Day 5 (27/9) - Genocide Day - Cheong Ek Killing Fields (Part 2)
Although I didn't see any McDonalds or such, I did glimpse one Marybrown in the shopping centre we'd visited the previous day. If they want to get fast food, they should at least get good fast food!
For dinner we went to a New Age cafe where half the menu was vegetarian. The Viennese Iced Coffee there was more expensive than wine, but it's the first coffee beverage that I've ever liked (probably because it had vanilla ice cream, cinammon and little coffee inside).
Someone ordered a health club smoothie, but unfortunately it tasted exactly like it sounded, so it was the only drink at our table that was unfinished.
We then went to the Cheong Ek Killing Fields.
Strange rules; "No drugs use and distribution within the premises" - presumably drug use and distribution outside the premises is alright.
This monument was built in 1988. There're 8900+ (almost 9000) skulls inside (but for some reason there're no farmers' skulls inside).
Someone: Why're you taking a photo of the roosters?
Me: I like cocks.
My group got the bad tour guide, who was slightly unbalanced. Besides recounting his tales in a distanced manner, he kept asking us "do you understand?" after recounting some particularly gruesome detail (one choice bit was when he took skulls from the monument and described how each person had been killed). He also pointed out the victims' clothing - AFTER some of us had stepped on them.
Burial pit
More clothes
43 graves by the lake are not opened.
Tree from which a loudspeaker was hung to drown out victims' cries
Bones
They took babies by the legs and smashed them against this tree.
Mass grave
Monument
Rough tree which the disturbed guide asked us to feel. If the rough parts were pressed against flesh quickly and firmly enough, they could cut.
The site was very simple and bare in presentation. All the Khmer Rouge-era buildings had been knocked down and none reconstructed; there weren't even photographs or models to show us what the place used to look like. There were also few facts in writing.
Their extremely emotive and dramatised story. "They have the human form but their hearts are demon's hearts" - they seem unwilling and/or unable to accept that humans are capable of really nasty things.
Women are categorised separately from peasants, workers, intellectuals etc. How problematic.
Skulls back at the monument
Clothes
Incense and flowers
People like to ask in response to each disaster: why didn't the West do anything? One reason is that anything the West does is problematised.
The 1992 intervention in Somalia was supposedly only undertaken because there was oil there. Iraq and Bosnia? Anti-Muslim. East Timor? They didn't come quickly enough (since they went through the UN). Kosovo? Illegal under International Law (since they didn't).
Even if you want to say that no one condones genocide and thus we can agree that it's wrong, problematisers can reply that the people who order the genocide are in favour of it, so opposition to genocide is not universal (I'm not making this up, someone did actually argue this to me - this is why academics should be read, not heard).
Seen: "Happy Beer Singapore". Funny, I'd never seen it in Singapore. Also seen in Phnom Penh: "Players Club". Uhh.
Banner: "Tourism: a leading agency for job creation and environmental protection". I get the former, but the latter?!
There was a "Visit Malaysia" billboard in Phnom Penh. Wth.
They had a "Ministry of Cult and Religions". Wth.
In Siem Reap I'd seen only 2 ang moh men with local 'girlfriends', but by this day I'd seen 5.
Various royal buildings
Sexy, sunburnt legs
More playing with the doggie
More sexy legs
We went to a NGO community project restaurant ("Romdeng") for dinner. It was one of the places valuing frills over practicality, with the lighting being so dim and the menu so hard to read that we were given torchlights, but the food was good. There, we experienced the highlight of our trip:
Tarantulas. They tasted like soft shell crab. Now that I've had them I want to try other strange foods too!
Tarantulas' description (US$2.50 for 3). I'm skeptical of Cambodian pork being renowned for its taste and quality though.
"Stir Fried Frogs Legs with Holy Basil. A dish that is known even in Europe."
And I'm a monkey's uncle.
Cambodia's most famous Muslim dish?! Wth.
Definitely not Cambodia's most famous Muslim dish. This was well cooked and the best dish I had in Cambodia. At $2.50 for this plate (supposedly 3 pieces) it wasn't a bad deal (but then again we didn't pay, so).
Someone had 3.5 shots of honey-flavoured rice wine for US$1. I was told that it tasted like crap, but for US$1 you couldn't argue.
Geckos on ceiling - Cambodia is gecko land. At least that beats being cockroach land like bolehland (oddly enough I don't recall seeing any roaches in Cambodia).
Someone said I should braid my hair so when I hit people with it it's like a rope, instead of a broom when I just use a simple hairtie. Unfortunately braiding's too troublesome, so.
Free condoms in the toilet. One person almost used one as a facewipe.
Contestations, negotiations and renegotiations over whether it's acceptable to expect your food to come within 2 hours. Supposedly in some countries, if you asked the chef where your food was after 2 hours, he'd say "wait 2 more", but I found this very unlikely.
Flashy altar
There're a lot of establishments with Chinese altars and/or Chinese words in Cambodia, especially in Phnom Penh.
For some reason, most Cambodian toilets had sanitary water jets (bidets only refer to getups with the bowls). Must be a cultural thing.
Quotes:
I heard you are a famous blogger. [Me: Evidently not famous enough for you to have heard {of me}, so no.]
Why're you taking a photo of the roosters? [Me: I like cocks.]
[Me on the Amazon Penis Fish and women: I've never seen a woman pee, so I can't say.] Oh my gosh, you've never seen a woman pee? [Me: Should I have?... I see you pee lah.] No, then I'll be Psychotic Girl 5 and sue you for sexual harassment.
[On how a guy invited her to smoke] 'Do it with me'
[On a pool game] It's Whites vs Asians.