It's a holiday in Cambodia

No, really, I’m not just quoting the song (thanks though, brothers). I’d come prepared to work a full week, only to discover that Monday was their Independence Day (from France in 1953). Cambodia has 29 national holidays a year, more than any other country. So many, in fact, that apparently most offices choose which ones to actually let their staff take off. I was actually rather grateful; as it meant I could spend the day being the tourist I’d meant to over the weekend.

My overall plan was to shop before it got too hot and then focus on Cambodia’s history, beginning with the worst and ending with the best. I returned to the Russian Market, so nicknamed because that’s where all the Russians used to shop. Oddly enough, I didn’t see a single one while I was there. Instead, I attempted to navigate an indoor maze of narrow stalls selling all sorts of things and generally grouped by type. From raw fish to doorknobs to silk scarves to the latest movie, you can find it all there. It was daunting to stare at literal heaps of clothes and stacks of scarves, but also fun to see all the colors and textures. And I’m happy to say I’m getting a little better at bargaining, or at least more comfortable with it, but I still prefer set prices.

From there I went to S-21, a public school that the Khmer Rouge transformed into a place of torture and imprisonment. I’m never in the mood for such tragic scenes, but I also knew it was vital to learn about if I was going to understand why Cambodia is the way I see it now. It was downright eerie to step into rooms that still had bloodstains on the tiles and to stare at the hundreds of portraits they took of their prisoners when they were brought in. Their victims were every age, male and female, and even babies. It was so tragic, but also baffling to see what Pol Pot wanted to achieve and how he attempted to do so. Tearing families apart, forcing strangers to marry only to separate them, killing the intellectuals and from there expanding the circle to anyone he saw as a threat (including members of his own party), clearing the cities and forcing people to slave in fields, burning all the money in the national bank, and by the end of the horror, cutting the country’s population to less than half. The reason I’ve seen so many new buildings is because they probably replaced a building that’d been destroyed, and anyone my age or older was directly impacted by this nightmare and lost at least one member of their family. From there I followed the path their victims took and briefly visited the Killing Fields outside the city. My guide lost all of his family during the regime, and returned here in the 1980s to help with uncovering the mass graves. Personally, I can’t imagine the psychological impact of working there every day, but I’m grateful he did and was willing to share. He kept encouraging me to take pictures, but I can’t say it’s really something I want to dwell on. They’ve kept much of it as they found it, with teeth and pieces of bone and victim’s clothing all around, and signs describing what awful things took place there.

After that I was ready to focus on the positive, starting with the National Museum. It had an impressive collection of ancient sculpture, but I must admit I’m still struggling to distinguish a statue of Vishnu versus Shiva, let alone what time period it’s from or style it’s in. I wondered how these survived the Khmer Rouge since they’d destroyed so much, and the answer is that it was also affected. Some pieces were damaged, and others were looted and sold overseas as art (they had a bulletin board showing examples of art that’s been returned from abroad in recent years).

My last stop of the day was the National Palace. It’s actually a large complex, and because the king still lives there much of it is off limits. The buildings that were open to the public, though, were so beautiful! Lots of beautiful, colorful, and shiny objects abound throughout. Some of the pieces inside were as valuable for their impressive workmanship as the precious materials, and on the whole it felt both regal and exotic. It reminded me that as awful and relevant as the Khmer Rouge era was, there's so much more to their culture.

Monday was the first day of my trip when my mind wasn’t solely focused on experiencing my current location, though. Instead, I kept thinking about Berlin and the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. I remembered in 1989, when my mom brought German Chocolate cupcakes to my classroom and explained the significance of the event to our family. And with Deutsche Welle available in my hotel room, it was hard to pull myself away from their live coverage from the Brandenburg Gate. With the time difference this made for a very late night, but also an uplifting end to an emotional day. Watching the history of it made me realize what an unexpected event it was and how quickly it happened, making it all the more wonderful in its spontaneity and making a similar birth of freedom elsewhere seem possible when you least expect it. Seeing the lack of freedom they’ve had here and elsewhere in the world makes me realize how much I take my own freedom for granted. Speaking of freedom, I was also celebrating the safe return of my friend, Hani, to the US after over 4 months in Gaza. Only the first month was by choice, and watching his situation unfold in contrast to this adventure made me realize that freedom of travel is also a blessing I shouldn’t take for granted.