What a world we live in…what devastation people can create and others overcome! This is what I’ve realised in the most educational few weeks of my trip so far. Having visited the Cu Chi tunnels of the Viet Cong and the War Remnants Museum in Saigon, followed by the Choueng Ek ‘killing fields’and S-21 prison in Phnom Penh, within the space of a few days, I have felt a huge range of emotions. Above all I am grateful that both countries seem to be recovering well from their ordeals and that I haven’t experienced anything so terrible. I also feel guilty for being so naïve about these awful yet so recent events. Louise and I have constantly questioned why we never learnt about the Vietnam War at school when it is so relevant to current wars.
The Cu Chi tunnels, a product of Vietnamese ingenuity, were fascinating to see. The tunnel entrances were tiny and the tunnels themselves lacking air. It was fun to experience with a guide, during, daylight, but at night, whilst bombs fell it was probably not so fun. Neither so for the enemy seeing the gruesome traps they created for them. The museum the next day displayed some of the most disturbing images I have ever seen and painted an awful picture of all the suffering the war created. More suffering was found in ‘the killing fields’, a remnant of the Khmer Rouge’s reign of terror in Cambodia, this time through words (a comprehensive audio-guide) rather than pictures.
The Khmer Rouge ruled over Democratic Kampuchea between 1975 and 1979 after years of civil war in the country. The leader Pol Pot abolished money, religion, education, personal possessions and family living in order to create his ideal self-sufficient country of ‘the old people’ – farmers. The ‘new people’ of the cities were sent to the country to work on communal farms, families were split, and everyone was put to work. Pol Pot’s paranoia about rebellion and foreign intelligence lead to the torture and murder of over a quarter of the entire country’s population. People were beaten, shocked and hung upside down until they confessed to false accusations. Then, they were sent to be killed, not by gun or gas, but by hoes, pitchforks, machetes and anything else that was to hand. If a man was killed his children were too, in order to stop them seeking revenge later in life.
I have seen more skulls than I would really have liked, and seeing the clothing of the victims is even more shocking as it forces you to realize how recently those people had lived. I’ve seen mass graves, makeshift prison cells in what was a school, a temple used as a prison and a cave which prisoners were thrown into. One mass grave had been found with beheaded Khmer Rouge soldiers – Pol Pot had sensed outside influence within his own men who were then beheaded for having ‘Vietnamese heads, Cambodian bodies’.
Despite all this gloomy stuff I am so glad I have experienced it, together with the fantastically friendly people we’ve met, the beautiful rural settings we have found and the stunning ancient architecture of Angkor Wat, giving me a full and unbelievable impression of Cambodia today. The children are so beautiful and have such good English (though not always put to good use when trying to guilt-trip tourists into buying souvenirs on the beach). After a nerve-wrecking ride on the ‘bamboo-train’ – a platform mad of sticks sat loosely on 2 sets of wheels propelled by a motor down a disused railway track – we were greeted by the village children offering us drinks and their own home-made coconut-leaf jewellery. Although there is obvious poverty here, people seem happy, and happy to see and talk to us foreigners. A circus show put on by an arts school for disadvantaged children of Battambang was a great example of the joy Cambodians can create out of very little. Here, they had nurtured 8 fantastic performers and created a stunning mix of acrobatics, circus and dance to depict the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge. Even with the chilling topic the performance still managed to uplift my spirits in a way no Western dance has ever done before. As you can tell I could analyze this show forever so I’ll save you having to read so much by doing a separate blog for it.
I hope this hasn't bored you too much. In case you still have any time left and want to see some pictures to refer to
https://picasaweb.google.com/115396624801108203436/SaigonPart2#
https://picasaweb.google.com/115396624801108203436/Cambodia#
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