Khmer Kitsch

In every city, there is always a tourist area. Most people strive to get out of these areas to find the 'real' Vietnam or the 'real' Cambodia. Tours for example publicise trips that show you culture and a true experience. Contrary to this retoric, I have found that I quite enjoy the 'touristy' places. Phnom Penh has a lovely strip of resteraunts, bars and a few sights (wats and a museum) near the water that give off a calm and relaxing vibe. This was in stark contrast to where I stayed in the centre, which incidently was dirty, hot and crammed with stores that sell cheap crap. Regardless of these conflicting images of Cambodia's capital, overall I found that I enjoyed my first experience with the Khmer culture.

One of the biggest draws to Phnom Penh is a trip to the killing fields. It cost $7 for a tuk tuk for the day to take the two of us to the sight (15kms) of one of the biggest genocides in the world, certainly in the history of Cambodia. It is important to visit the museum before wandering through the 86 unearthed mass graves as it explains the history of Pol Pot's regime and the civil war from 1975 to 1975 (including the more recent war crimes tribunal). The monument built for all the bodies is quite a moving tribute as the multitude of tears can move one to tears. As it is also Cambodian new years at the moment, our trip to the killing fields was serenaded by the chanting of about 10 monks eching across the graveyard. It was almost hypnotic. This visit rekindled my interest in psychological 'archeology' – this is my idea of research in to answering the question of how and why one group or one person can do this to another. I'd love to sift through history and discover the multitude of motivations for cruelty, genocide and barbarism.

Our tuk tuk driver also took us to the national museum. I do recommend this to anyone visiting Cambodia, as it has some quite interesting sculptures and very vividly describes the history/culture of the Khmer people. Cambodian food is also a vast improvement on Vietnam cuisine and I can recommend the Pink Elephant on the riverfront to anyone wanting cheap and very decent faire.  There is also a multitude of 'happy' pizza places just in case you aren't enjoying yourself enough yet.