Photos

ok, let me describe shortly my experience about my first 2 days in Cambodia and the visits of S21 and the killing fields. I hope it won't be too boring.

First, I crossed the border Vietnam-Cambodia on the Mékong, by boat. I immediatly thought that Cambodians were absolutely amazing! I was on the boat, getting up the Mékong, and everyone (Yes, everyone!) waved and smile at us as we passed. Those people seemed incredibly happy, joyful. I could witness the poverty, the hard work, their conditions of living...

Then, we arrived in the capital of Cambodia, Phnom Penh (Phnom is pronounced as if there was no h:Pnom). There again, all I could see, at first, was the smiles and the peoples who seemed so happy. But then I realized some things. First, there were big walls around the yard of every house/habitation/hotel with barbed wires or broken glass at the top of them, which was a HUGE difference from what I had observed in Vietnam where everything was wide open. And I saw the huge gap between those rare people driving Ferrari, Lexus, Hummer, etc... and the rest of the population, which seemed rather poor (but still distributing smiles freely). Why is there such a huge gap between the rich and poor in a country that's struggling to survive after long and desastrous tragedies? Asking the question is answering it...:S

Then, I went to dinner, it was a friend of ours birthday. We went to dinner in a restaurant, that's also an orphanage and that gives money to kids in need, providing shelter, etc...At a moment, all the kids came out to sing happy birthday to our friend. Well, it was a khmer song and we could not understand a word, but it was incredibly merry and the young singers seemed to enjoy it just as much as us.

Then a short Tùk-tùk ride to a small bar where we took a couple beers...then tùk-tùk to go home. But on the way, we got hit by this Camry...we flew across the tuk-tuk, falled on the ground, heads hit the soil...lost momentarily conscience of what was happening. It was scary, really. Of course the Camry driver did not even slow down and ran away. A crowd gathered around us, just watching, not helping. The tuk-tuk driver disappeared, leaving his tuk-tuk there. Police arrived rather quickly but was kind of laughing. They were not speaking english, but from what we understood, they said something like:ok, no one's dead, save us some work and go to bed. which we did.

The early morning after, after a short and disturbing sleep, we went to visit s-21. S-21 was a school, situated in the heart of the capital. But under the Khmer Rouge regime, it became a death machine. There, between 1976 and 1979 about 17 000 people were tortured, interrogated and finally killed. Records say that only 7 persons survived this place, 3 of which are still alive today. Honestly, I found it disturbing. More than pretty much anything I experienced in my easygoing life. I won't describe the whole visit, it has to be lived to be able to understand. People who care seeing the guidelines the prisoners had to obey, see this
you can also see some "interesting" pics from s21 here

Then, we took the bus to go to the killing fields, where more people were killed. today, it's just a memorial, but during the Khmer Rouge regime, it was a field where people were buried in mas graves. People were coming either dead from S-21, or alive and killed here. Rain had poured quite hard int he morning, and bones were coming out of the soil where we were walking. Bones, clothes, teeth...just imagine the drama and the mood out there. In the middle is a stupa filled up with skulls that were found in the mass graves, adding to the horror. Imagining is something, but seeing is something else.

Then, back on the touristic bus with some horrific thoughts in mind. On the way, we passed by those people that you see on the photo. They brought me back to earth. They seemed so happy to just be there, on the truck, going to work, no shoes, smiles on, proud, alive. Life seemed to simple. Hard, but simple. They seemed as if they had forgotten about Pol Pot's genocide, ready to move on, ready to rebuild this country all over again, while me, I was totally plunged into the atrocity. They had both feet in, and they did not seem to care, while me, who could just fly away in the next plane, was astonished.
Cambodians are young and strong and ready to move on, that's what I understood that day.

Lats and long have been implemented, killing fields are a couple km down south, on the right of this same street. S-21 is downtown Phnom Penh

I think it looks really fine in black and white. Take a look at the workshop and let me know what you think!