Cambodia Impressions

Cambodia is a country very much defined by water.  Tonle Sap Lake, the largest freshwater lake in South East Asia, occupies much of the central floodplain in Cambodia.  It swells from under 3000 sq-km at the start of the rainy season in April to 15,000 sq-km or more at the end of the rainy season.  The monsoonal flow increase of the mighty Mekong River causes a unique semi-annual flow reversal to the lake, connected to the Mekong by the 120 km-long Tonle Sap River.

The Khmer civilization was maintained because of the fertility of this region.  The temples of Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom, and Ta Prohm, among many lesser-known ones,  give testament to the preeminence of the Khmer civilization.  There are no ordinary dwellings, houses or other signs of settlement such as cooking utensils, weapons, or clothing usually found at ancient sites.  Only the temples were made of stone and only the temples have survived.

Phnom Penh, situated at the confluence of the Tonle Sap River with the mighty Mekong, has been the capital of Cambodia since the French colonial period. (It had intermittently been the capital long before then).  While its faded French architecture hints at prior glory, its modern monuments are an altogether darker sort.  Tuol Sleng, aka S-21, was an infamous detention, interrogation, and torture center used by the brutally evil Khmer Rouge during their 3½ year reign of terror from April 1975 to January 1979.  Of the nearly 20,000 political prisoners who passed through its gates, only seven were alive at liberation, along with four young children.  However, the unspeakable crimes that were committed there were only the precursor to subsequent atrocities.  After confessing to crimes not committed, the men, women, and children were transported 15 km outside Phnom Penh to the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek, a former Chinese burial site.  There they were shot, or more commonly to preserve valuable bullets, bludgeoned to death by hoes, crowbars, or other handy implements.  These mass graves, once filled, were sometimes sprinkled with DDT to reduce the stench, which mercifully accelerated death for those unfortunate enough to be buried while still alive.  More than 120 mass graves exist at Choeung Ek, about 85 of which have been excavated.  After forensic tests, the bones have been placed in a memorial stupa at the site.  Overall, about 3 million out of 8 million inhabitants died during Pol Pot’s reign of terror.

WARNING: at least one of the photos below contains imagery that may be disturbing.

The Vagabond Hiker