Rubbish piled waist-high was strewn all over the city, which obviously
made for a highly unpleasant odour no matter where you went. This was
contrasted starkly by walking 30 seconds to the riverside area which is clearly
more affluent and where the majority of travellers/holidaymakers seemed to be
situated. As we wandered the streets offers of tuk-tuks were always no more
than a few seconds away, which did became tiresome but we had become accustomed
to it by this point of our travels.
One of the main reasons we had decided to visit Phnom Penh
was to tour the famous killing fields, remnants of Khmer Rouge rule in Cambodia
(Kampuchea) in the 1970s, with Pol Pot as its figurehead. Pot’s Khmer Rouge
took control of Cambodia by force in 1975 and instigated a totalitarian system
based around agriculture, creating forced labour camps in rural areas. The majority
of people that lived in cities such as Phnom Penh and Siem Reap were sent to ‘Killing
Fields’ where they were brutally murdered for simply being city dwellers. Some of
the stories we heard were truly heart-breaking and I won’t repeat a lot of the specific
information for this reason. However, it is estimated that during the time of
the Khmer Rouge from 1975-1979, over 3 million people were murdered or died as
a direct result of their rule, out of a population of 8 million!! As clichéd as
this may sound, it really did make me appreciate where we are from and the fact
that we are so fortunate to have the lives that we do. Although it’s all
relative, a reality check like this can really open one’s eyes.
Cambodia may have escaped the Khmer Rouge in 1979 when the
Vietnamese helped oust them from a position of power (although they were still
officially recognised as the leading political party by the UN up until 1997!)
but there is a strong sense of corruption that still encapsulates it, which is
especially apparent when you can see such a huge poverty/wealth divide in just
a few short steps.
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