Running Past Deadly Cobras

Nadine and I are back together in Ho Chi Mihn City, Vietnam after six long days apart. I ran around Cambodia while Nadine remained in our home away from home on this around the world trip, Thailand.

The Good and Evil of Cambodia

There were many reasons to visit Cambodia. The first is the spectacular World Heritage site of Angkor Wat and all its’ temples. The second reason is learning about the abhorrent Khmer Rouge regime. The first, happy-go-lucky, the second, makes one ponder the human’s capacity to hurt one another.

Waking up at 4 a.m., Nadine and I shared a taxi with a talkative San Diegoan to the new Suvarnabhumi International Airport. And just like that, I was on a plane to Phnom Pehn, the capital of Cambodia. At the same time that I touched down and passed through Khmer immigration, Nadine was just returning back to the hostel. Great woman that Nadine accompanying me to the airport. My entire time in Cambodia included early rises and running around at a frantic pace.

Having the gift and approval of visiting Cambodia while my beautiful pregnant wife stayed back in Bangkok, I had to make the most of the limited time there. Outside the airport, a deluxe tuk-tuk carried me to my guesthouse past poverty, handfuls of smiling Cambodians, and grimy roads and sidewalks.

The Contrasts of Cambodia

S-21 – A Dark Past

S-21 Victims’ Portraits

I dropped off my bags and hired another tuk-tuk. Today’s driver carried me to all of the must-see sites of Phnom Penh. Today was going to be a busy day of visiting the dark past of Cambodia.

Back during a very complicated Vietnam War, Vietnamese communist guerrilla soldiers crossed over borders into Cambodia and promoted Communism as the Vietnamese fled incoming American bombs. The Vietnamese communists joined sympathetic Khmer communists which transformed into a group that would be known as Khmer Rouge. Having conquered the capital of Phnom Penh, the Khmer Rouge began to promote a society, eerily familiar to what has happened before in Burma, where the educated were considered “parasites” and extermination was the only logical remedy. Thus, over the next five years, the Khmer Rouge carried out the systematic imprisonment, torture, and extermination of educated folks. Two million people died over half a decade. And the most famous prison was S-21, my first stop.

S-21 Khmer Rouge

The Pol Pot regime converted a school into a prison that housed thousands of prisoners. S-21 was its’ name. It was here in this centralized location of Phnom Penh that prisoners lived hopeless lives in horrible conditions. I walked on floors that still had blood stains on tiles from 30 years prior.

The conditions were horrible. Fifty prisoners would sleep in a classroom, their ankles chained together. Basic bodily functions were prohibited. Prisoners weren’t allowed to move, go to the restroom, or talk without permission or be at risk of torture. Prisoners were required to write daily that they opposed the country and its’ regime, even if not true. Prisoners were beaten and tortured by guards that sometimes themselves were only 10 years old. Horrible things happened here. When prisoners were notified they were being “relocated”, it meant they were heading to the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek, my next stop.

Haunted Classrooms

The Killing Fields

The Killing Fields of Choeung Ek, 14 kilometers outside of Phnom Pehn, are reached by dusty, unpaved roads. The fields, more like the size of a single football field, revealed uneven land where soldiers buried prisoners in mass. Transported by truck, blindfolded, prisoners were required to kneel down. It was at this point that they would either be shot or clubbed in the back of the neck to death. Khmer Rouge soldiers would then dump bodies into mass unmarked graves.

A Dark and Gloomy Detention

It is amazing what humans are able to do to each other for the sake of power, wealth, or even over personal ideology. Something like this forces me to sit back and examine what causes people to do these things to other humans, and want to fight to ensure that it doesn’t happen again. It still does. But there is hope. We have to learn to treat each other as a gift of God and respect and lean on one another. After this, I was ready for something a little less grave and little lighter.

Too Many Skulls

Is It Really Venomous?

As I was leaving the Killing Fields, some workers noticed a snake dart into a pipe under a walkway. “Oh, it’s a dangerous one. Alright, let’s take a little look.” The workers grabbed a waterhose and flooded the pipe which forced the snake to flee. As soon as he got to the “fl” of flee, he was a snake pancake. He was clubbed to death by a stick.

Me – “Really, what’s so dangerous about this snake with a flat head?”
Worker – “It’s very dangerous. Can kill you.”
M – “What? It’s not really that big. What type of snake is it?”
W – “It’s a cobra.”
M – “Oh, I guess that is the reason for the flat head. I’ll stay away from those.”

That was my first sight of a cobra in the wild. The rest of the day I kept one eye on the scooters darting everywhere around me and any rustling in tall grass. Fortunately it was the only cobra I saw.

Cambodian Smiles

Camera? You Think So?

After cleaning off all the dirt and evil from the morning, I quickly visited the Royal Palace of King Sihamoni. In addition to paying a $3 entry fee to roam his residence, carrying a camera with the option of taking pictures, that cost an extra $2. Being the penny pincher I am, I kept my camera firmly in my pack to avoid that stupid “camera” fee. At the Silver Pagoda, the guard asked to see my ticket. His keen eyes spotted the highly illegal camera case hanging out of my pocket. I was forced to leave my camera AND pay the stupid camera fee. But, I did sneak some decent photos for you to enjoy and put one on this entry. So if you would like to look at it, you will need to send us a check for 20 cents for the following photos. Honor system y’all! Next stop: Angkor Wat.