My Travelling Experience To Southeast Asia

One of the things I love to do is to travel. It does not matter whether it is inside or outside the country. For me, traveling is the best way to escape life's problems and recharge my emotional batteries. Just take off and get far out of town as possible.

I love to travel because it gives a sense of adventure and freedom. It allows us to get away from "normal" life, experience other cultures, to get to know places we have only seen in movies. We get to try new food and meet new people. – Aleksandra Ka

Allow me to share my experience when I was travelling in Southeast Asia - Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand

For today's post, I will tell you about my experience in Cambodia.

Cambodia is a country known for its archaeological park, Angkor Wat Temple which gazetted as the UNESCO World Heritage site in 1992. But did you know, Cambodia was in the dark days during the brutal regime of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge?

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DAY 1

When we set foot for the first time in Phnom Penh, we were we were greeted by our tour guide, Rith, and drove us to Frangipani hotel for check in. He then brings us to Wat Phnom - the tallest Buddhist Temple in the city center.

Main stairway leading to the Pagoda.

Inner view

We did not spend much time there. So, Rith took us across the waterfront with cycle rickshaw. After lunch, he brought us to Silver Pagoda which is locally known as the Temple of the Emerald-Crystal Buddha.

We did not get the opportunity to enter the temple since it was too crowded with people taking pictures of the Emerald Buddha. Instead, we spend more time outside of the temple.

@danieldoughty testing his photography skill

He was proud with this photo

For dinner, we had a street food as our main option. We love street food so much because we enjoyed being outdoors, it’s inexpensive and it’s a way to experience the culture.

The cook is preparing our food

While waiting, we had a so-called salad for appetizer with sour dipping sauce

DAY 2

Today, we are going to Tuol Sleng, the Genocide Museum S21. Tuol Sleng was originally a high school. It was then converted to a prison known as Security Prison 21 or S21 when Khmer Rouge took over the country in 1975 and it become the largest detention and torture center in Cambodia.

Each class was turned either into prisoner's cell or interrogation's rooms

The barbed wire was put in place to keep prisoners from escaping and throwing themselves off the balconies

Security regulation in S21

Listening more heartbreaking history from our tour guide

Pictures of victims of S21

Some of the victims are children

Rith then brought us to the Killing Field in Cheung Ek village where they transported prisoners from S21 to be murdered. According to Rith, within 2 or 3 times a week, 50 up to hundreds of people including women, children and even babies were killed by the Khmer Rouge army and dumped their bodies in mass graves. To prevent villagers from hearing cries and moans from the victims, the Khmer Rouge army will be putting up a loud music through a large speaker which suspended on a tree.

Next, we went to the Memorial Stupa which was built to commemorate the genocide.The stupa has acrylic glass sides and filled with more than 5,000 human skulls exhumed from the mass graves.

Going through this experiences as a tourist in Cambodia, it is impactful and profound. It was more of an emotional tour than a historical tour, the history of Cambodia is less interesting to us compare to the emotional journey that I experience.

Because of the Pol Pot era is still considered new and many of those brutal soldiers were not caught and punish, they end up in hiding. When the reconciliation process happen , all of them mixed back into the society.

Those that did all the killing kept silence on their participation in Pol Pot's killing spree.

It was a truly learned and unforgettable experience being in Cambodia. I am wondering how Cambodian is able to move on from Pol Pot's tragedy , and continue on as a peaceful country.

I also learned through an old man (one of the survivor) who have written a book about the Cambodian genocide. When ask on how he was able move on from the tragedy, he said the only thing he can do now, is to share the stories of Pol Pot brutal era and remind the new generation that peace is everything.

We left Cambodia the next day and will be traveling to Siem Reap for Angkor Wat. I will tell you more about my experience visiting Siem Reap on my next post.

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