The Horror of the Killing Fields

            WARNING   WARNING    WARNING    WARNING    WARING    WARNING    WARNING

Please be advised that the following blog entry is not to be taken lightly and I will not be offended if you choose not to read it. We all know something of the bloody history of Cambodia and have probably heard of Pol Pot, but nothing prepares you for the horrendous facts of what happened here in the late 70's.

Who knows of Cambodia's bloody history? You may have heard of Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge, the Killing Fields? You may have seen the 1984 Oscar winning movie of the same name - I haven't, but I will be doing so when I get the chance.

I am guessing that you know as much as I did - no specific details, but a vague sense that lots of people died as something bad happened in Cambodia.

Arriving in Phnom Penh, I was extremely blessed to meet a young Swedish couple on the bus from Ho Chi Minh City. What began as a potential night together in the same hotel in the capital turned into eight days of companionship and the start of a lifelong friendship (ask me in a year if we are still in touch and I hope the answer will be yes - particularly if they visit the UK at Christmas or get married and invite me to their wedding!) Travelling together was great in so many ways. It was economical, it was fun, Ida kept us organised and purposeful and it gave us the chance to digest and cope with what we were seeing in Cambodia.

                                          

                                            My fabulous travel companions - Ida and Oliver

Phnom Penh - the Killing Fields. 

The Killing Fields site we visited is one of thousands across Cambodia. Mass graves for the millions of victims for Pol Pot's genocidal regime. Whilst I don't know all the details, I can give you some information. Pol Pot came to power and had an extreme communist vision for a country that was completely self sufficient, rurally based on agriculture and totally obedient to the state. Unfortunately, the educated members of society - the doctors, teachers, lawyers and even senior member of the previous government and military saw the folly of such a policy - a policy that would take Cambodia back into the Dark Ages. They therefore had to be eliminated to ensure they did not sew and spread dissent, challenge the new policies or raise objections. Pol Pot's maxims were chillingly deadly: "better to kill one innocent victim - than to allow one enemy of the state to go free." "To remove a weed effectively, one must remove all of the roots" - a policy which meant that when an individual was arrested, all the family members would be rounded up too. The regime would then torture those arrested until they secured 'confessions'.

                       

                                                       The tomb of skulls and the museum

                           

                     Such a scenic landscape and a burial pit filled with friendship bracelets

Over the years (from 1975 to 1979) the number of victims from Pol Pot's policy grew. The execution of 10's per day turned into 100's and then 1000's, hence the need for specific killing field sites to handle, process and despatch the victims and then promptly dispose of their bodies. 

Eventually, it was enough to have soft hands to be arrested and executed. I think about my soft hands, my ability to speak other languages (however badly) the fact that I am a teacher with a degree and I know that I would have been one of the first to be arrested, along with all my family, my cousins, nephews, nieces, uncles and aunties. Worse still - what if I was not educated? What if I was a worker who swallowed Pol Pot's vision or (even more alarming) what if I didn't follow or agree with it, but was afraid I would be seen as a traitor or enemy of the state myself? I may have ended up being someone who tortured and accused others - desperate to be seen supporting the Pol Pot regime in fear for my own life? 33% of the population were exterminated in just 5 years, many murdered, but a great number dying as a result of starvation, unable to support and provide for themselves when forced to live off the land. That is why these events are often referred to as the Cambodian Holocaust. 

Pol Pot's regime was eventually toppled when neighbour and former ally Vietnam invaded, leaving Cambodia under Vietnamese occupation for over a decade and only adding to the misery of the Cambodians. 

Even when the Vietnamese finally left, and a time of healing finally arrived - how do you rebuild a country when one third of your total population has been murdered? Some 3 million adults and children from a total population of 8.4 million? When all of the educated and skilled citizens have been killed? When those who took any chance they could to escape to other countries failed to return?

The Killing Fields museum and memorial is a reminder of these atrocities. It stands, not just for Cambodia, but for a world which has already witnessed multiple genocides in it's history and will no doubt witness more. It is a peaceful and serene area, filled with birdsong, a lake, flowers, trees and natural beauty. But it is also a truly horrific place. Exposed pits mark the burial sites of mass graves and everywhere you tread - you are walking on the dead. Human bones and items of clothing are constantly being exposed as visitor feet, erosion and rain force the earth to give up the bodies. In the central chamber, thousands of skulls and bones are arranged by gender and age, the manner of their death all too visible, with splits, cracks and holes evidencing the variety of weapons used.

    

    

Tuol Sleung Prison

If the Killing Fields were bad, I was still unprepared what lay ahead at the prison. Tuol Sleung was a secondary school built in the late 1950's. A place for learning for the local teenagers of Phnom Penh. It's conversion into a place of torture and death offended and upset me enormously. 

    

I walked through classrooms which still had blackboards mounted on the walls (one with discernible writing in chalk.) An outdoor frame, used for gymnastics and climbing, had been converted into a gallows. The rooms were filled with photos of some of the thousands of prisoners detained and eventually executed (for the record keeping of Pol Pot's regime meticulously catalogued names and details alongside images.) Evidence of extreme forms of torture were present and the living conditions for the prisoners were clearly awful.

                   

I am relieved the government did not attempt to return this building to it's original purpose. Instead they have preserved it in it's entirety - a stark record of man's inhumanity to man. Visitors from around the world tour the site daily, silently examining the horrific evidence with their own eyes. Some shed tears and all are speechless, as they move from room to room, passing increasingly tiny cells, barb wire barriers and candid photographs of tortured victims.

                   

Do I recommend you visit? Yes.

Will it be a significant challenge to do so? Yes

But the dignity and detail with which the audio tour guides you around the Killing Field is phenomenal.

The photographs of the victims at Tuol Sleung help you appreciate that the genocide statistics are more than simply numbers.

And it may just help prevent future generations from repeating this atrocity again.

    

                                                         

                              Artwork produced by a school child visiting the prison this year.

Vietnamese Thoughts and Facts

I felt extremely sad to be leaving Vietnam after nearly five weeks. I had been ignorant of much of Vietnam's history and unsure about what I'd find from this country when I included it in my initial travel plans, but it certainly exceeded any expectations I might have had. The week's 'holiday' in Phu Quoc was the icing on the cake for a country I feel I really got to know and love.

Ha Long Bay feels like something I did months ago, and I still see flashback images in my mind from the stunning scenery there. My road trip south from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh was an epic adventure in it's own right and one of which I am proud to have completed. Better still it gave me the chance to meet people in places Westerners seldom tread, finding friendship and help when I needed it, whilst learning something of the remarkable history of this country as I went.

     

I've enjoyed the food, the prices, the people, the smiles, the landscape, the coast, the mountains, the temperature (sorry to all those in the wintry UK!), the diving, the exploration and the discovery.

Thank you Vietnam. I do not know how you manage to be so happy, positive and welcoming when I consider your bloody history. Chinese, Japanese, Cambodian and French attempts to subjugate you, the immense consequences of a superpower conflict fought on Vietnamese soil (as communist Russia battled with Capitalist America) interefering with and fuelling a North/South civil war in the process.

             

    

You are a young nation with a young people, but I pray that you do not grow old and cynical. Resist  and challenge corruption wherever you find it, be it in the rapidly growing tourist industry or in the workings of the government. And make sure that all the lessons you have learned from centuries of conflict help you to continually strive for peace within your own borders and with your neighbours.

      

                                                                         A Huey stationed on top of the palace in Saigon

On Phu Quoc I was abe to dive for fun after completing my Rescue Diver training and I loved the abundance of coral and aquatic life I encountered at Turtle Island and Nail Island in the south. Better still was the fact that I made new friends in the process. I met Jana-Maria diving and was able to visit her when I returned to HCM the day she flew back to Germany (a timely date as she had been ill with food poisoning from a dodgy tuna sandwich and I was able to deliver a supply of rehyrdation sachets, Imodium, a plain breadroll and some lemonade.) Meanwhile, Karene, who I met during my last day diving, has offered to be my guide for a day when I reach her home city of Melbourne next week. 

I was also able to put to bed my motorcycle anxiety which had developed in HCM, by hiring a moped for a day's riding (I paid $10 to the hotel manager and borrowed his!) and proceeded to ride the length of the island. Phu Quoc is only 55kms long, but I managed to clock up 130kms and rode some interesting jungle and coastal roads in the process.

    

  

                                                

                                        A short video from my day riding on Phu Quoc

Vietnamese Factoids:-

#  85% of the people are Buddhist

    

#  8% are Catholic

                    

#  Vietnam is a Communist country (with a one-sided account of the 'American War" as a result!)

#  It is a nation of coffee drinkers (though they like it with sugar and condensed milk - either hot or iced)

#  Vietnam is filled with Russian tourists

#  Agent Orange victims are evident everywhere (a powerful mixture of chemical defoliants used by US military forces during the Vietnam War to eliminate forest cover for North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops, as well as crops that might be used to feed them)

#  Motorbikes are everywhere (eg Ho Chi Minh population 11 million people - number of motorbikes in HCM 7.5 million)

     

#  Many Southerners still refer to HCM as Saigon (the name of the river which flows through the centre) but the Northerners never do

#  The signs of French colonial presence is everywhere - from the architecture to the bakeries, street names to ice cream

#  The language is a bitch - a single word can be spelt the same, but pronounced in 6 different ways to mean 6 different things depending on the stress and accent placed on key letters

#  Vietnamese are a very capitalist people with regards to industry and private entrepreneurs 

#  The poorest people live rurally (and they certainly work the hardest)

    

#  Men and women work equally hard at all jobs (and you will often see women labouring on building sites and in road construction)

#  The classic Vietnamese hats are still worn, but predominantly by older women

#  Crossing the road is an art

#  Old people who predate the war are rare, particularly those who fought against the communists, only 4% of them remain to make up the current population still living in Vietnam - the others died in the conflict or left the country to live in other parts of SE Asia or the US when the South 'lost'

Cheers Vietnam - you were great!

Paul

            

Diving in Paradise - Phu Quoc

With the disappointment of not being able to dive at Nha Trang, due to poor visibility and stormy weather, I investigated a little known island off the coast of Vietnam after overhearing a conversation in a bar from one young traveller to another. I decided it was time I had a holiday!

                     

Hands up if you've heard of Phu Quoc? Exactly. Everyone has heard of the Thai islands which litter the Gulf of Thailand (Phuket, Ko Samui, Ko Tao etc), but no-one knows that Vietnam has an island in the Gulf too.

This place is a (relatively undiscovered jewel). It enjoys wonderful weather for most of the year, has a population of 40,000 Vietnamese inhabitants (but growing rapidly) and a handful of international residents. It is also home to the best diving in Vietnam. I looked online and after checking out a number of reviews decided on Flipper Diving in the market town of Duong Dong. 

What a good choice.

                                         

I contemplated simply booking a day or two of diving, but after checking out their dive courses thought that instead I should pursue my next qualification. I reasoned it was not only time for me to take my diving further, but a training course would be a good challenge mentally and physically and it wouldn't cost that much more than a regular dive. I also knew that I would feel a greater connection with the dive school staff and my fellow divers, if I was involved in a training programme, as opposed to simply going out for a day of diving.

Another good choice.

The course was excellent. PADI Rescue Diver really makes you think about other people as you dive and not just yourself; yet at the same time it makes you consider your own level of dive readiness and stops you becoming a 'dive passenger', dependent upon others.

My course lasted three days and began with a classroom dvd session. I was training with Lisa, from Denmark, and we got on like a house on fire, laughing more than we should and forming a close friendship that I know will continue well into the future. We had to create an Emergency Dive Action Plan, research international recompression facilities, find out about the dive support organisation DAN, track down emergency service numbers and create a script in the event of a diving emergency. The afternoon was spent with Edgars and Dan (two fellow Rescue Diver trainees) and our South African instructor Megan. We spent it off the beach at Duong Dong, trying out surface and shallow rescue exercises and discussing possible scenarios. With a merciless sun beating down, I was soon bright red despite my factor 70 war paint, as two and a half hours bobbing on the surface and just below was perfect for burning! We took home our 213 page Rescue Diver manuals and a 10 page quiz and were told we'd be picked up early the next morning. 

    

                               Horrible beaches to deal with on this island as you can see!

    

I spent some time with Lisa back at the dive centre, studying the quiz and textbook, but we only managed to complete the first two pages in an hour before going our separate ways - I realised it would be a long night!

    

                    Me and my fabulous buddy Lisa and getting to grips with my homework!

Day two was all practical and a 90 minute boat trip soon had us at our first dive location. We would be practising entry and exit techniques and rescue procedures for surface divers in trouble. I buddied with Lisa and we persevered and encouraged one another as we tried to master the skills and remember the rules. Fortunately, the four of us were getting on wonderfully and Megan had a degree of patience and enthusiasm that was a pleasure to experience. She loves diving and every day she counts her blessings as she gets to work in the water. Her eyes were vibrant with humour, enjoyment and not a little 'minxiness' as she contemplated ways to stretch our team with 'real life' accidents and emergencies - courtesy of her dive master colleagues on board the boat. We had no sooner clambered on board after our first training session when 7 people were 'suddenly' in the water in various stages of distress and need! We were terrible as we forgot most of all we'd been taught and independently tried to rescue everyone! When we de-briefed afterwards, Megan said she had seen a lot worse, but I don't know how many of the 7 would have survived our efforts to rescue them and bring them back onto the boat!

    

Dive two was all about underwater exercises and we all had the chance to lose consciousness underwater (not literally) and be rescued by our buddies. Lisa and I did our best not to drown one another, but when we reached the surface it was so choppy it was very hard to deliver rescue breaths without swallowing sea water. The levels of laughing (and choking) grew throughout the session and Megan sat there on a life ring laughing the loudest (though actually rather pleased and impressed with our collective efforts.) We also learned how to search for a missing diver, practising a range of search patterns using an underwater compass whilst we counted fin cycles (leg kicks.) Despite great incompetence in our team, Lisa and I passed (though afterwards we decided that we were so focussed on the compass, counting our kicks and maintaining a correct bearing, that we would have swum right over a 'lost diver' and not seen them!)

               

                               Planning our next exercise

Day three saw us head North for 3 hours. Today would be a mixture of exercises on the surface, rescuing underwater victims and dealing with yet more 'real life accidents and emergencies' courtesy of a dive team who were really getting into the swing of teasing and challenging our Rescue group! I had just removed my equipment when 5 divers found themselves in trouble. I grabbed a tank, fins, mask and weight-belt and went in to get the tall guy splashing in clear distress furthest from the boat. Of course I didn't stop to check if my tank was secure and my releases were all clipped in correctly! 

When I reached my victim, he promptly tried to drown me in his desperation to get out of the water, so I submerged, came up behind him and filled my buoyancy jacket and tried to fill his. So far so good, but he had disconnected his inflator hose and after I had calmed him and began to take him back to the boat with one of the tow methods we had been taught, he promptly sank, choked and became hysterical again! Meanwhile the swell, which had been growing all morning, soon had us moving away from our boat and straight into the hull of a nearby fishing vessel. I was exhausted by now trying to keep us both afloat and if it wasn't for my timely grab of the anchor line, we may have collided with the boat. I hung on for dear life and yelled to my rescue colleagues on the boat to come and help and to not just sit there laughing and congratulating themselves for rescuing the other four victims!

              

   The fishing boat I had to avoid with my victim               Megan telling us how well we had done!

Our second dive was more relaxed. Megan was more than impressed with our progress and efforts and whilst she threw in a number of challenges for us to deal with, she was also keen that we would see some fish and coral. I spent the dive watching her like a hawk, stopping her from bolting to the surface when she 'ran out of air' and having to play dead at one point for the others to rescue. I was unable to enjoy the dive though, as my mind was on the theory test I still had to complete. Back on the boat, Megan told us we were outstanding and that she had thoroughly enjoyed teaching us; complementing our efforts, our genuine success and our progress. 

We got back to the harbour after 5.00pm and I arranged to go back to the dive centre to sit my test later that evening. 

For three days I had studied hard. I had read the book, had asked questions and listened fully, completed my homework and even had time to revise with Lisa on day two and Edgars on day three (who had both asked if they could practice their theory with me.) Megan said the test would take no more than an hour and she left me to it. 15 minutes later I finished. Concerned I had missed something I signalled Megan over. She was as surprised as me, but said I had no more to do, was I happy for her to mark it? 50 questions and 50 answers. I agreed and held my breath. 

I made only one mistake! 98%. The other dive leaders in the shop congratulated me when they heard I'd passed and then teased me when they heard the result. I am sure the un-PC phrase "girlie swat" was uttered!

               

So I am now a PADI certified Rescue Diver to add to my Open Water and Advanced Open Water qualifications. I should have done this course years ago and would thoroughly recommend it to all divers. I managed to save myself $140 courtesy of the first aid training I had done back at school in October 2013, as it meant I didn't have to take an extra day completing that element of the training - so many thanks Mablins Lane! 

I want to thank Lisa, for being such an excellent buddy and friend (I know we shall keep in touch), Edgars and Dan for making the team so interesting and fun, but most importantly Megan, for being such a great teacher. She is a wonderful example of someone who is clearly doing the right job (one they absolutely love) and you can see that enthusiasm in her eyes. 

    

And by the way - don't tell anyone else about Phu Quoc - let's keep it our Vietnamese secret. Just make sure if you ever get out this way - you take time to visit this 50km strip of paradise.

Paul