Second Impressions of Cambodia

The traffic in Phnom Penh is mad. I rented a bicycle to get around, and I don't think I understand the rules. The traffic is made up of mostly motorbikes, then cars, then bicycles. In general, people seem to drive on the right - unless they are driving on the left. It is quite unnerving to have a motorbike coming at you when you are wedged between a parked car and a moving car. Stop signs are generally ignored. Most intersections have no stop controls. At signalized intersections, the green light is always obeyed, the red - not so much. I had a number of near misses, but I didn't see any accidents while I was there!


I rode the single speed bicycle, with a basket in the front, to the killing fields, about 14 km outside of town. It took 3 hours, because I missed a turn and added an hour to the trip. The killing fields at Choeung Ek, is one of 348 mass grave sites from the Khmer Rouge regime. There is a memorial building, filled with skulls of the victims, and depressions in the ground, where the mass graves were. Strangely, I didn't really feel much while I was there. I was amazed at the relatively small size of the graves, considering the number of bodies that was placed in them.


On another day, I visited Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, formerly Khmer Rouge S-21 Prison, formerly a high school. They showed a documentary about S-21, while following the lives of a separated husband and wife, thru the letters they wrote to each other. They were both eventually killed. Parts of the museum were left as is, with prison cells, barbed wire, instrument of torture....still there. In other parts, there were picture exhibits of the victims, the brutality and the story of the rise and fall of Khmer Rouge. I spent 4 hours there. Many times my eyes filled with tears as I looked at the pictures and read the writings. How could they think they were making Cambodia a better place by driving the people into poverty and causing the death of 1/3 of the population?


I vaguely remember seeing pictures of starving Cambodian children when I was a child, but I never really knew what went on. Now I see things a little differently. I have more compassion when I see the beggars. And I know they have far more important things to worry about than traffic rules! Cambodia has had the unenviable task of rebuilding a nation without its educated & skilled classes.