Reasons To Be Thankful

Day 75- We took a 6 hour bus ride from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh. Once again I did some research to find the best valued mode of transportation and we ended up booking with Giant Ibis bus company. They give passengers a delicious baked snack, water, they have wifi (worked better than I expected), it was clean and wall chargers at each seat for the cheap cheap price of $20 CAD/person. We arrived at Eighty 8 backpackers hostel and once again we were lucky that they had a room available for us. The hostel had clean rooms, the staff was friendly and the restaurant/bar served one hell of a Cambodian curry. :)

Day 76- We came to Phnom Pehn to see two things; the killing fields and S-21. The other sites here, such as the national monument and temples, we avoided. It wasn't that we didn't think these attractions would be interesting but we had just spent 5 days seeing some of the most incredible temples in the world and we wanted to let those memories marinate a bit. Also the temples had proven to be a bit of a touring bender, and wanted to chill out a bit.

WARNING: The following text and pictures may be disturbing. 

First let me begin by saying that this was by far one of the most difficult things I have ever seen. I am sad to admit that I knew very little about what happened in Cambodia until our recent trip to the landmine museum in Siem Reap. The museam ignited a research frenzy for Mike and I prior to arriving at the "Killing Fields" in Phnom Penh. We were also given an audio information tour at the fields, which further informed us on the dark times in Cambodia between 1975 an 1979. I found it difficult to take photos of the remaining evidence in the area, representing all of the terrible things that happened there. The killing fields did not get their name by chance. It is a farmers field, where many of the 3 million innocent Cambodian men, women and children were brutally beaten, tortured and murdered in cold blood. The worst part for me was the realization that this did not occur because of a war, or because another country was battling for victory. The 3 million murders were comitted by innocent Cambodians, to innocent Cambodians. The Khmer Rouge was in power and the leader of this fanatical group had a plan to build a unified communist country, with a strong focus on rural production. Step 1, abolish city life and relocate all manpower to the rice feilds; Step 2, remove all free thinking individuals that may oppose the Khmer Rouge's ideals, by any means necessary; Step 3, close off any sources of outside influence to the remaining populous. In other words, take everyone from there homes, seperating them from their families and send them to work camps, execute all social leaders such as teachers, engineers, business men and other educated civilians and lastly, convict and execute any individual that has been in contact with a foreign body in their lives. The problem with this plan is that when the country did not see the economic progress anticipated, mostly because city workers without training don't  make good farmers, "followers" can't help but question their leader. This environment creates a society of fear and paranoia. The fear keeps the distructive system in place and the paranoia, mostly on behalf of the leadership, causes more accusations of treason amongst the citizens. The result, bus loads of people brought to the killing fields 3 times a week, where they would be murdered in the most cost effective way possible. One of the saddest realizations is that the soldiers tasked with carrying out these orders faced death themselves if they even hinted at remorse. A country full of victims in fear of one another. The more the national economy failed, the more the people would question the leadership, the more the leadership became paranoid, ultimately resulting in more accusations and genocide. The leader of the Khmer Rouge stopped at nothing, even killing members of his own family. The destruction was so terrible that between the Khmer Rouges reign of 1975-1979, 1 in 4 Cambodians were executed, totalling 3 million innocent people. I found all this particularly impactful when Mike concluded that every Cambodian we saw around the age of our parents lived through these dark times. Truly a terrible piece of history. 

Above is one of the mass grave sites where hundreds of people still rest. As the earth shifts and the rain falls, bones and clothing continue to make their way to the surface of the killing field grounds. Staff at the grounds clean up human remains on a regular basis, however, they had not gotten to the teeth we saw below. 

The following photo needs no explanation. It was very hard to walk through the fields without crying for all of the innocent victims, especially the little ones.

                           

A gallery of 8 levels with the skulls of many of the victims. 

The governement of Cambodia has declared these killing fields a memorial for the many people who lost their lives. This was only one example of where people were murdered, many more killing fields were spread across the country.

After an already difficult and impactful visit to the killing fields, we made our way to S-21. This stands for Security Office 21. This was a high school that the Khmer Rouge took over and after relocating the city's residence, they turned it into an interrogation and torture facility. With paranoia running wild, a word from your neighbour was enough to get you executed. The scary part was that the Khmer Rouge held political positions on the world stage and in a calculated political manouver to cover their actions, one would be tortured until the Khmer Rouge received written admission to guilt from all of those scheduled for execution. Once the admission was received, they would be loaded onto the many busses and taken to the killing fields where the victims would "answer for their sins". Another sad reality of torture is that victums will not only admit to crimes they did not commit, they will also condemn their friends  and family in an attempt to please their captures. This created a ever growing list of potential "traitors" to feed this vicious cycle. Propaganda posters stating "It is better to convict the innocent than allow the guilty to run free" and "to remove a weed one must extract the roots as well", referring to executing the family members of a criminal to avoid future vengeance, gives you a pretty clear picture of just how bad things got. 

                           

The entire high school was transformed into a place of death and torture. We walked through the grounds and saw the many pictures of the recorded 500 victims that were tortured here, many of them not even in their 20's. There was more to see but we couldn't handle any more stories of death for the day.

We returned home feeling dirty, with the weight of death lurking above us and with a great sense of anger. The most disturbing fact gathered during the entire day is that the leader, Pol Pot, who was the man behind the death of 3 million Cambodians over the 4 year period, was allowed to live a happy life with his family after his reign and got the pleasure of enjoying the younger years of his grandchildren. Only in 1997, following a split in the Khmer Rouge, another person of power seized control, making himself supreme commander. Pol Pot fled to another faction of the Khmer Rouge in the north where he was later captured and sentenced to lifelong house arrest.  He died in 1998 from a heart attack but rumors have it that his death may have been caused by poison. Where is the justice? 

On a personal note I think these moments in history are very important to discuss no matter how uncomfortable they may be. We must recognize the lowest points of humanity so that they may never happen again. 

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Day 77/78- These days were spent playing games, watching Star Wars (for my first time ever), going to the movies to see Transporter (AMAZING) and catching up on research for Vietnam. We had to get a VISA for Vietnam but we made the mistake of waiting to apply on a weekend. The office is closed on weekends so we had to stay until the Monday before we could head to Vietnam.  Below is a photo of one of our chess games. My talented sister and nieces made it for us by hand out of felt. Aren't we lucky? This is only one of the many reasons to be thankful for the lives we have in Canada. Take a moment every day to remember how lucky we really are. 

 We had some kittens at our hostel that would greet us everytime we went to our room. We also spent a lot of our free time snuggling with them.

                              

And sometimes I like to try new hairstyles. You need to get creative when you're wearing the same 5 outfits everyday. Sometimes the hairstyles work out... and other times they just don't. Hopefully this gave you a smile after reading this very heavy blog post. :-)