The Royal Palace, Phenom Pheh, Cambodia
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Just saw a dragon dance being performed in the parking lot of a super market on our way to the temples of Angkor with Dari, our tuktuk driver. Happy new year, Cambodia.*
8:30am. Just caught the sunrise at Angkor Wat with Paul. Currently listening to Radiohead and the humming of the tuktuk motor. It's amazing, but my mind is still on Koh Tao. In my next life I'll be a beach bum.
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Thoughts that remain unsaid remain ineffable. More reading more writing and more thinking from now on.
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Overlooking the Tonle Sap river in Phenom Pheh
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In Siem Reap we saw a Wonder of the World and ate with the locals (thanks to Dara, our sweetheart of a tuktuk driver) but what really won me over to Cambodia was the capital, Phenom Pheh. In Phenom Pheh we saw palaces and killing fields, Cambodians, expats and meandering Brits. We partied at a nightclub with some of the bright young Khmers (some of them quite young, by US standards). What could have been a sketchy, uncomfortable evening wound up being great fun, thanks mostly to our random expat friends/guides.
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Street scene, Phenom Pheh
*Stop. Change of Pace. (Apologies for the rather somber turn this post is about to take.)
Despite all the opportunities for fun and adventure a vacation in southeast asia offers, there are some things you simply need to see while in Cambodia. No matter how awful. No matter how much you are dreading it. You cant just cruise on by to Vietnam and pretend that you are in a country where nothing bad has ever happened. Or at least, if you are me you can't. So, we went to see the Killing Fields.
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the Killing Fields.
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I thought for a long time before taking the picture above. This is not a regular tourist attraction. I felt a bit skeevy taking out my camera at all. Like it showed a lack of respect, or something. Also, I just hate the site of cameras snapping away at places like this, and i generally like to keep my level of personal hypocrisy to a minimum. However, the more I thought about it the more I realized that you don't do anyone any favors by editing history. Even if its just my personal photographic history that might one day at the very most get put up on my stupid blog. Turning away from this because its too ugly, because it is better left undisturbed, is not really an answer. So I took one photo and only one photo. Then we moved on.
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I thought for a long time before taking the picture above. This is not a regular tourist attraction. I felt a bit skeevy taking out my camera at all. Like it showed a lack of respect, or something. Also, I just hate the site of cameras snapping away at places like this, and i generally like to keep my level of personal hypocrisy to a minimum. However, the more I thought about it the more I realized that you don't do anyone any favors by editing history. Even if its just my personal photographic history that might one day at the very most get put up on my stupid blog. Turning away from this because its too ugly, because it is better left undisturbed, is not really an answer. So I took one photo and only one photo. Then we moved on.
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S-21
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What kind of revolution could they have hoped to build on the back of such violence? I wanted to say a prayer for the victims, for the country, for the souls dispatched with so much meaningless volence from this absurd place, but I realized with a mild sensation of horror (like missing a step in the house where you grew up, a falling sensation coupled with astonishment at one's own forgetfulness) that I had forgotten the Mourner's Kaddish.
[S-21 is a school that was turned into a prison by the Khemer Rouge. It is now the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum.]
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What kind of revolution could they have hoped to build on the back of such violence? I wanted to say a prayer for the victims, for the country, for the souls dispatched with so much meaningless volence from this absurd place, but I realized with a mild sensation of horror (like missing a step in the house where you grew up, a falling sensation coupled with astonishment at one's own forgetfulness) that I had forgotten the Mourner's Kaddish.
[S-21 is a school that was turned into a prison by the Khemer Rouge. It is now the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum.]
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the rules of S-21 posted in the courtyard.
They read as follows:
1. You must answer accordingly to my questions - Don't turn them away.
2. Don't try to hide the facts by making pretexts this and that. You are strictly prohibited to contest me.
3. Don't be fool for you are chap who dare to thwart the revolution.
4. You must immediately answer my questions without wasting time to reflect.
5. Don't tell me either about your immoralities or the essence of the Revolution. 6. While getting lashes or electrification you must not cry at all.
7. Do nothing, sit still and wait for my orders. If there is no order, keep quiet. When I ask you to do something, you must do it right away without protesting.
[it goes to ten but i think that that's quite enough]
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1. You must answer accordingly to my questions - Don't turn them away.
2. Don't try to hide the facts by making pretexts this and that. You are strictly prohibited to contest me.
3. Don't be fool for you are chap who dare to thwart the revolution.
4. You must immediately answer my questions without wasting time to reflect.
5. Don't tell me either about your immoralities or the essence of the Revolution. 6. While getting lashes or electrification you must not cry at all.
7. Do nothing, sit still and wait for my orders. If there is no order, keep quiet. When I ask you to do something, you must do it right away without protesting.
[it goes to ten but i think that that's quite enough]
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