Taming Phnom Penh and progress at the MHCD

COUNTRY: Cambodia
PROGRAM: UniBreak Groups
PROJECT: Education
WRITTEN BY: James Cook University

What a weekend! After a busy week of meet and greets, orientating ourselves to Siem Reap and the MHDC, we decided to top it off with a trip to Phnom Penh! Phnom Penh is the capital of Cambodia, only 312km away from Siem Reap, but a very long 6 hour bus trip away due to the rough roads we travel on. We left Jasmine Lodge at 6:30am on Friday and commenced our long journey to the capital, arriving at 2pm that afternoon. It’s funny how quickly you realize the value of your in-country guides when they aren’t around, Dayvy would have been very helpful to have in Phnom Penh – thankfully we did manage though! She had already booked us a hotel so we made our way straight there to quickly drop our bags (and rejoice about having air conditioner – what a luxury!) so that we would have some time to see the city before sunset.

The team started trekking and we soon found ourselves at the palace of Cambodia’s royal family. Sadly we were too late to see the inside, however the view from outside was still quite spectacular – the architecture is very grand and intricate, nothing like you would see back home! Our group then split in two – one group went on a tuk tuk tour of Phnom Penh’s sites, while the other went to a small boutique called ‘Daughters of Cambodia’, which is an organization set up to raise funds and awareness about sex trafficking of Cambodian women.

Daughters of Cambodia features a small retail shop with items handmade by women who had escaped a grim future in sex trafficking, as well as a coffee shop and massage parlour behind the retail store. While one group was being pampered, the other group was braving some very rough weather in a tuk tuk to see sights such as the palace, the Australian Embassy, the Prime Ministers house – basically all the landmarks that Phnom Penh has to offer! Finally we all met up at the markets to do some shopping and have a bite to eat before heading back to the hotel for bed.



On Saturday we all woke up early to prepare for a big day of Cambodian historical sightseeing. We left the hotel and headed straight for The Killing Fields, which was about twenty minutes away from our accommodation. After taking control of Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge implemented their scheme of abolishing the educated class and eradicating people from their cities and villages into the countryside to work.

During this process, Cambodian people who did not fit within Pol Pots scheme were taken to places such as the killing fields to be executed and buried in mass graves. Their terrible fate now plays an important role in educating people about Cambodian history, and preventing such severe devastation from re-occuring in the future. Conflict in the country was visibly very recent – artefacts were presented in a very raw and authentic manner, and evidence of the horrific events that occurred at the Killing Fields surrounded us.

We were able to navigate around with individual audio tours that provided information about previous structures and methods that existed there, as well as stories from people involved. Victims unearthed clothing and bones were concealed behind two large glass cases as there was just too much to display individually. While walking around, we encountered an unearthed adult jaw lodged in the dirt of the walkway, which really emphasized the fact that this terror was so recent and the genocide was so severe that caretakers simply cannot keep up with the amount of new artefacts that unearth.

It is a very surreal feeling to be walking around a place that seems so peaceful and well maintained while hearing about the unending terror that occurred there for so many years, and for so many people. The last area of the tour was a large tribute to the lives lost during the rule of the Khmer Rouge which held 17 levels of skulls found within the Killing Fields. Visitors were able to enter the building to lay flowers, light incense and pay their respects to the thousands of lives lost not only at the Killing Fields, but all across Cambodia.

The team then visited the S21 Museum, which was once a high school in Phnom Penh that was converted to a detention facility during the rule of the Khmer Rouge. There were four large concrete buildings that served a variety of purposes during this period, all of which are still very evident when walking through the Museum today. Building A was used for large holding rooms to accommodate the ex-government personnel for interrogation – the rooms had one small bed in the centre of the room and nothing else other that torture tools.

All of which remained in their original state in the holding rooms, now accompanied by images of Cambodian people being held or tortured. As gruesome as this may sound, it was unfortunately far from the worst we saw. Moving on to the next building, we entered the first room and were confronted by walls and walls of the faces of Cambodian men and women – all of whom had been killed or captured by the Khmer Rouge. Sadly this was not the end, an additional 6 rooms followed, filled with the exact same thing – an endless array of innocent faces that were uprooted from their lives and thrown into chaos in one way of another.

Building C was one which we all agreed had made us feel physically sick – externally the front of the building was covered by thick, rusted barbed wire to prevent any detainees from escaping. The first floor was made up of brick cells, no bigger that 1m x 1m, hardly room to lie down. The next floor was the exact same, however the cells were made of timber instead of brick. We were able to walk in and out of the very same cells where the faces we had just seen had been held. The final building at the Museum was filled with torture artefacts, victim stories and horrific images, as well as a small area to light some incense and pay respect to the victims of this time.

In such a short amount of time we learnt so much about the history of the people we are currently living amongst, which was made even more real to us as we are working with Military Personnel who worked hard to fight against terrible future Cambodia was headed for. Although visiting these places was quite confronting, especially as they are in such a raw state which we are not accustomed to, it was an invaluable experience. We have a much better concept of how the country came to be what it is today.

After a big day we had some lunch, got in some last minute shopping and headed off to catch our bus home back to Siem Reap, arriving at 1:30am Sunday morning. Most of us were lucky enough to sleep the whole way home! We had to make sure we were back by Sunday morning as we had the privilege of meeting a four star general of the Cambodian Military who was referred to as ‘His Excellency’.

He visited the MHDC for a ceremony to announce the new stage of development at the centre where service personnel attended and were able to select a scroll at random which contained the number of their new house. It was a beautiful experience to see the people so overwhelmed yet so humbled at the prospect of a new home and a new community – I thought it was worthy of shedding a tear over, but I was the only one who actually did! His Excellency showed us a great amount of gratitude for the work we and previous teams are doing at the centre, which really reiterated that the work we are doing is for a wonderful cause. We then took some photos with the Military hierarchy that attended before heading off to see some of the new development areas. It was such a huge privilege for a group of university students to meet such influential people within Cambodian society.

The weekend was winding down and we all decided that an afternoon of relaxing seemed like a great way to finish off such an eventful week.

A very big thank you to Dayvy for making everything possible for us!! We are amidst a very busy week of teaching and construction, and are making some fantastic progress. Expect a progress report by the end of the week!