sunday in phnom penh

Days off are great! I've been working 6 days a week because the Thai's we are working with do. Last Sunday we checked out the National museum, which wasn't that good, and attempted to check out the Royal Palace, but it was shut at the time. That pretty much spelled the end of last Sunday as I was very tired. This Sunday however, no more tiredness! It was time to check out Phnom Penh in detail...

First up, I needed some cheap market goodies: presents, shoes, "real" Swiss made watches for less than $20! So I went to the Russian market. Not as many Russians there these days, but the name has stuck from the 1980's when the Soviets in town used to shop there. It's a maze in there, but the highlight has to the food court in what I'm guessing was the middle, but that's just a guess - it really is a maze.

Next was far more sombre. A visit to Tuol Sleng museum, formerly security prison 21. Apart from the killing fields of Choeung Ek, this prison is the most infamous example of Khmer Rouge bloodlust. After the rise to power of the Khmer Rouge in 1975, the Tuol Svey Prey High School was converted to S21. It's in the middle of suburbia, along the main road in Phnom Penh. We drive past it every day going to work. The equivalent location in Melbourne would be somewhere along Victoria Parade or Hoddle Street. During the four years of Khmer Rouge rule, approximately 14,000 people were tortured at S21, and only 7 survived.

It's a tragic example of the worst that humans can do to each other. Interestingly, parts of the museum as dedicated to the people who ran the prison. Most of them did it out of fear of death. The régime killed anyone who refused to work the job given to them. They had 12 and 13 year old children as the medical staff in the prison, with no training provided to them. The Khmer Rouge boasted that they estimated that no more than 2 million people were needed for their "new society". This was being broadcast to a population of around 10 million. It's in this light that you can start to understand how something like this can be run, and how the population can be kept in such a state of fear.

It was never going to last, and in 1978 parts of the Khmer Rouge rebelled. After the rebellion it didn't matter how trusted you were within the régime you could be sent to S21 on the basis of any rumor that you were connected with "the enemy". The torturing would last until you gave a confession (true or false, it didn't really matter so long as it was incriminating). It seems that a fair chunk of the world was counted as "the enemy" as well. If tortured prisoners had the following options: admit you were working for the CIA, admit you were working for the KGB, or admit you were working for the Vietnamese.

The outer fences of the prison consisted of corrugated iron, topped with electrified barbed wire. On the wall in one of the buildings is a set of the most basic electrical equations. You can't run an electric fence without these equations. But they were killing all the intellectuals in the society, they must of been afraid of losing this particular piece of knowledge.

Gladly, by 1979 the Khmer Rouge were at war with the Vietnamese, and swiftly lost power.

What to do after that gruesome history lesson? Like any good Melbournian, I went and checked out what sport was on the local stadium. Phnom Penh's Olympic Stadium was hosting a Cambodian League soccer match. Sadly the match was vastly one sided. Siem Reap were losing 6-0 to Phnom Penh Empire when I arrived, and it only got worse from there. Good thing entry was only US$1.

The stadium is actually part of a bigger sporting area, where all sorts of people were playing soccer, basketball, volleyball, cycling and running. It was good to see them out enjoying themselves, despite some occasional rain.