The Kingdom of Wonder.

This is the term our tour guide, Nak (full name Bunnak Hun) almost always uses to describe his clearly-beloved home country, Cambodia, which he and other Khmers prefer still to call Kampuchea. We arrived in Phnom Penh by public bus, the Mekong Limousine Express - a very comfortable journey indeed, after crossing the border at Poipet, often known as the 'armpit' of Cambodia, well-known for its squalor, sleaze and scams. It was pretty awful! Nak always pronounces Phnom Penh “p’noom pin”, with a very plosive ‘p’ on each word. He explained to us how important it is to pronounce the ‘p’, particularly in the first word. “If you no say the ‘p’, it mean a very bad word: in fact it mean (look away now, mum) ‘fuck’!”.

After a quick orientation walk around the key sites in this compact and laid-back riverside city, we went off to the FCC, the Foreign Correspondents’ Club, for an early evening drink. The FCC is interesting for its fine views over the river, but also for some of the photographs around the place, mainly covering the Pol Pot/Khmer Rouge years – or, at least, the years immediately following the revelations of what the Pol Pot regime had been up to. The Khmer Rouge had closed the borders to all foreigners for some time while it carried out the hideous genocide on its own people – whilst, amazingly, continuing to take its seat in the UN General Assembly. After a good look round the photographs here, we all went off for a meal in the Mith Samlanh restaurant, the original training restaurant set up by Friends International to educate and train street kids, the second of which we’d already visited in Vientiane.

On our first full day here, we’d hoped for a look around the Royal Palace, but it was closed whilst the King took part in a Buddhist ritual to celebrate the 6th anniversary of his accession to the throne. The King, Norodom Sihamoni, is 57 years old but is unmarried and has no children; if this situation does not change soon, apparently the king and the government will have to agree upon a successor from another part of the king’s family. Coincidentally, this is also the year in which his father, former King Norodom Sihanouk, celebrates his 88th birthday, and there were several posters and notices wishing him a happy birthday. Norodom Sihanouk is probably better known in the West. He first acceded to the throne in 1941, while Cambodia was still in French administration. He secured the country’s independence from France in 1953; stepped down from the throne to enter the political arena in 1955 (it was one of his maxims that the king should reign but never govern); became head of state on the death of his father, King Norodom Suramarit, in 1960, was toppled by the Lon Nol government in 1970, spent the Khmer Rouge years under house arrest in the Royal Palace, and finally became the country’s king again when the Pol Pot regime was finally ousted, with help from the Vietnamese army. He abdicated 6 years ago in favour of his son – wonder if Elizabeth and Charles have taken note?

Instead of visiting the Royal Palace, Andy and I took a tuk-tuk tour of the City, visiting, amongst other things, the vast, ochre-yellow coloured, highly domed central market, where I bought a ‘real’ Swatch watch for $3.00.

In the afternoon, the whole group went on a visit to the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek and the genocide museum,formerly the prison where Pol Pot would torture and kill any ‘traitors’ to his version of Maoist communism. First in this category was just about every member of the educated class - indeed wearing glasses was reason enough to be killed - including Nak’s father, who had been a college teacher. Having rid the country of these traitors to the cause, the Khmer Rouge then marched everyone else out of the city - other than their own soldiers - and into the country, to work on the collective farms they’d set up. The regime was incredibly cruel, and most of these 'farmers', though forced into growing rice and crops all year, were starving – thousands to death – and weak most of that time, being allowed only very watery rice porridge once a day. So, for several years, it seems, Phnom Penh was a ghost-city, whilst the rural areas became a slave labour camp. It was another pretty gruelling visit, though less visibly grisly than the exhibits in the War Remnants Museum in HCMC, but a really essential visit for helping to understand what this country has been through.

The Lonely Planet guide has a lovely paragraph which we'd like to quote from: "Despite having Angkor Wat - the eighth wonder of the world - in its backyard, Cambodian's greatest treasure is its people. The Khmers have been to hell and back, but thanks to an unbreakable spirit and infectious optimisim, they have prevailed with their smiles and spirits largely intact".

Back in the city that evening, we were struck by the numbers of VERY large 4-by-4s everywhere – Hummers, Mercedes, BMWs, Lexus - a real contrast to the poverty which surrounds the city. But, as Nak explained, Cambodia is also rife with corruption, and anybody with a government position (which includes many of the former Khmer Rouge (other than the ringleaders, some of whom are about to go on trial in the International Courts, other than Pol pot, who died in the jungle of unknown causes as the Vietnamese liberated the country). The 'foot-soldiers' of this brutal revolution were given an amnesty by the King, soon after the peace accords were drawn up, as a peace and reconciliation attempt to re-build the country.

As we sat for our early evening drink, once again in the FCC, we were thrilled to witness a lovely fireworks display across the river, in honour of the 6th anniversary of the King's coronation. A really good display - but probably no better than Lizzie Harman and her East Hoathly Carnival Society could arrange - perhaps someone should tell her to get up yet another flying charabanc trip, this time to show them over here how it's done!

More soon about out trip tomorrow to Siem Riep and Angkor Wat.

PS: Pictures to follow, in next blog. And by the way, in our previous blog entry, we included a picture incorrectly called ‘Queen in Tuk-Tuk’. This was, of course, ‘Queen in Cyclo’ – that really exciting Cyclo-tour of Saigon that we mentioned in the blog before that. (We do need to be accurate at all times!)