Phnom Penh, Cambodia (07 Apr 2006 - 09 Apr 2006)

Border Crossing

The Border Crossing from Vietnam into Cambodia.

The road to Phnom Penh.

Trigger Happy Times

Joe and I had heard rumors that tourists willing to pay the price could shoot some heavy artillery at "shooting ranges" run by the "Cambodian military" outside of Phnom Penh. We asked some of the workers at the hostel after we had checked in, and were told that it could be arranged. Of course, we couldn't pass up this opportunity. Our contact at the hostel woke us up early the next morning and loaded us into a van. After a very sketchy hour-long ride, the van finally rolled into a military outpost somewhere outside the city. However, we only stopped there long enough for three or four more Cambodian dudes to hop into the van, and for their helpers to load the van up with enough small arms and artillery to take over a small country. After another even sketchier hour-long van ride, we finally pulled up to the "shooting range," which was basically just a field in the middle of nowhere.

"Of all the weapons in the vast soviet arsenal, nothing was more profitable than Avtomat Kalashnikova model of 1947. More commonly known as the AK-47, or Kalashnikov. It's the worlds most popular assault rifle. A weapon all fighters love. An elegantly simple 9 pound amalgamation of forged steel and plywood. It doesn't break, jam, or overheat. It'll shoot whether it's covered in mud or filled with sand. It's so easy, even a child can use it; and they do. The Soviets put the gun on a coin. Mozambique put it on their flag. Since the end of the Cold War, the Kalashnikov has become the Russian people's greatest export. After that comes vodka, caviar, suicidal novelists. One thing is for sure, no one was lining up to buy their cars."

~ Yuri Orlov, Lord of War

M-60 Machine Gun

M-79 Grenade Launcher

Rocket Propelled Grenade Launcher

The Killing Fields at Cheong Ek

At this point, it becomes quite awkward and somewhat embarrassing for me to continue this blog post, although I shall continue anyway. It was also very awkward at the time -- after reveling in the destructive capacity of the heavy artillery we fired, we went directly to visit some of the most gruesome sites in all of human history. It was sobering to accept that the weapons we had been firing only hours before had also played an integral role in this history. Trust me, it didn't feel right at the time, and if the sequence had been reversed, the trip to the shooting range may have been canceled due to loss of appetite. You, dear reader, can cast whatever judgment you feel like.

Next on the itinerary was Cheong Ek, the most famous of "the Killing Fields," where the Khmer Rouge murdered about 1.7 million of their fellow Cambodians, decimating 21% of the country's population. There really wasn't much to see - the area's grounds were littered with open pits where mass graves had been discovered. There was a memorial stupa in the center that was filled with skulls that had been unearthed. It was certainly quite chilling to gaze into the hollow skulls and wonder what once filled that void.

"Killing Tree Against Which Executioners Beat Children"

S-21

After the Killing Fields, we visited Security Office 21, known simply as S-21, and today home to the Tuol Sleng Museum of Genocide. During the Khmer Rouge regime, this abandoned high school was used as a prison and interrogation center. The name of the high school, Tuol Sleng, literally means "hill of the poison tree." It is estimated that around 14,000 people were imprisoned at S-21, although some estimates are as high as 20,000. Only 7 people are known to have survived. Most prisoners were simply tortured until they eventually confessed to whatever their torturers accused them of, and then were shipped off to meet their grisly fate at the Killing Fields.

The most striking part about S-21 was the meticulous documentation and record-keeping of the genocide maintained by the Khmer Rouge. Every new prisoner had a mugshot taken - today about 5,000 of them are on display in the museum. Every prisoner had a file, and that file would ultimately be concluded with a confession to crimes against the Angkar, or the Khmer Rouge government. This was all done with the intent of providing "legitimacy" to the inhuman and utterly illegitimate project.

Other Sights in Phnom Penh

The Royal Palace

The National Museum

Independence Monument

The Cambodian New Year was approaching - I'm assuming it was on the 13th of April, which was the full moon. Cambodians, however, don't just celebrate the New Year for one day. They celebrate it for a week ahead of time. The festivities included outdoor music and dancing, which they were more than happy to include us in.

Crazy tuk-tuk ride