Date: Mon, 3 Dec 2001 04:32:44 -0800 (PST) From: colin roaldSubject: phnom penh
I've been here in Phnom Penh a day or two longer than planned, because my stomach rebelled. Montezuma's Revenge, Delhi Belly, or whatever it is you're supposed to call it in Indochina. Have spent a day in bed and a couple days more not doing very much. The guest house terrace is very relaxing, and frankly, there isn't a lot in Phnom Penh to distract me. In a strange way, it's been like being at the beach, with TV and movies instead of swimming and scenery. The guest house has a pretty decent collection of pirate movies on VCD, including _Harry Potter_.
After the Killing Fields and a couple of temples (which aren't as interesting as the ones in Bangkok), you kind of run out of sights in Phnom Penh, except for the novelty stuff that you can only do because Cambodia is such a screwed-up country. For example, there's a famous shooting range where you can buy time with a full-automatic AK-47s or M-16s, or if you have $200 to spare, take a shot with a rocket launcher. Or there's the Phnom Penh specialty, "happy pizza", which comes garnished with a herb not normally thought of as edible. (Reports are unclear on whether you still get the munchies.)
It's not a very attractive walking city -- the buildings are grimy, most sidestreets are not even paved, and there's litter everywhere. The litter is particularly frustrating to me, because the labour to clean it up would be so tragically cheap.
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An example of the way this country seems to work:
>From the Phnom Penh Post (2001/11/23):
PM pulls plug on karaoke Prime Minister Hun Sen officially decreed the end of fun in an executive order dated November 20. The instruction shuts all karaoke parlors, bars, nightclubs and discotheques, whether legal or illegal, starting 6pm today (November 23). ... A government legal advisor said that assuming the order was enforced, it could well backfire. "This is the most wrongheaded thing [the government has] done in a long time," he said. "All those people who manage to have a job are going to be wiped out. I can't imagine implementing a policy that could be more damaging to public opinion - just look how many people make a living out of it. This is sending exactly the wrong image [of Cambodia]." The question on everyone's lips was: Why? Speculation ranges from Hun Sen's anger at the behavior of his nephews, who have embarrassed him with their well-publicized firearm-toting activities at karaoke clubs, to a general clean-up of an industry that is often a thin disguise for prostitution.
>From the Cambodia Daily (2001/11/23):
Night Spots Look for Ways To Stay Open Some nightclub and karaoke parlor owners in Siem Reap town are planning to turn their establishments into massage parlors to get around Prime Minister Hun Sen's recent order that all nightclubs in the country close their doors at 6 pm today. At least 20 nightclubs and karaoke clubs are scheduled to be closed in Siem Reap. Several owners said they would reopen as massage parlors because businesses such as brothels and casinos are not covered by Hun Sen's broad measure to crack down on night entertainment. ... "If the owners defy the ban, they will have a problem," said Sok Leakhana, deputy municipal chief. He said the penalty for clubs that defy the order has not been decided.
Thus do banana republics operate.
Incidentally, the karaoke bar down the street -- that I have to listen to while trying to get to sleep -- does not seem to have been affected.
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Since this is Cambodia, I have to get heavy for a while.
A little bit of history, for those who haven't seen _The Killing Fields_ recently. (I've seen it three times in the past week -- it's a staple here.) In April, 1975, right before Saigon fell, Phnom Penh fell to the Cambodian Communist group, the Khmer Rouge, under the command of Pol Pot. Within a day, they started a mass evacuation of the entire population of the city, sending its inhabitants (and those of the provincial cities) to country labour camps, where they spent the next four years forced to grow rice.
They slept in the mud under tarps, and were each allowed only two sets of clothing (wear one, wash the other), and were guarded by fanatical 15-year-olds with guns. Millions died of starvation and disease. In addition, anyone identified as a doctor or lawyer, engineer, professor, anyone who could speak English or French -- in short, anyone who was guilty of "soft living" in the years before the revolution -- was tortured, killed, and dumped in mass graves. The families of such enemies of the revolution were frequently taken and killed as well -- at Choeng Ek outside Phnom Penh there was one grave full of naked women and babies. The babies were killed by swinging by the heels and braining them against a tree, or sometimes the Khmer Rouge guards would toss them in the air and play catch with bayonets. (I'm sorry to share that last image -- it's the one I can't get out of my head.)
In 1979, the Vietnamese Communists invaded and deposed the Khmer Rouge, though civil war continued until 1993.
The Cambodians call it the Pol Pot time. Everyone here over the age of thirty has a story. The driver who took me out to the killing field at Choeung Ek (it was not the only one in Cambodia, just the closest to Phnom Penh) was five when it started and nine when it ended. His family was sent from Phnom Penh to a camp; he lost two uncles. The woman who runs this guest house reminisced a little while watching the movie, largely along the lines of "yes, it was like that." She lost her parents.
The civil war was ended with an amnesty, which means that most Khmer Rouge were never brought to any kind of account. Which means that whenever you see a Cambodian over the age of 35 or so, you have to wonder a little, which side they were on.
I'm not sure I understand how this country can still be filled with such lovely, cheerful people.
c. -- colin | opportunity calls from a payphone, bruno. you never roald | get a chance to call it back. (christopher baldwin)