Because of the type of visa AYADs get when they come to Thailand, we have to leave the country every three months and re-enter. It's good because it gives you an excuse to take advantage of the cheap flights and see more of the region, plus your organisation is meant to give you $80 and a day off towards it. I decided to take a visa run to Cambodia.
One of the things I enjoy most about travelling through the region is the diversity. It is interesting to compare these countries with our life in Thailand. The first thing that struck me about Phnom Penh was how much quieter and less developed it is than BKK. The buildings are mostly low-rise and everything is dusty. There are old cars everywhere that don't go over 40 kph (seriously). Piles of burning rubbish can be seen everywhere, as can the nude and barefoot children playing in it.
Children followed us everywhere, mostly selling books. I couldn't help but be moved by them as I had just spent the last month researching child sex tourism in Cambodia for a publication my office is putting out on child sex tourism. There is a brothel village about 11 kms outside of Phnom Penh called Svay Pak which is notorious for offering child prostitutes to men from all over the world. We are talking about eight- and nine-year olds. Authorities and international organisations have tried to crack down on it in the past, but no real progress ever seems to be made. There are so many orphans and street children in Cambodia one cannot help but consider where they will end up in a few years. There is also a concerning number of old farangs (or barangs, as they are called in Cambodia) travelling alone that drew my attention as I contemplated their agendas. The whole situation is made worse by the fact that, as a result of crackdowns on prostitution and trafficking in Thailand, much of the market has moved to Cambodia. The majority of child prostitutes in Cambodia (of which there are estimated to be 30,000, but the real number is probably higher) are trafficked from Vietnam. One thing to remember is that most 'clients' of prostitutes are locals, not sex tourists. This is the case in most countries. The impression that it is always the old German men stems from the fact that they are usually the ones who are caught (as a result of efforts from their governments) or attract international attention. Of the arrested/convicted foreign pedophiles, I have to say that most of them are from the US, the UK, the Netherlands, Australia, Germany and France, but that over-representation could be because these governments have more effective measures in place to find and prosecute these people.
I have learned a lot about the international law side of the commercial sexual exploitation in children, particularly when it comes to extraterritorial jurisdiction and trafficking.
It is probably the case that all of these thoughts clouded my impression of Cambodia. I certainly appreciate the time I had there more now that I look back on it than when I was experiencing it. I know a lot of people who cite Cambodia as one of the most powerful and moving places they have ever travelled. They say it changed them somehow and they are always desperate to go back. All i can say is that, when I was there, i kept thinking how glad I was to have applied for a job in Bangkok and not there. Upon reflection though, I think I could make a life there, though I still don't think it would be my first choice. I certainly preferred Vietnam.
One of the things I enjoyed most about my trip to Cambodia was our visit to the Genocide Museum, a school that was turned into a prison for political prisoners and other enemies of the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s. I don't know why, but I have always been fascinated by particularly horrendous periods of modern history, such as Hitler's concentration camps and Mao's cultural revolution. I think it has something to do with my sociology/psychology background but I enjoy delving into the harrowing and dark human experiences of others, whether it be someone's stint in a Thai prison or surviving Auswitch. I am interested in the survival aspect but, more than anything, I like being confronted with what drives individuals to commit such atrocities that result in these experiences.
A set of rules prisoners had to follow.
Tool Sleung comprises a series of old classrooms that contain the bloody evidence of torture committed by the Khmer Rouge, such as beds bent under the pressure of victims struggling under duress and various torture tools.
Particularly moving were the mugshots taken by the Khmer Rouge of the prisoners. I was struck by the expressions of prisoners and what their eyes revealed. Who knows what horrors they saw moments before these photos were taken. I was particularly drawn to the photos of prisoners who had a defiance about them.
And the sadness:
There are hundreds of these photos, and I found it difficult to hold back the tears.
Most of the torture and medical care of prisoners was carried out by children.
After Tool Sleung, we visited the killing fields, about 20 minutes drive (at 40 kph) from Phnom Penh. Apart from a pockmarked landscape where mass graves once lay, there is not much to see here except a memorial tower full of skulls.
Then it was on to the Royal Palace.
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