What these trees have seen; Cambodia and the killing fields.
Despite the fact that I seem to have gottena cold, I'm having a great time here. I don't know what they were talking about when several friends told me there's nothing to do in Phnom Penh. I love it here!
The day I got in, I went straight to the Bohdi Tree Guest House, which is lovely and emplys underpriviledged Cambodians. However, they were out or rooms with A/C, and I was on to another place called Her Royal Highness Hotel. They don't have a lift, so as the floors go up the prices cheapen. I'm in the 3rd floor (read, actually the 4th), and my clean, AC room with private bathroom and hot water? $15/night. I know! Anyway, insert your joke about her royal high-ness here. The hotel's not too far from the Riverfront, so I went for dinner and a massage ($6/hour). Afterwards, I wandered into a super modern-looking hotel (read: the standard downdown) and went up to the rooftop terrace. There's an infinity pool, $8 drinks, gorgeous view, and geckos on the ceilings, it's wonderous. More importantly, I made friends with a nice guy named Sony, who's one of the supervisors. Several free drinks and great English conversation later, Sony and his best friend BanThou were off work and I was hanging onto the back of them on their motorbike. We ate at a place that they love and come to regularly, and I see why. They had dishes of grilled beef and fried quail ($2 each) and they drank plenty of Ankgor Beer. I was stuffed, but happy to try the beef, and glad I did, because it was absolutely out of this world. It's served with a dish of pepper, sugar, and salt, and a dish of fresh veggies and limes. You squeeze the limes into the pepper, and dip the beef and veggies in this pepper sauce. A sort of Cambodian carne asada, if you will. After that, it was like 1 a.m., but they showed me to a club that they frequent. Now I'm not such a heavy partier, but this place was great! There were young people everywhere, smoke, laser beams, beer aplenty as well as this dried beef stuff sort of like beef jerky that they serve along with it. It was fun! We danced, made dancing friends, and then Sony drive me back to my hotel once I was peetering out (*finding* the hotel was another matter--I'd forgotten the name).
Today was a different story. I awoke late because I neede the sleep. and hired a tuk tuk driver, who, for $12, was to take me outside the city to the Killing Fields and to the Toul Sleng Genocide Museum. What follwed was absolutely horrifcally, unspeakably horrifying. At the killing fields I opted for a tour guide. My guide, Mao Thel, was only 15 when the Khmer Rouge was in power in the late 70s. His mother and father, both doctors, were both burdered, and his sister and uncle died of starvation. He survived my working in the rice fields. There are over a hundred mass graves there. They're shallow, not deep, and although they've been excavated in 1980, there are still shards of bone everywhere you walk, unavoidably showing through the dirt, as if we need another reminder of the unspeakable horrors commited there, after seeing the thousands of skulls in the genocide memorial.
Another guy, Rith, who sells flowers and incense at the memorial, had 8 people in his family killed, including his grandparents, some by murder, some of starvation. Pith told me of how the problems live on. In Cambodian Culture, on the new year they pray to the spirits of the dead. His family had no where to pray because there were no graves, so they converted for their native Buddhism to Christianity.
There are beautiful palm trees everywhere. Mao Thel showed me up close to one of them. The leaves on the branches have thin, saw-like teeth on the sides of them. There are still marks on some of them. He told me they were used to cut the necks of Cambodians off. What these trees have seen. Thank goodness trees don't have hearts, I think they would have been broken 30 years ago. When I started to cry, Mao Thel walked up to me, gave me a half-hearted (or heavy-hearted) pat on the back, and told me it was okay. "Terrible, senseless," he said. Them who'd lost his entire family.
There is a school just next to the killing fields, just beyond the mass graves. When you walk around, you can hear the children singing, a creepy reminder that no matter how tragic the loss, the human spirit cannot be killed.
Photos to come. The internet cafe is closing, so I think that's where I will end for now. Tomorrow will hold more adventures, muss less somber.
Goodnight,
sara
The day I got in, I went straight to the Bohdi Tree Guest House, which is lovely and emplys underpriviledged Cambodians. However, they were out or rooms with A/C, and I was on to another place called Her Royal Highness Hotel. They don't have a lift, so as the floors go up the prices cheapen. I'm in the 3rd floor (read, actually the 4th), and my clean, AC room with private bathroom and hot water? $15/night. I know! Anyway, insert your joke about her royal high-ness here. The hotel's not too far from the Riverfront, so I went for dinner and a massage ($6/hour). Afterwards, I wandered into a super modern-looking hotel (read: the standard downdown) and went up to the rooftop terrace. There's an infinity pool, $8 drinks, gorgeous view, and geckos on the ceilings, it's wonderous. More importantly, I made friends with a nice guy named Sony, who's one of the supervisors. Several free drinks and great English conversation later, Sony and his best friend BanThou were off work and I was hanging onto the back of them on their motorbike. We ate at a place that they love and come to regularly, and I see why. They had dishes of grilled beef and fried quail ($2 each) and they drank plenty of Ankgor Beer. I was stuffed, but happy to try the beef, and glad I did, because it was absolutely out of this world. It's served with a dish of pepper, sugar, and salt, and a dish of fresh veggies and limes. You squeeze the limes into the pepper, and dip the beef and veggies in this pepper sauce. A sort of Cambodian carne asada, if you will. After that, it was like 1 a.m., but they showed me to a club that they frequent. Now I'm not such a heavy partier, but this place was great! There were young people everywhere, smoke, laser beams, beer aplenty as well as this dried beef stuff sort of like beef jerky that they serve along with it. It was fun! We danced, made dancing friends, and then Sony drive me back to my hotel once I was peetering out (*finding* the hotel was another matter--I'd forgotten the name).
Today was a different story. I awoke late because I neede the sleep. and hired a tuk tuk driver, who, for $12, was to take me outside the city to the Killing Fields and to the Toul Sleng Genocide Museum. What follwed was absolutely horrifcally, unspeakably horrifying. At the killing fields I opted for a tour guide. My guide, Mao Thel, was only 15 when the Khmer Rouge was in power in the late 70s. His mother and father, both doctors, were both burdered, and his sister and uncle died of starvation. He survived my working in the rice fields. There are over a hundred mass graves there. They're shallow, not deep, and although they've been excavated in 1980, there are still shards of bone everywhere you walk, unavoidably showing through the dirt, as if we need another reminder of the unspeakable horrors commited there, after seeing the thousands of skulls in the genocide memorial.
Another guy, Rith, who sells flowers and incense at the memorial, had 8 people in his family killed, including his grandparents, some by murder, some of starvation. Pith told me of how the problems live on. In Cambodian Culture, on the new year they pray to the spirits of the dead. His family had no where to pray because there were no graves, so they converted for their native Buddhism to Christianity.
There are beautiful palm trees everywhere. Mao Thel showed me up close to one of them. The leaves on the branches have thin, saw-like teeth on the sides of them. There are still marks on some of them. He told me they were used to cut the necks of Cambodians off. What these trees have seen. Thank goodness trees don't have hearts, I think they would have been broken 30 years ago. When I started to cry, Mao Thel walked up to me, gave me a half-hearted (or heavy-hearted) pat on the back, and told me it was okay. "Terrible, senseless," he said. Them who'd lost his entire family.
There is a school just next to the killing fields, just beyond the mass graves. When you walk around, you can hear the children singing, a creepy reminder that no matter how tragic the loss, the human spirit cannot be killed.
Photos to come. The internet cafe is closing, so I think that's where I will end for now. Tomorrow will hold more adventures, muss less somber.
Goodnight,
sara
posted by sara leib at 7:39 AM
3 Comments:
Sara,
You are having quite the adventures...everything. I'm glad you are out there, being present in the world, and sharing it with us.
Thanks for the updates.
Hugs,
Kristin
amazing..call me when you can! love, t
Thank you, Sara.
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