Express Buzz Aditya SinhaFirst
Published : 05 Apr 2009
A recent holiday to Cambodia stunned me. Twice. Once was at the main temple of Angkor Wat, the 12th century Khmer civilisation temple complex, but not at the first glimpse from across the moat; not while walking towards the temple and watching it grow from a panoramic postcard into a giant 3-D temple that breathed and swallowed me in; not inside the temple peering at the magnificent towers based on south Indian architecture, or at the bas-relief wall carvings of the Ramayana and Mahabharata that run the length of the temple; no, what was stunning was how the temple’s colour changed as the Sun moved down the sky. The temple was like a liquid kaleidoscope, comprising a variety of grayish-green, in some places more mauve, in some places more brown, and in some places more purple. Late afternoon is the best time to sprawl on the lawns and gaze at the temple.
The other stunner was S-21. It is in downtown Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s
capital, 325 km from Angkor Wat (which is just outside of Siem Reap town). S-21 is a high school that was turned into an
interrogation centre by Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge regime (1975-79). About 17,000 people were interrogated there; only 12 are known to have survived. Pol Pot killed about 1.5 million Cambodians during his reign; the total population when he took over was 7.5 million.
S-21 is as it was. It is now called the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. The torture devices that leave nothing to imagination; the bleak rooms containing only the torture bed; and outside, the pillar from which suspects were hung upside down and
immersed in vats of water — it’s shocking, but nothing compared to the rows and rows of photographs of the now-dead inmates. Pol Pot’s regime was so administratively inept that when the 1979 Vietnamese invasion reached Phnom Penh, no one ordered the destruction of records. So you have large photos of men, women, and yes, children; killed as enemies of the people. The moment that stunned me was seeing, in the corner of the photo of a woman suspect, the small hand of a child reaching out.
On a topical note: The man who ran S-21, Kaing Guek Eav, known as Duch, is now facing justice; his case came up before the UN-assisted genocide tribunal on February 16, and after procedure matters, the trial began last Monday.
So this was a holiday where I saw the apogee of a civilisation, and the horrific depth to which it can plummet. Some of the tortures of S-21 can be seen in the bas-relief wall carvings at Angkor Wat, in the battle scenes of the Mahabharata or in the depiction of 32 hells of Hindu mythology. Angkor Wat is perhaps a bitter reminder to the Khmer people of paradise lost. Or perhaps brutality is in the Khmer DNA, manifest both in glorious times as well as during ignominy. I tried to find out in a recent book, Pol Pot: The History of a Nightmare by Philip Short, but all that this exhausting, detail-heavy book (that I would not have finished had I not so enjoyed my holiday) did was sadden me on behalf of the Khmers.
So visit Cambodia, and visit both Phnom Penh and Angkor Wat. Phnom Penh resembles a population-depleted Patna, but then the splendor of the royal palace and the Silver Pagoda, and the French-style sidewalk cafés on the riverfront take you to a different world, a world of the last century that may soon be lost to urban change and economic growth. While there, spend an afternoon at S-21. Do not fret that it may be depressing.
Angkor Wat, frankly, is not for the elderly or for children; it is for people who don’t mind walking a lot (which might rule out most Indians). It is about four hours from Phnom Penh by boat up the Tonle Sap river and beyond the Great Lake (where Pol Pot, who as a revolutionary once tried to cross the country on an elephant, got lost for three days), but the guides dissuaded us from boating up,
saying that four hours was too long to be in the sun, even in early January; by road it is about five hours; by air 35 minutes. But once you are there, time loses all meaning; the magnificence of this Khmer creation is timeless.
The place is sprawling and you could spend a lot of time based in Siem Reap. My favourite places are the two Khmer
ancient capitals, Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom. Angkor Thom has a causeway across the moat which is lined with devas on one side and asuras on the other; on the entry gate and at the main Bayon temple are giant stone faces looking in all four directions (which I first thought was inspired by Brahma, but might have been inspired by King Jayavarman, who constructed it, or the Buddha, who was worshipped here); and in the complex lies the awe-inspiring unrestored temple at Ta Prohm, overrun by giant silk trees, reminiscent of the Indiana Jones films and used as a location for Angelina Jolie’s Tomb Raider film.
Cambodia’s other highlight is the thing that is common to the highs and lows of any civilisation: its food. We discovered fish Amok, a coconut-curry sauce distinct from anything the Thai can throw at you, and which goes well with beer; also Khmer roast pork, which, unsurprisingly, also goes well with beer. Delicious. What I did not try (a sign of my age, or a sign of my not having had enough beer) were the delicacies at Phnom Penh’s central market: fried snake, fried spider, fried beetles and boiled fertilised duck egg. My wife, helpful as always, ‘egged’ me on: “Come on, try it!” Remind me to change my insurance beneficiary.
Flying to Cambodia is not a problem as the Thais (who along with the Vietnamese are the Khmer’s traditional enemy), dominate the air routes. You can fly from Bangkok to either Siem Reap or Phnom Penh, any day of the week. Visa is on arrival for $ 25. There’s a departure tax of $ 25. Dollars are the de facto currency for tourists, so Cambodia is not cheap like Thailand, or, as we overheard some Europeans complain to a monk (of all people), like Vietnam and Laos. Be prepared to spend. It will be well worth it.
— editorchief@epmltd.com
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