Had a busy day today since this is our only full day here. Never expected in a million years to celebrate Christmas day by going to the Killing Fields followed by the S-21 Genocide Museum but we weren't the only ones. We hired a tuk tuk driver last night to take us around for the day. Unfortunately we went against all the guidebook and message board suggestions (and common sense) and didn't set a price in advance. This is something the drivers don't want to do but something you definitely should do as it could lead to unpleasant arguments over how much to pay when you are done with their services. More on this later.
The
driver took us just outside Phenom Penh to the "Choeung Ek Genocidal Center" aka the Killing Fields. According to the guide we hired, almost 20,000 Cambodians were sent to the extermination camp of Choeung Ek for execution between 1975 and 1978. In 1980, the bodies of about 9,000 people were exhumed from mass graves at the Killing Fields. The most shocking site we saw was the "Memorial Stupa" erected in 1988, which houses over 8,000 skulls. This was a grim moment and along with several other tourists we gave offerings prior to entering the stupa to look at the skulls. Many of the skulls had obviously been bashed from the back. Why the former guards and executioners are allowed to walk freely in this country is baffling.Strangely enough, the Khmer guide giving us the tour did not seem too affected by all of this. His speech was robotic -- completely unemotional -- as he gave out dates, facts figures. Perhaps he had given the tour too many times.
When Charles asked what he thought of all of this he quickly replied that he was born in the early '80s after the KR were removed from power so it did not affect him. We wandered around the rest of the complex, looking at ditches and mounds of mass graves. The guide pointed out some spots where old clothing lay -- this was where the victims were told to take their clothes off before the were shot or bludgeoned to death (to save on bullets). Their clothing has remained there, undisturbed, for over thirty years. Again, why there was no "Nuremberg" type tribunal for the members of the KR is outrageous.At our tuk tuk driver's suggestion (and since we realized we probably weren't going to have time to do this in Vietnam) we decided on the spot to go to a "shooting range" nearby. Thunder Ranch "enjoys popularity among the tourists who want to experience this exciting game as well or the professional shooters" according to this website. This may not have been the most appropriate place to visit after the experience of the Killing Fields but then spending Christmas in this city was kind of weird in itself. After driving down an
ominous-looking, dusty road we were led into this strange place that looked like a restaurant and even had menus -- menus for which gun you want to shoot! AK-47s for $30.00, rocket launchers for $200, grenades for $60 and colt .45s for $15.00! Charles chose a fully-automatic M-16 and we had an interesting time shooting (Laura shooting video and Charles shooting the gun!) In the middle of the shooting there was this LOUD explosion and vibration that shook the ground. Laura thought it was an earthquake but our "gun guide" laughed and informed us that it was someone throwing a grenade in the room next door! We emerged from our private gallery to meet a very wholesome, all-American type family: mom, dad, and two teenage sons from Kansas all smiling over the grenade the father just threw. The family that plays together...a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXKhR3rYhEg0inSFNJ8ve0MhfouhpBpQbmZdcRjQBmiHZHUAD4IOvcnHWTlFu1WVBXYo2pIfLiIyPT1VL4RlzheHnOQY4Ly66c8l0pS_Q62WUYaTK3DJ7XQHcUC6Sldrrc8LN261bV2Iua/s1600-h/IMG_9190.JPG">
Our driver then took us to Security Prison 21 (S-21), now known as the "Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum." The Killing Fields had made a real impression (or would that be "depression") on us already but we felt it was important, Christmas day or not, to see one of Cambodia's most important attractions. S-21 had been a high school, built in the mid-60s. When the KR came into power it was turned into a maximum security prison. Only 6 or so inmates survived the camp. The rest were either sent to the Killing Fields we had just visited or died from torture or deprivation at the prison. The cruelty of this place was unbelievable. There was barbed wire over every open area to prevent prisoners not from escaping but from jumping off the third floor landing to kill themselves! We toured the various cells where we saw how prisoners were shackled together at night (no beds, just the hard floor to sleep on), saw the well-preserved photo enlargements of the inmates (the KR, for some reason, were big on documenting this sordid business) and wandered about the place with other tourists (including the Kansas family we had just seen at the shooting range!) Some of the rooms had metal bed frames with reddish-brown stains on the tiled floor. We were told that this where detainees
were tortured and the stains were their blood. Horrible. (Months later we would see an interesting documentary about this prison).After lunch at an outdoor restaurant across the street we went to the famous "Russian Market" where you can buy everything under the sun -- though we saw mainly the same old scarves, bags, t-shirts, Angkor souvenirs, automotive parts, pots and pans, etc. We're not sure why this is so famous.
We still had our trip to Kampot to work out. The concierge at our hotel had told us to trust our tuk tuk driver into finding a ride down there. This was unfortunate advice. According to some of the travel message boards there are many trustworthy tuk tuk drivers in Penom Penh. Unfortunately for us, ours was not one of them. Early in the day Charles told our driver about our Kampot plan. The driver looked startled but said he would be able to help us around "5:00 or 6:00 pm" that day which seemed kind of strange.
Once we got back to our hotel (and ended up paying $10.00 more than what we thought was fair, but whatever) he consulted with the leader of the "tuk tuk brigade" which were permanently parked outside the FCC. The leader of this group, an ominous looking dude came up to us and asked what we needed. We explained that we wanted a taxi ride to Kampot. He went back to his group of flunkies and whispered some stuff in Khmer. A minute later he pulled some guy from the group and said that for $150 USD" we could have this driver there and back (originally we thought we might come back to Phenom Penh after two days in Kampot to take a boat to Vietnam). This was far more than what we were willing to pay. We said, "no, we just want a ride into Kampot" and they consulted again, whispering. "$80.00 USD" was the evil dude's response. Disgusted with the obvious attempts at marking up what the guidebooks and message boards said should only be about $20-$30 USD we walked across the street to a bus booking agent. It turned out we could get a bus the next day for $5.00! Our original tuk tuk driver, desperate to get his commission, ran up after us, protesting that there "were no busses to Kampot!" Ha! While we were purchasing our tickets in front of him he began speaking quickly to the ticket lady in Khmer. We could only speculate that he was trying to talk her out of selling us our tickets. She looked irritated with him and told him to take a hike! He then turned to us and said, "ok, you win -- I can get you a ride for $60." Charles said, "NO -- we are paying $5.00." Like a man defeated, the chump walked away. We felt bad -- not for this idiot -- but for ourselves in dealing with this "tuk tuk mafia" in the first place. We should not have listened to our concierge -- well meaning as he may have been -- and should have gone to the area the books recommended in the first place, near the bus station 
itself to hire a taxi driver to take us to Kampot. Lesson learned but at least this way we saved enough money for a few good meals.After a quick shower and nap we had a delightful sunset happy hour experience at our hotel's 3rd floor restaurant overlooking the Mekong. We could easily imagine how beautiful this place must have been under the French rule -- hell, it was beautiful to look at right now! Several other more "upscale" tourists were there including one trendily-dressed, obnoxious American dude, surrounded by Asian women, who kept trying to pressure them into going with him "to Argentina for New Year's...it'll be a blast."
The previous day we had made a Christmas dinner reservation at a restaurant a few blocks away
which had a genuine Apsara dance performance. Apsara dance is a "2000 year–old blend of sinuous hand gestures and sinuous body movements, all deep with meaning...which has its roots in animism and primitive magic"Laura had bemoaned the fact that we missed out on a traditional Lao dance performance last week (missed it by one day!) so we were happy that we were able to make this happen. The dinner and drinks were excellent but the dancing was unbelievable. Only in Cambodia...
Let's see if the photos we're going to try to post (this computer has Photoshop on it!) do our day justice...
MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!
Also, check out this video of Apsara dancers someone took:
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