This is our second trip to Cambodia – we went to Angkor Wat back in 2011, and while we have not logged as much time here as we have in Thailand, we are starting to get a good feel for the country and it’s people.

Like many countries Cambodia has a troubled past, but of particular interest to me is that one of the most tragic periods in Cambodia’s history happened in my lifetime, and it is something that we do not hear much about in the west.

Cambodia suffered a lot of ‘collateral damage’ during the US war in Vietnam and once South Vietnam fell to the NVA forces, the NVA started to support a local uprising in neighboring Cambodia by some insurgents known as the Khmer Rouge. By 1975 the local forces could no longer hold back the insurgents and April 1975, the Khmer Rouge led by Pol Pot assumed power in Cambodia.

Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge believed that the root of all trouble in Cambodia was from foreign influence and industrialization, and that the country could rise again to greatness by removing all these foreign influences and becoming a completely agrarian society. Upon seizing power the Khmer Rouge entered Phnom Penh and other cities and forcibly removed ALL the people, sending them to the countryside to work in the fields. Millions of people had all of their land and personal property stripped from them and were forced to work on the farms for no pay and given only meager allotments of food on which they could barely survive.

To prevent any sort of uprising or return to the industrial ways, educated people and people with any attachment to the former government were rounded up and sent to detention centers where they were imprisoned and tortured until they confessed to crimes against the Khmer Rouge – once they had confessed they were sent to what became known as killing fields and executed in mass graves for their alleged crimes.

Over 5 years until the country was liberated, the genocide claimed the lives of over 2 million Cambodians at the hands of their own countrymen and amounted to about 30-40% of the entire population at the time.

Some of the sites where these atrocities occurred are in or near Phnom Penh, and have been preserved as a reminder of the past, and even though the subject matter is quite heartbreaking, it was important to me to visit some of these places to see first-hand what the country had been through not all that long ago. Mrs. Columbus is not thrilled about the plan for the day, but I mumble something about learning from the past and off we go.

Those who cannot remember the past, are condemned to repeat it.

We have arranged for a tuk-tuk driver to take us out for the day for the princely sum of $15 US. The first leg of our trip is a short journey about 15km outside of Phnom Penh to a place called Choeung Ek, more commonly referred to as the killing fields. This is only one of what is estimated to be about 300 locations like this scattered across the country. To date, they have recovered the remains of over 8800 men, women and children that were executed at this location, but they believe that thousands remain uncovered.

There is a guided listening tour that is provided, and it is more than just a little humbling to stand in some of the places and listen to the description of events that occurred here. The center of the site contains a large stupa that was erected here to house the remains of the people that have been uncovered at the site.

We spent a couple of hours at the site going through the guided tour, and looking through the museum at the artifacts of a dark period in Cambodian history, and neither of us really has much to say during the ride back to Phnom Penh.

The next stop on the tour is at the Tuol Sleng Interrogation Center. Known as S-21 for the region that it was located in, it was originally a school in the middle of Phnom Penh, but was converted to a detention center for the Khmer Rouge to hold prisoners in while they were interrogated and then most often sent off to meet their fate at Choeung Ek.

There are 4 buildings at the school, and the original classrooms were carved up into small cells about 2.5 x 6 feet where the prisoners were held. There were no beds or mats on the floor and detainees slept directly on the hard tile floors. Some classrooms were partitioned into larger places where the interrogations and torture occurred under horrible conditions.

To add to the heartbreak, even as news of the atrocities started to make their way outside of Cambodia, few nations came to their aid. After the Khmer Rouge government fell in 1979 most western nations continued to decline assistance, and in fact Pol Pot’s deposed regime was still recognized by the west as the ‘legitimate’ government of Cambodia well into the 1980s – all because the ouster of the Khmer Rouge was assisted by the Vietnamese and the Soviet Union (can’t be having that communism spread even if millions of people are suffering).

Pol Pot died in 1998 having never been arrested or tried for any of his crimes against his people – he and many of the other leaders of the Khmer Rough had been living in seclusion in the north western part of Cambodia near the Thailand border. A small handful of the leaders were arrested and have been attending trials put on by a world court for their actions during this period.

Which brings us around to the wonderful people – even after all that they have been through you might think that they would have some resentment to the foreigners that started things, or never came to help, or who left behind millions of land mines, or to other Cambodians who seem to have more then the average person here, but it is not like that at all. All of the people that we have interacted with are very friendly, helpful and hard working, just trying to get ahead, or keep their families fed. It is an incredible testament to the spirit of the Cambodian people, and once again we are humbled.

Our day trip ends with a stop at a large local market, but after all we have seen our hearts are just not in it, so we head back to our hotel to unwind and take in the day. It has been quite an education, and not the typical type of adventure that is fun to blog about, but I think even Mrs. Columbus would agree that it was valuable for us to go, and helps us to understand better Cambodia and it’s people as we travel through different parts of the country.

A few short paragraphs and some photos barely scratch the surface of the story, but for anyone who wants to learn more on the subject I can highly recommend the film The Killing Fields and the book First They Killed My Father

Back to lighter topics next, I promise….

My next post was going to be about our day at the S21 Detention Center and the Killing Fields – a somber topic to be sure – but I feel compelled to push that back a day in order to post this sidebar.

It has come to my attention that we North Americans are not reaching the peak of efficiency in terms of how we use our vehicles. Back home there are people who have motorcycles, and you can see them out riding around perhaps on a joy ride, or in some cases even going to or from work, but almost always with a single passenger or purpose. I am convinced that the people of SE Asia and other countries have figured out ways to get far more additional efficiency from their motorcycles, so I set out to do some research which I present below:

Things you can do with a motorcycle

You can of course carry people – yourself or maybe a friend..

… or 3 (notice that a true lady will always ride side-saddle!)

I believe that there must be some sort of rule that limits you to perhaps 5-6 on a bike in which case you must then ride the bus.

More significantly, you can increase the efficiency of your motorcycle by transporting goods:

Produce

Naturally you can’t store your produce or other goods without some baskets!

And you may also need some packaging materials.

Then you will need a place to store all your things, so to build that you will need some construction materials – yes the last photo is of a guy carrying a sheet of glass!!

Once you have your place constructed you will need to furnish it:

And then you will need some food and beverage!

Clearly the evidence shows that we could be far more efficient with our use of this method of transportation. In many cases I have seen more than one of these uses combined at the same time!

Naturally, one might wonder what you do if you need to move your motorcycle around – the answer is quite obvious, you use a car!

After a late change in our initial plan to go to Vietnam, we now find ourselves in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The journey is a couple of short 1 hour plane flights and other than having to collect all of our things in Bangkok to go through immigration there the trip is quite uneventful.

Phnom Penh is the capital city of Cambodia with a population of about 2 million people. The city has a lot of French influence with nice wide streets and a lot of colonial style buildings, but as with many SE Asian cities it is VERY busy! Our trip from the airport in a tuk-tuk is very entertaining as our driver weaves in an out of traffic – often facing motorbikes that are traveling the wrong direction on our side of the street, and some of the most congested traffic I have seen. It is a good thing that the streets are so wide, because some of the maneuvers that we see on the streets here would not at all be possible in the more tightly packed streets of Thai cities.

Our hotel is located not far from the bank of the Mekong river, and after getting settled in we walk out for a look around and to find some dinner. The riverbank has a nice wide sidewalk (unlike the mostly non-existent sidewalks in Thailand) and after dinner we walk along for quite a distance taking in the scenery. It is a national holiday here to celebrate on of the previous kings – King Sihanouk – so part way through our walk we are rewarded with a nice fireworks display from across the river. Along the riverside we pass by the Royal Palace that is all lit up for the evening, and because of the holiday a few of the streets are closed to traffic and there are lots of people wandering about.

Our early impression of Phnom Penh is looking quite favorable for a city of this size. We are normally not big city people, but so far we feel a little better vibe here than we would in say Bangkok.

On our way back to our hotel we stop for a foot massage, and I must give full credit to the ladies who worked us over, the massage was very good, and among the best that I have had in SE Asia – Mrs. Columbus’ masseuse was even wearing a black cocktail dress!!

We have plans for a busy day tomorrow seeing some of the sights so after the massage it is back to our room and off to bed – in a bed that is not as hard as a rock I might add, so kudos to the Silver River Hotel for having a bed that at least resembles something that people would sleep on 😉

I am not at all embarrassed to admit that we have not done a whole lot the last few days. Our hotel has a great little pool and a nice sitting area, so we have been taking full advantage of that along with spending some time visiting with our local friends.

We have managed to find a nice little massage place close to our new hotel and in addition to being able to get a good massage, the owners are really friendly and we have had a nice time chatting with them while getting our daily relaxation!

We know that our time here in northern Thailand is approaching an end, so we are trying to get out with our friends here as much as possible. We have had a few good nights out with Tee, Ian, Richie and Landon, and we also had the chance to meet Richie’s girlfriend Vanna,  and Landon’s girlfriend Tiew.

We also managed to have an nice night out with Ian and Tee at The River Market restaurant – a bit of an upscale place featuring a sort of Thai-Western fusion type menu. The restaurant is situated along the bank of the Ping River and it was very nice to just sit and relax and enjoy the great food with our friends. Tee always does so much to help us out and take care of us, so it was nice to see her relax for an evening as well!

After dinner we walked up towards the old city, and stopped for a couple of drinks at the Interbar. They have been a fixture in Chiang Mai for a very long time and feature live music. It was very interesting to hear Thai musicians perform American music, and we got a chuckle from time to time from their rendition of the lyrics, but overall a great night out.

Our last day/night in Chiang Mai was a little busy.  Trying to get some goodbye time in with all of our friends along with getting the laundry sorted and all packed up kept us fairly well occupied. We had lunch with Landon and Tee, and then dinner with a couple we met at our new favorite massage shop, an Aussie fellow and his Thai girlfriend. Then it was back to Ginny Cafe for me to say a last goodbye to Ian and Tee for another year.

Our time in Chiang Mai was great as always, and we are sad to be moving on, but take some comfort in knowing that we will be back again soon and have developed some great friendships here.  Phop gun mai na krap!

We have been back in Chiang Mai now for a couple of days. Full credit to Mrs. Columbus being on her A game in finding us a place to stay – after looking at some of the places we have stayed before and brushing them off because they were not available, or had some ‘bug issues’ we decided to try a new area just outside the old city near the Saturday street market.

We have been holed up in our room at the Baan Ratchiangsaen completely taking it easy. The hotel is brand new, and very well run. The rooms are a good size, there is a pool, and some nice outside sitting areas – along with the low price of about $30/night it ticks all the boxes!!

After returning the rental car we have taken in a few massages, some street food, and just been hanging out by the pool and catching up on things back home. I blame the weather for the lack of activity 😉 as it has been a bit overcast and some rain on a couple of the days, so that has encouraged me to not venture out too far.

Bruce and Jackie have returned from their home stay adventure and after hearing about their experience we have added something else to our to-do list for a future vacation. They are returning to Australia today so while we are sad to see them go, it was great that we were able to schedule things to allow us a short vacation together – maybe next time we will see them in Australia as they have offered to host us there anytime!

We need to start working on our plan for the next part of our trip and are still trying to decide on Vietnam or Cambodia or ……..? It is all very stressful and I may have to think about it over a massage and maybe a beer.