Painful past in Phnom Penh

Siem Reap isn't the most charming place, and yet we ended up feeling like at home in our guesthouse. This was in part thanks to the owner, a lovely old man, a nice and friendly "grandpa". With mixed feelings we got onto a bus for Phnom Penh, the much dreaded capital city.

We had read a bit about the place, and most of it seemed bad: ugly, chaotic, polluted, lot of traffic, scams, thefts, expensive hotels and not much to see for tourists. And yet at some point one learns that lower expectations can turn into positive surprises.

Phnom Penh is a real city, not just a large village as other towns in Cambodia and Laos. There are ample boulevards, beautiful houses (mostly embassies), tall buildings. The roads are in rather good conditions and the streets are mostly illuminated at night. There is even a building that looks like the W Hotel (Hotel Vela) in Barcelona!

Monuments, boulevards and Sunday bikers, like a modern city

...that still retains its down-to-earth soul.

The first few hours, a Saturday afternoon, were dedicated to a mission of extreme importance: finding a copy of "The Little Prince" written in Cambodian. We had already failed once in Laos, and didn't want to repeat the experience. A public library near our guesthouse had a copy, and the librarian named a few book shops where we could find it. With hearths filled with hope we walked up and down the crazy roads of Phnom Penh looking for it. Guess what? In the end the Cambodian copy of the book will join the collection... of the ones we couldn't find. Apparently in this part of the world K's beloved prince is not as famous as we thought :(

At least we know how it looks like

While in Phnom Penh we had planned to visit two turistic sights: the Royal Palace and the infamous S21 Khmer Rouge prison. It turned out that the King died in October (we should study more about our destinations) and the Royal Palace is still closed for the three months mourning. Bad luck or a sign from above to get out of the city? We chose the second and decided to reduce our stay to only one day. This gave us enough time to visit the Tuol Sleng (known as S21) prison and stroll around Phnom Penh a little.

A morning at the old prison can be soulcrushing. The Khmer Rouge are part of a very recent past, and the scars that they have left are still deep and burning in many Cambodians, as you can easily hear talking with older people. When Pol Pot seized the power, the country underwent one of the fastest and more traumatic "revolutionalization" of the XX century. Emulating and wanting to surpass China, Pol Pot had planned for Cambodia the "Fastest Great Leap Forward". In a matter of days and weeks the population of the cities was relocated to the countryside to work the land. People of all ages, including the elderly and children, were forced to work in the fields for more long hours and fed a couple of spoonfuls of rice a day. Even that little food was reduced when the crops diminished. Many people were relocated to remote corners of the country, far from their native village, and many families were separated in the process.

One of the buildings of the prison, with barbed wire to avoid suicides of prisoners

Prison cells built inside the old class rooms

All intellectual and religious activities were prohibited: schools and temples were converted into prisons and interrogation centres. Only the manual work, mainly agriculture, was deemed appropriate for a truly revolutionary country. To insure the success of the revolution the Khmer Rouge used the classic instruments of secret police, torture, summary justice and mass killings. The visit at the school-turned-prison Tuol Sleng allows you to see the face of the evil that men can do. When the museum opened in 1979 many Cambodians came to see the pictures of the people that had been killed there, to see if they could find the face of relatives and friends lost during the dictatorship.

The horror of those events is shocking, but it's also amazing (or disturbing) to see how the society has reacted to it. It's probably for the best, but also surprising, to see how the country seems to have tried to move on and forget such a painful past. Until some years ago this part of history wasn't even taught at schools! Also, as in similar cases in other countries, most of the people responsible for the atrocities have never been properly judged and punished for their crimes. Some died of old age, others are still living an ordinary life. Its naive to desire some "real justice", but it's also enraging to see how things always end up.

Relax and mourning in front of the royal palace

Fortunately a walk along the riverfront and between the city's gardens helped us regain our good mood. Phnom Penh is so positive and full of life. In the end we just zipped through it in a couple of nights, but it was much nicer than what we had expected. Perhaps we could have stayed longer, but we are getting closer to the sea and the beaches, and we can't wait to be there!

Peace on the river front