We’re leaving on a jet plane…….

26th February 2007

After an emotional day visiting both S-21 (Toul Sleng Genocide Museum) and The Killing Fields of Choeung Ek we set off in search of a Mojito. Mojito’s have to be both of our favourite cocktails so – simple souls that we are – we were both pretty excited at the prospect of watching the sun set over the Boeng Kok Lake sipping a nice cold Mojito.

We were shown to a table and told we would probably want to face the otherway than that which we sat because there would be as show of the traditional Cambodian Aspara (which means ‘nimph’) dancing by the children of The Cambodian Light Children’s Association – a charity set up for the housing and education of orphans and street kids of Cambodia.

The Mojito’s were disapointing but the children were not! They were incredible. Two children sat playing a xylophone and large drum whilst six or seven girls dressed in satin outfits with floweras in their hair were led by a girl who could not have been more than five years old but had elegance way beyond her years. The dancing is very graceful using the whole body although largely governed by movement of the hands.

After the girls came the boys with their ‘monkey dance’. You could not help falling in love with these small boys when they came galloping across the stage on all fours, scratching their backsides and picking food out of each others hair……simply adorable.

Then it was our turn! 😉 The kids grabbed people from the audience and ‘tried’ to teach us the dancing – sadly we lacked elegance, grace and finesse……but had lots of fun trying! One particular girl tok a shine to Chris and was extremely persistent and patient with him as he tried to master the hand movements!

When we left the show we thanked the director of the orphange and were invited to pay him and the children a visit the following day.

Energy levels raised by all the dancing we headed to the ‘Heart of Drakness’ which is apparently the local hotspot which is described by the Lonely Planet as a little edgy and frequented by Cambodia’s young nouveau rich. The LP also states that you shouldn’t get into a disagreement with any of the locals as they frequently have body guards which will stand for no nonsense! Well the Lonely Planet was clearly correct as locals were dropping lots of money at the bar and the drink of choice seemed to be Johny Walker Black Label Whisky which they were ordering by the bottle! The bodyguards were also evident dressed head to toe in black…which ironically (or maybe not!) was the uniform of the Khmer Rouge at the height of the regime.

Well we behaved ourselves and had a great night chatting to a party of people out celebrating the wedding of a local girl and a French guy that had met on the internet.

We woke the next day feeling surprisingly chipper considering that we had had a few drinks and the 24 hour unbearable humidity which leaves you gasping for water as soon as you wake. First stop of the day was the Russian Market to stock up on some provisions and games to take with us on our visit to the CLCA. We then hired a tuk-tuk driver to take us to the address on the business card we had been handed the prior evening.

Now I am not sure either of us expected any grandeur from the orphange but it is fair to say the orphanage itself was so far removed from our expectations it was quite simply shocking. Sat in the middle of a shanty town the orphanage has been pieced together from wood which had obviously been built by the volunteers themselves and the conditions the 140+ children live in quite frankly shocked us both to the core, but the children are provided with a safe place, food to eat and are being provided a with an education as each child must attend lessons each weekday.

The work being carried out is a credit to the volunteers and the children themselves. It is not that they do not want to improve the conditions of the orphanage, they quite simply cannot do so without funding.

On our arrival our hands were grabbed by some of the younger children and we were whisked off on a tour of the buildings/areas. The childrens dormitories were crowded and extremly rickety so much so I was frightened the top floor would not take both mine and Chris’s combined weight. The classroom was full of lovely pictures the children had drawn, maps on the wall and the letters of the alphabet – however books and other materials were sparse. The bathrooms were basic and unable to deal with the number of children the orphanage houses and the girls bathroom lacks a door. During the tour we were told of future projects that the volunteers/ director hoped to carry out. None were overly ambitious but each would add some value to the children’s home in its small way, be it a new door for the girls bathroom or a fan for the medical room.

After our tour we were fortunate to be able to spend some time playing with the children and talking with a few of the older children whose English was a credit to their teachers. They told us about their hopes for their furtures, the provinces they came from and how the orphange provided one big family for them. The children were lots of fun, vibrant, bossy, mischievous – everything you would expect.

We learnt from the director that it costs $3,000 in water, food and electricity to keep the children each month. This money is found by donations, the children dancing and if necessary general pleading contacts.

We left the orphange, exhausted but enriched to have spent some time with the children, only to find our tuk-tuk had been comandeered by ten or so children. Chasing the tuk-tuk up the road we had to scoop the laughing children away from their riide before waving goodbye ro all the smiling faces (hopefully that wasn’t because they were seeing the back of us!).

On the way home from the orphange we discussed the day and both pledged to do ‘something’ hopefully challenging on our return home to raise some sponsorship for the CLCA (it is here in writing so there is no going back)….So be warned we will be hounding you all on our return!

The link to the CLCA website is on the right hand side if you want to learn more.

26th February 2007

A 6 hour bus journey took us from Siem Reap, in the North West of Cambodia, to the South, and the capital city, Phnom Penh. $6 a night goes a long way in Phnom Penh, and on the evening of our arrival, we did nothing but enjoy the air conditioning and 100+ cable channels at our guesthouse (trust me, it hasn’t always been this good!).

The next morning we set out for what was to prove the most harrowing day of our adventure so far. Our first stop was the Tuol Sleng Museum, aka S-21. In 1975, when the Khmer Rouge took control of Phnom Penh, they turned the former Tuol Svay Prey High School into a prison. Conditions in Cambodia rapidly degenerated, and S-21 soon became the largest detention and torture centre for ‘enemies’ (i.e. anyone other than farmers who had sided with the Khmer Rouge in the preceding civil war) of the ‘revolution’.

In the 4 years that followed, approx 20,000 people were held at S-21, of which only 7 remained alive when Phnom Penh was liberated by the Vietnamese in 1979.

It feels strange to call this a ‘tourist attraction’ and at times it did feel extremely uncomfortable to be visiting the scene of such evil. Without going into the detail of what we saw here, it helped us to understand and appreciate the Cambodian people all the more. We had hired a guide to show us around, a women in her 40s. She gave us great insight into the events that took place in the country during the time of the Khmer Rouge. As we talked, it emerged that she herself had lost her husband and only daughter to the regime after being evacuated from Phnom Penh in 1975. After the fall on the Khmer Rouge, she had walked for 3 months to return to the capital from the countryside to find work, and look in vain for her family.

Next we ventured the 15kms out of town to Choeung Ek, aka ‘the killing fields’. It was here the prisoners of S-21 were brought to be ‘exterminated’ after interrogation at Tuol Sleng.

The Khmer Rouge, not wanting to waste precious ammunition, bludgeoned to death men, women and children at this site, before burying the ‘traitors’ in mass graves. Several graves have since been exhumed, and over 8,000 human skulls now stand in a central monument as a reminder of the horrors that unfolded here, less than 30 years ago.

The remainder of the Killing fields site at Choeung Ek remains ‘intact’. As you walk around the grounds, fragments of human bone and clothing are visible in the dirt, a sobering reminder of the evil that remains buried here and at other sites across the country.

In the afternoon, in much need of a pick-me-up, we headed to a late lunch at Friends restaurant back in the capital. This place serves great tapas style Khmer food, and even better it is all for a good cause, giving street kids the chance to train as chefs (the Cambodia version of Jamie Oliver’s 15!). After food we toured the National Museum (exhibiting artifacts that have been taken from the temples of Angkor – shame!).

As if we had not endured enough pain and heartache for our poor little souls to take in one day, we spent the evening watching Newcastle lose to Wigan in the Premiership….that’s the last time I fork out for cable TV in our room!

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