Light at the End of the Tunnel: What a Mother!

In SE Asia, it is quite common to share a table with a stranger at restaurants and pubs. This is how we met Neakrat. Us walking along the Mekong River for the first time ever and happening upon a small place selling beer at a cheap price, there was nowhere else to sit, so she beckoned us over to her table. Here she is with Monkey and Panda, our travel companions and "kids".

She is one of only a handful of people we met who could not speak English but between our limited Chinese and her friend's excellent English and French, we managed to have a 2 hour long conversation.

We started off by talking about this and that, but after a while the conversation turned to the people of Cambodia and how we loved the friendly faces and the welcoming smiles we saw everywhere. We also mentioned that we were planning on visiting the Killing Fields the next day. This, I think, made her trust us a little more and that was when she started telling us her story.

She was about 13 when Pol Pot marched into Phnom Penh and turned the clock back to the Year Zero. With her father being a Professor, the whole family was detained due to his connections with the University and Academia . Within the year she lost both her parents to his torture chambers. She, on the grounds of being the daughter of an educated man was not only detained and gang raped several times (this was the only time a tear rolled over her cheek) but, as other kids of the Intelligentsia, destined for The Tree of Horrors (see photo below).

With luck, wit and the help of a kind, older woman, she succeeded in escaping the labour gangs one night and somehow managed to survive in the forests with other refugees until the end of the genocide.

After Pot's fall, she started off selling coconuts and later on she had a small mobile kitchen mounted on a bicycle, selling food on street corners.

This was when we discovered that she is, in fact, the owner of the little establishment we were at - just one of two thriving, modern convenience stores she owns in Ph Penh. As time went by, we also discovered that she has 4 daughters, three studying in America with the youngest a model in Ph Penh.

Towards the end of our conversation, she ran up to her small apartment and cooked us some Amok, the favourite local dish. All simply because we previously, somewhere in the conversation, commented on the lovely taste, smell and homeliness of Khmer food. Lovely gesture - amazing meal!

The whole time we spoke to her, she had a smile on her face.

The only other signs of the pain besides the tear when she talked about her rapes were the occasional wave of the hand at memories to go away, and when she mentioned the name Pol Pot - that name came with a sneer and a spit!

A determined, kind yet strong motherly soul who has pulled herself from the depths of despair to what she is today!

Avoiding the Killing fields of Cambodia

I normally take my camera with me where ever I go, even to work. These last few days were different ... nothing visual inspired me during this time - I felt no need to even look at photographic opportunities and saw absolutely no beauty in any street nor any face for nine days straight.

Upon our return to Shanghai 9 days ago, I put my camera bag down next to my desk. I looked at it a few times, but just could not bring myself to touch it and do the last downloads. This morning I had to clean around my desk, so I had to lift it from where it' s been sitting since we walked into the house after our vacation ...

This afternoon I forced myself to download the last photos from my camera.

I must say I am very happy that I did so, for the mind-fog is lifting; the reasons for my distance from my camera and my lack of interest in anything photographic these last few days are becoming somewhat clearer, I guess.

The reason, it seems, has two sides.

Firstly, there is the fact that I have taken over 20 000 photos - yes, twenty thousand - in just over 4 weeks. Guess I am a little "photoed-out".

Secondly, and I think far more importantly, looking through the last downloads from the cam today - taken of the Killing Fields of Cambodia during the last 2 days before we returned home - made me realise that I used the camera to create a wall between me and what has been a very emotional experience. I have been avoiding looking at these - until today.

Any normal human walking these "fields" would cry or become very emotional. I did not. Only by facing these photos could I allow my emotions to surface and experience what should have been experienced during this visit.

Maybe I have been afraid of it.

Here are some photos and the explanations to each.

The Killing Tree. Here the babies and children of the new regime's enemies were taken by the legs and swung, head first, into the trunk. After this they were simply dumped into a big pit to the right, some still alive, some mercifully dead.



Just some of the 6 odd storeys high stack of skulls collected from the mass graves around an area no bigger than one hectare.



The look on the faces of people walking through the Torture Chambers of Pol Pot. What hit me as a teacher most is probably the fact that in his horribly sick and twisted way, he and his madmen, having abolished all schools and education, perversely used a High School, a sacred place of learning, as his Headquarters of Torture.


The Gym Poles where kids used to do excercises were transformed into Torture Poles to lift people up by the arms - arms tied behind their backs - as a tool to elicit confessions to imaginary crimes. The clay pots once used by children to drink water from, were filled with the faeces and urine of the prisoners into which any one who passed out from pain, were dumped, head first, in order to revive them before the next hoisting.



Of all the places he could use in an emptied out city, he had to use a classrooms for this : torture dens! The photo on the wall is of the body found in this classroom when the Vietnamese liberated the city.




On the second storey of the school, he transformed each classroom into various holding cells.



Some of the photos of merely a handfull of the millions of the victims who suffered in this Place of Learning at the hands of this mad man.



In Cambodia many amputees and people disfigured by the landmines planted by Pol Pot and his lot today make a living from selling books about those time. We bought several of them. Two days ago I started reading the first, "Stay alive my Son" by Pin Yathay. If you can get hold of it, do yourself the favour and read it. It will definitely give you some insights into the soul of this man and why, symbollically, he chose a SCHOOL to do his torture. Excellent story about personal tragedy and, eventually, victory.

Back home

OK, so we are back home after more than 4 weeks on the road. As the old saying goes - traveling is exciting and fun, but home is best!

With 3 trains, 6 buses, 6 planes, 9 hotels / guest houses, 1 boat, 4 taxis, 17+ tuk-tuks, 3 motorbikes, 1 elephant, almost 20 000 photos and literally a couple of hundred kilometers of walking over the last few weeks, we had some amazing adventures and saw wonders of both Man and Nature. However, as we had some internet problems, I wasn't able to post too much on the road - and right now I just don't feel like it. I am simply too tired.

However, once the old body has recovered, I will try my best to put on some of the highlights here.

Mau's 40th Birthday: Sihanoukville, Cambodia

Birthday Splash




So, then it was the 1st of February and the big day leading to this trip was here: Mau's 40th birthday. We covered the 400 odd km from Phnom Phen south to Sihanoukville by bus the day before (for only $8, smile) and is it a great little place.
Breakfast is served


All I can say is that Sihanoukville is as close to an idyllic tropical beach as one can get. Relatively undiscovered by travelers, definitely undiscovered by corporate businesses like those with the Red Chickens and Golden Arches and chain hotel groups. Long may it remain so. It is just a small Cambodian beach on the Gulf of Thailand, fringed by forests, coconut palms, thatched roof bungalows and a blue, azure sea with kind and gentle waves. We found a bungalow on the beach for a mere $20 with a view to die for ... falling asleep at the sound of the small waves gently lapping the white beach at night is magic indeed.

Not going to describe every photo, just post a few as I am running out of time on my computer's battery, so have a look and get an idea.

From our deck


Sunrise

Phnom Phen, Cambodia

Finding Thailand such a mad place, we decided to run away to hopefully calmer shores. We live in a city of (officially) 20 million people and wanted a place where we could get away from the rush and the crowd - esp the Western crowd!! Bangkok was not that place. (Never seen so many Westerners in three years).




Landing at Phnom Phen Airport, our spirits were lifted. It looked like we would find peace and quiet here!!

It reminded me of some of the smallest International Airports I have had the pleasure of landing at, like Windhoek, Namibia. Like everybody else, we had to buy a visa upon arrival at the airport for US $20 and then we were inside the country. We immediately found a tuk-tuk driver to take us to any hotel he recommended. The 7 km drive was $7, the night in the hotel $8 ..... go figure that one out, lol!

The first thing that struck us was the relative poverty and also the traffic. Mostly motorbike based, it is quite mad!!


The second thing we learnt was that everything in Cambodia is charged in US dollars (note, not half dollars, but full dollars) .... leading to us soon dubbing it the One Dollar Country! A boy even tried to sell the Phnom Phen Times to me at $1 despite the price clearly stating 25c. Cute move!

To our great relief we immediately learnt that the people here are not like the ones in Bangkok and are as friendly as we have come to expect from this part of the world.


Some very interesting transport in Phnom Phen. Will post more later when I am back home.

Bangkok: Royal Temple of the Emerald Buddha

Bangkok ..... one night is surely enough.

This mad, crazy city filled with rather weird Western tourists is quite pretty and yes, for youngsters looking for cheap sex and a load of booze, the place to be. For us oldies ... it was a bit overwhelming (even if we do live in Shanghai). We found it to be a place where tourists are taken for every Baht they have or don't have, literally with lies and deceit.

Unfortunately we also found the legendary friendliness of the Thai people nowhere in Bangkok. I think it has fled to the countryside.

Sadly not a relaxing place.


The one redeeming quality of the city is the Royal Temple of the Emerald Buddha. Not sure if it is one the New Wonders of the World, but if not, it should be. I ran into camera trouble on this visit and sadly could not take the photos I wanted to. Four hours in this is a photographer's dream come true. Here are just two, and they certainly do not do this Wonder any justice.

I have never seen so much gold and precious stones together in one building in my life. A true spectacle.