The Funky Site

Poipet is the western border crossing with Thailand, and one of the more memorable places we passed through. The customs facilities consisted of a group of small white buildings with absolutely no indication of where to go next and what to present - you just wandered around until someone pointed out the right direction. After showing passports we were asked to present our international vaccination cards - the fine for not having one was $5 (US). It was claimed that this was to ensure our health while in the country and those without proof of vaccination had to pay this fee for a pill which according to the official doctor 'prevents malaria, polio, and typhoid' . A scam basically. Welcome to Cambodia!

Once on board our minibus again the difference between Thailand and Cambodia swiftly became apparent. Cambodia is still a very poor country and is struggling to recover from its recent past. Roads in Cambodia are not what you find in most countries, they're dirt tracks with huge potholes, made worse by the rainy conditions. Much of the traffic (especially at the border) seemed to consist of motorbikes and vehicles borrowed from Mad Max - exposed engines attached to a trailer, strange three wheel bikes with large engines on the front etc. . It's not just the roads and vehicles which indicate the state of the country - buildings are often in a state of disrepair, and there is virtually no infrastruature. Often you'll find yourself surrounded by nothing more than flat fields and tall sugar palms - no houses, no telephone poles, no electricity pylons.

Phnom Penh is not like any other capital city I've ever visited. Our hotel was near the centre of town yet it was located on a stony track, not a tarmac road. The main roads are tarmac but large portions of the rest of town are still bumpy, stony, dirt tracks. This is all a legacy of the horrors inflicted under the Pol Pot regime which ruled the country between 1975 and 1979. During this time the Khymer Rouge tried to reduce the country to a peasant state. This involved killing most of the intelligensia - doctors, lawyers, teachers, monks, accountants, pretty much anyone trained in a profession outside of farming. People were killed for trivial details such as wearing glasses. Most industrial developments were destroyed including cars and factories - people weren't supposed to need them anymore. The country was essentially taken back in time to the stone age. Around two million people were killed during those four years, about a quarter of the population at the time.

The Tuol Sleng Holocaust Museum (also known as the S-21 prison) is a former school which was used as a detention centre by the Khymer Rouge - classrooms were turned into holding cells and offices were used to torture both prisoners, and at the end of the war, officers of the Pol Pot regime. Many of the rooms have been left untouched and uncleaned, bloodstains still on the walls and ceilings. The remainder has been turned into a museum with information about the torture methods and the people who died there.

The killing fields of Choung Ek is a site half an hour out of town where mass graves were found. Around 9000 bodies were found at this site alone, with many of the people having come from the S-21 detention centre. A memorial has been set up with a grisly centrepiece consisting of skulls found at the site grouped into age groups, foreigners, male and female. There is some background information about the site and the excavations, but not much. The ???? film 'The Killing Fields' is reputed to be one of the most accurate films ever made - this film was showing at our hotel the night we arrived. It's shocking.