Cambodia: Phnom Penh

Today was just utterly depressing. We are in Phnom Penh.  We started with a visit to the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, a Cambodian court with participation and assistance from the U.N.  It has been set up to try senior leaders responsible for the crimes committed between 1975 and 1979 during the Khmer Rouge regime.   We also visited the killing fields, where human bones and clothing are still in the ground from the mass graves.  There is a tower of thousands of human skulls excavated from the site. 

Our final stop was S-21 Tuol Sleng Museum, a former high school converted into a security prison.  At S-21, prisons were tortured and interrogated by the regime.  The prisoners were all photographed when they arrived with their cell numbers. There are rows of black and white photos inside the prison, which hasn't been changed much and still has beds and torture devices and even blood stains on the ceiling.  Prison rules were posted, including rule 6:  “while getting lashes or electrocution you must not cry at all.”  The Khmer Rouge rounded up educated people and killed them because they were a threat to the revolution; I stopped and paused a while at a photograph of a law professor who was imprisoned at S-21.

The day left me with that feeling of utter despair that I recently felt when I visited Yad Vashem (Holocaust museum) in Israel.  And the genocide in Cambodia was not about ethnic or religious differences; it was justified solely on political ideology.  Sadly, when we don’t have natural born differences we can create ideological differences to manufacture the “other.”

On a lighter note, I ate spider.  I’ll admit that it has been challenging to be touring in a big group (though the students are wonderful).  We’ve been going to the restaurants on the itinerary set by the tour company.  I’ve been a little disappointed with the food, feeling that it hasn’t been as authentic as I’d like.  Except that we did get spiders (upon request) at lunch today.  The flavor was all about the sauce (a peppery sauce that was tasty).  As for texture, I liked the legs, they were very crunchy.  But the body was a little gooey.