Footsteps of the Khmer: Ancient and Modern

Friday morning, we had asked our drivers to meet us at 8:00am . We were hoping to get out early, before it was real hot, and start seeing some more sights. As is typical with us, we didn’t get out of the hotel, until 8:30. Our initial plan was to head out to the Landmine Museum. Kalyssa had been asking quite a few questions about landmines, and was very worried about them. Cambodia is one of the most mined countries in the world, and Kalyssa was interested in learning more. Our driver suggested that we try the War Museum instead. He was very upfront in saying that he gets a commission at the War museum, but does not at the Landmine Museum, but said also, the War Museum was very close, whereas I knew the landmine museum was 40 minutes away. I asked if the Landmine Museum at least had a pretty drive. “No,” was his definitive response. I chuckled. He explained it was just typical roadside villages. So we agreed to follow his suggestion. When we got to the museum, (note, many of the museums here are not what you think of as a typical museum, with the exception of a view large government ones. This was a small outdoor family owned exhibit. )


This museum offered a guided tour by a man just a little older than me named Vasean (I think?). He explained that he had joined the army against the Khmer Rouge when he was 15, and fought until he was 20. He told us the story of another boy he knew that joined the army at the same time. He asked us, what would cause a 14 year old to want to join the army? The reason was that he watched a Khmer Rouge soldier kill his father directly in front of him. As we walked through the museum, he had hundreds of pictures, rifles, machine guns, and hundreds of diffused landmines. Several times as he told his story, he began tearing up. He told us that he has a hard time giving the tour without crying, and that when he first did it, he almost always cried. For each of the different landmines, he explained how they worked, and had some set up on the ground, so that we could see how they would be rigged with trip wire and hidden from view. He also showed us the type of mine that blew off 4 fingers of his right hand as he attempted to diffuse it and made a mistake. This was far from his only injury, as he showed us plastic buried in his cheek, and several bearings buried in his shoulder and torso.

At one point, he brought us to a tank where the front corner was curled up and torn open. He explained that the tank had gone over a landmine. His best friend was driving the tank, and was found dead inside it. He kept one of the bones from his friend’s body, and showed it to us. At the place where the tank was torn open, there were still some bone fragments, and a he used a blade of grass to point out a bone from a finger.

This tour once again reinforced how dramatically the Khmer Rouge impacted everyone’s life in this country that were able to survive. Vasean reminded me that in addition to the 2,000,000 killed by the Khmer Rouge, another 1,000,000 starved to death. What’s even more unbelievable is that as terrible and unfathomable such atrocities are, that the story has played out again and again across the world, from the Nazis in Germany, the Turks in Armenia, or the recent occurrences in Darfur. I have come to be able to understand how one person can commit horrendous acts, but what I don’t understand, is how they can come to generate armies to carry out their bidding on such a bloody scale as this…



Moat Around Angkor Wat



After we left the War Museum, we went to the main site that was one of the driving forces of our selection of coming to Cambodia: Angkor Wat’s main temple. Angkor Wat was built in the 12 century by over 300,000 slaves. Even with that manpower, the vast size of the complex, and its moat, as well as the engineering required to design and construct such a structure would be awe inspiring if it was built today. But to have been built almost 1,000 years ago without any modern machinery is just amazing. The entryway is across a large causeway that bridges a huge moat that creates a perfect square around the entire complex. Inside there are several different sections, and 3 main levels. From the ground outside, to the highest level, known as heaven, is over 65 meters. That’s about the height of a 20 story building. Adding to the awe inspiring nature of this structure is the intricate carvings throughout the entire structure. Every support post it would seem has intricate carvings on a significant portion of it. On the outer walls encircling the main complex is a long mural that shows a very intricate picture of a battle with thousands of warriors, Hindu gods (Angkor Wat was originally a Hindu temple). Within the temple were 4 pools which were used for ceremonial washing. These pools were rain fed, but had drains so that they could also be emptied.

Secondary to the human suffering that has occurred, it is also unfortunate to see the impact of the history of conflict in the region on this amazing site. The outside is riddled with bullet holes from when the Khmer Rouge, used it as a refuge 30 years ago. Inside, there are sections that Siam (Thailand) had attempted to destroy, by using elephants to try and tear down towers. And finally, many Hindu soldiers, as well as past souvenir hunters have cut off many of the heads and arms of the buddhas within the complex. Taking all this into account, it really makes one wonder, with how awe inspiring it is today, how magnificent would it have looked when it was new 900 years ago.



One of Four Pools



Library





When we got to the central towers, a wooden staircase has been built to provide wider, shorter stairs for us to climb to the top (though it was still extremely narrow.) At this point, Kalyssa was told she could not go because you need to be 12, Alexandra was told she could not ascend because she was wearing short pants, and Natalie could not go, as her shoulders were not covered. Therefore, I became the lone representative to scale the top of the temple and took many, many pictures. The view was spectacular, as you could see the rest of the entire complex as well as the surrounding jungle. What struck me the most getting to this point was the intricate details in the top towers were now visible. The large towers to me always appeared to be fairly roughly lotus shaped towers. I had assumed the appearance was due to roughly shaped bricks being used. Upon reaching this point, I realized that there are hundreds of intricate carvings and statues on each of these towers, that from afar, give it a rough look.

As we left Angkor Wat, we battled the throng of local children peddling their trinkets, grabbed some popsicles at an icecream stand, and discussed what to do next. We were all hungry and hot, so we got some lunch. Homm and Pall didn’t have any suggestions for a good air-conditioned place, but they did have a recommendation for a restaurant that they said was good, but was cool with lots of fans. Once again they provided a very good recommendation, and we enjoyed a good Khmer lunch. I personally enjoyed a chicken curry served in a young coconut hollowed out to create a bowl.



Lunch: Curry Chicken in Young Coconut



After lunch, Natalie we told the drivers we were ready to go back to the hotel. Once we got there however, they asked if we were sure there wasn’t anything more we wanted to do. This was enough to get Natalie to change her mind. She wanted to get some crocodile skin items, and our drivers had previously told her about a crocodile farm where she could get such items, and see the live crocs. So we jumped back in the tuktuks for a few miles and jumped out at the crocodile farm. This was the smelliest site on our visit, as the farm consisted of several pools of extremely stagnant water and hundreds of crocodiles. There was a platform elevated about 10 feet over the croc habitats, and signs encouraging you to stay on the platform. Additionally, if you wanted to feed the crocodiles, that was an option. You could by some fish to toss them, or if you were willing to spend $8-$10 you could get a live duck or a live chicken to toss in. (We did not do this…though it was somewhat intriguing…) after this, Natalie did some shopping and I hung out with Pall and talked to him a bit about his family, his kids, where he lives (very nearby it turns out, and how much of our money my wife was spending on crocodile skin items.

We were finally done shopping, and walked out to the tuktuks. Homm, who was the more outgoing of the two drivers, handed Alexandra an extremely rough drawing on a white piece of paper with blue marker. He said, a man is tied up and hung from a tree. The rope holding him extends over a candle, which will soon burn the rope through. Under the man is a hungry tiger. How can the man escape?

We pondered it for a few minutes, while laughing at his crude drawing, but could not come up with the answer. We begged him to tell us. He told us, he’d let us know in the morning when he took us to the airport. We protested, but he stood firm. We jumped back on the tuktuks and headed back to our hotel for the last time.

When we got to the hotel, it was the end of our prearranged service from our drivers. Though they had agreed to drive us to the airport the next day, this felt like a goodbye, so we asked to take some pictures with them, and thanked them for everything, and treated it like a bit of a goodbye. I asked how much a trip would be to the airport (which is about 10 minutes away) and Homm, said with a straightface “We usually charge about $90 each way.” This time I laughed, and he said with a tone that seemed to indicate an aversion to ruin the camaraderie with the obligatory business deal: “You tell me how much you want to pay.” I responded that I had no idea…. Tell me what’s a fair price. He said “$5 each tuktuk is pretty typical…..but I won’t say anything if you want to give $10…”


Pall, Homm, and Us


After this, we freshened up in the room, and headed to the pool (minus Alexandra who wanted to nap). Kalyssa spent a couple hours in the pool, and I spent some of that with her. Later Natalie and I were enjoying some drinks in a covered area partially obscured from the pool when we realized we hadn’t seen Kalyssa in a while. As she said that, I thought I heard Kalyssa’s voice engaged in conversation. I got up and walk over to the pool, and sure enough, she is sitting there in the pool with two girls that were around 20 years old in the pool as well. The two girls, who were from some sort of southeast Asian descent, seemed captivated by her. Later we asked Kalyssa what she was talking about with them, and she responded, rather bored by the question, “our trip.” It truly is amazing how two girls that came from the same place, can be so entirely different in personality.

After some additional snacks, we headed to our room to get our bags packed for an early day tommorrow.

We did ultimately convince Homm to give us the answer to the riddle before he left from the hotel: the man sings Happy Birthday to the tiger, and the tiger blows out the candle when he’s finished!