Hi All,
Late last year, I had the opportunity to visit Phnom Penh, Cambodia with an old mate from High School, as part of a return trip to South East Asia from Siem Reap, exiting back to Oz via Ho Chi Minh.
If you want an eye-opening third world experience, without necessarily embarking on the village/homestay route, I strongly suggest you add Cambodia to your list!
Seam Reap was mystical with it's "Ayutthaya" like charm at Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom, allowing one to "cleanse the soul" before the New Year's festivities with the westernised world at Pub Street. It is, however, the chilling aura of Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum and The Killing Fields which I shall eternally take away as strong hard reminders of just how lucky some of us are to be living in a world of free speech, under a democratically elected government that has exercised gun control.
Photos weren't allowed within the prison itself (plus my camera died in the cu-chi tunnels in Ho Chi Minh), so I refer to the below image links to tell my story instead:
The above image of the prison with the palm tree exterior offers a contrasting juxtaposition as compared to the grim realities of what actually took place here:
The prison was formerly a school, before being converted into Cambodia's most important prison in 1975. More than 14,000 people were tortured here before being killed here or at the Killing Fields, with only 8 prisoners surviving.
If you haven't already, I recommend seeing the movie "The Killing Fields", filmed in 1984 to gain further insight.
The actual Choeung Ek Killing Field was littered with over 20,000 graves over mass burial pits and one large central skull tower, outside which people could purchase a commemorative incense stick to light in remembrance of the departed.
I had never seen so many skulls in my life before visiting both the prison and The Killing Fields. In some ways, it felt that the mass genocidal activities of the past were being embraced, rather than presenting a nation that was truly sorry for the misgivings of the past which bare witness to over a million deaths.
What stung me was that these crimes against humanity were being conducted by highly educated foreign university graduates vis-a-vis Pol Pot and his cronies (such as Comrade Duch). Interestingly, Adolf Hitler had an IQ of 141, potentially indicating a common theme of tall poppy syndrome gone exaggeratedly horribly wrong..
Recent articles such as the following don't do the country any justice, symbolizing a continually fractured nation https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/10/cambodian-government-critic-shot-dead-phnom-penh-kem-ley-hun-sen
One can only hope that the next generation rises up to fully reform from its historically ingrained ways.
A definite must-see destination to take a step back and witness the not-so-exotic places of the world...
madnation