My Post-Sabbatical Year(s) in Asia (or wherever): 6/3 & 6/4: Phnom Penh

5/3:My first glimpse of Cambodia was from the airplane as we were arriving - I had moved from the perpetual hills and mountains of Laos to the unbelievably flat plains of Phnom Penh.

At the ATM machine at the airport, I received US dollars instead of Cambodian Riel (4100 Riel equals $1). I found out that they use both currencies here, interchangeably, but prefer dollars.

I spent my first day wandering the streets, and visiting a few wats along the way.

Near the Mekong river the buildings look like something a bit out of France's past (they were her for 90 years).

Some sort of school bus, packed with children

Amazing tangle of electrical wires

Banana man

Coconut cart

Motorcycle man

Newspaper stand (what's with Mickey Mouse?)

Motorcycle grandma with grandson

city laundry

3 cute boys

Too much to deal with

Snacking on the street - some type of fried rice flour dish (I think)

It was delicious! (though I don't know what it was)

I went into a mini-market, looking for some water, but it was cheaper to buy a beer.

My first wat: Wat Ounalom, near the Royal Palace, first built in 1443

Also Wat Ounalom (it seems that the wats have numerous buildings as opposed to just one)

Wat Phnom, atop a 90 foot hill (the only hill in Phnom Penh). The temple sanctuary was built in 1434, 1806, 1894 and 1926. The stupa (seen above) contains the ashes of King Ponhea Yat (1405-1467)

Inside Vihara (the main sanctuary of Wat Phnom)

Inside Wat Lanka (near my guest house)

I don't travel with a guide book. It is too restrictive on my "wanderlust." Often, I choose my next location after talking to travelers where I am at. but guidebooks also provide useful information, especially when I am looking for some history. Luckily, many of the guest houses where I stay have a shelf of used books, so I glance through guidebooks when I see them. The following history of Cambodia comes from South East Asia on a Shoestring, as well as information from the National Museum and Tuol Sleng Museum.

Early History: There were three periods during early Cambodian history: 1) the Funan Period, from the first to the sixth centuries, 2) The Chenla Period, from the 7th to the 8th centuries, and 3) The Angkor Period, from the 9th to the 15th centuries. The Funan dynasty rose due to its strategic location on the trace route between China and India, but fell into decline when more direct water routes started through Indonesia. The Angkor dynasty started in the year 802 under King Jayavarman II. Abundant natural resources and a vast irrigation system led to intensive cultivation of land and thus great prosperity. The Angkor dynasty experienced its zenith in expansion during the 11th to 13th centuries, when the empire included parts of Thailand, Vietnam and Laos.

There are a lot of monks in Phnom Penh. Here: a monk on the cell phone.

Two monks walked up to the outdoor restaurant where I was sitting eating breakfast. They didn't say anything, they just stood there under their umbrellas with their begging bowls. After about two minutes when they received no food from the restaurants, they walked on.

Monks for a walk

A monk taking a photo

The monks asked if they could take my picture, so I asked if I could take one as well

Unidentified wat near the Royal Palace

The National Museum, which contains the greatest collection of Angkor sculptures

Inside the national museum

More History

French period: Started in 1864, and lasted for 90 years, until Cambodia was granted independence in 1953.

Recent History: King Norodom Sihanouk ruled for 15 years, until his repressive measures alienated both the left and the right. In 1970 he was overthrown by the army.

The entrance to the Royal Palace

The main wat in the Royal Palace. I don't know how many buildings there are on the Royal Palace grounds. Visitors are only allowed in about a sixth of the area, and still, there is a lot to see.

The silver Pagoda, built in 1892 (the entire floor is made of silver tiles), containing many solid gold treasures

Next to the Silver Pagoda.

More History

Enter the USA and the Khmer Rouge: In 1969 the US started carpet bombing" suspected communist camps in Cambodia, which was not to popular for the Cambodians. In 1970 in an attempt to stem the spread of the Vietnamese communists in Cambodia, the US and South Vietnamese armies invaded Cambodia, which drove the indigenous rebels, The Khmer Rouge, further into the interior of Cambodia. With the US withdrawal from Vietnam, the Khmer rouge went on the offensive, taking Phnom Penh in 1975, two weeks before the fall of Saigon (the fall of Vientiane in Laos was also in 1975).

Photograph of people cheering the Khmer rouge as they captured Phnom Penh

Pol Pot, leader of the Khmer Rouge

Pol Pot and the Khmer rouge implemented one of the most radical and brutal restructuring of society ever attempted. His goal was to transform Cambodia into a Maoist peasant-dominated agrarian society. Anyone educated was killed. Anyone wearing glasses was killed. Anyone coming from a city was a suspect. He was also violently opposed to Buddhism and the Cambodian monks. Though originally allied with the Vietnamese, he saw them as the worst enemy. Anyone who spoke Vietnamese or was originally from Vietnam was killed.

Photo of Phnom Penh, turned into a virtual ghost town. With the Khmer Rouge's agrarian policies, only 40,000 citizens lived in Phnom Penh during the Khmer Rouge reign of terror.

During the next four years, hundreds of thousands of people were taken to the countryside, tortured or executed. Others were forced into work camps. At least one million and possibly as high as two million people (out of the total population of 7 million) died at the hands of the Khmer Rouge.

Today I visited Tuol Sleng Museum (Khmer Rouge Genocide Museum)

In 1975 Tuol Prep High School was turned into a prison - the largest center for detention and torture in the country.

The school grounds

The tiled floor and wood shutters of the old high school turned into torture chambers

implements of torture

Male victims

Female victims

17,000 people died here over the four years of Khmer Rouge rule

The old classrooms are now filled with either torture implements or photographs of the victims. The Khmer Rouge were meticulous (just like the Nazis) about documenting their actions, sometimes with before and after pictures.

With each panel of photographs (over 100 photographs per panel), one photo would reach out to me. Looking at the individuals photos helped to make the event more real for me.

This is a photo of one of the mass graves at the Killing fields, about 15 miles outside of Phnom Penh.

The end of the Khmer Rouge: At the end of 1978, Vietnam invaded Cambodia and overthrew the Khmer Rouge, ending their reign of terror. Vietnam's actions were condemned by the US. The Khmer Rouge fled into the mountains and maintained a guerilla war throughout the 80's. Since the Khmer Rouge were anti- Vietnam, they were armed and financed by China, Thailand and indirectly by the US, so that they could continue to fight the Vietnamese. The Khmer Rouge held a seat in the UN throughout the 1980's.