AFTER THE STORM

A reader visits Cambodia’s killing fields as well as its places of peace and goodwill

THE first thing that assails you stepping off the bus in Phnom Penh is the chaos of the traffic. The noise is all-encompassing; the constant motion a ballet in which everyone knows their parts except you.

Tiny motorbikes drag threewheeled tuk-tuks; scooters and bikes weave among them; cars pile up and bicycles swerve past pedestrians on crowded pavements. No road rules seem to apply.

Luckily, the locals know how to navigate around foreigners.

The people in this remarkable country, so recently brutalised by genocide, are unfalteringly happy, smiling and willing to help.

We visited the Choeung Ek Genocidal Centre, better known as the “Killing Field”, where 129 mass graves were uncovered after the fall of the Khmer Rouge — with around 9 000 corpses exhumed.

Two hours were spent wandering the grounds with an audio guide, detailing atrocities that had most of the visitors in tears as they passed sites such as a memorial tower filled with the skulls and bones of victims, the mass graves of women and children, and the killing tree, where babies were murdered.

We walked out dazed, to the astonishing smiles and cheery greetings of the tuk-tuk drivers waiting to take us back to town.

Common to all Cambodian towns is the diversity and unidentifiable nature of the food at stalls on every street corner.

Wandering up to one, you will inevitably find yourself asking “what is this?” about every item on display — except perhaps the fried tarantulas or snake sosaties. The local curry, amok, is delicious, creamy and delicately flavoured. Other interesting dishes included turtle stew, frog “hot pot” and crocodile meat. Stray cats are omnipresent, most with a section of their tail missing. We thought this was due to accidents — a local later told us that families will boil and eat their cat’s tail for good luck. Maybe he was pulling our leg.

Siem Riep, the closest city to the famous Angkor temples, is a tourist wonderland, with every street boasting “fish pedicures”, cheap massages and an assortment of trinkets from garish to lovely.

Cambodia is well known for its fabrics and shoes, as well as for the prayer beads blessed by local priests and sold for exorbitant prices.

We hired a motorbike to travel from Siem Riep to the Angkor temple complex — half an hour on a dusty road, passing workers in conical hats tending the rice paddies, white oxen being herded by small boys, and everywhere the broad and trusting Cambodian smile.

Day passes to the temples are easily available and the cheapest option. If you arrive early enough, one day is enough time to take in the sights.

There are innumerable small temples, and of course the larger and more famous few. Bayon temple has faces carved into almost every stone facet, representing the all-seeing nature of the gods. It is an eerie feeling to be watched by thousands of stone eyes.

The famous “Lara Croft” temple, or Ta Prohm Temple, has been partly reclaimed by nature, with huge trees growing seemingly straight out of the rock, their roots strangling the walls and their branches peeking through doorways.

We decided to save this for sunset. We joined the other tourists on the banks overlooking this incredible temple, one of the largest religious monuments in the world. As the sun set and lit up the stone with a warm glow, some monks walking the temple path, some of the Cambodian happiness seeped into the tourists’ faces, transforming them with that giant grin. —©

Tessa Cooper

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