more than thirty years later: verdict

An earlier post contains some media links to info about the first of the Khmer Rouge trials, that of Comrade Duch, responsible for more than 14,000 deaths at the Toul Sleng Prison. This prison is now a genocide museum in the middle of Phnom Penh. The verdict was announced today: only 19 years in prison (shortened from 35 because of 11 years already served and 5 years held illegally by the Military Tribunal). That adds up to less than 12 hours in jail per death. There has been a flurry of coverage in the international media and its the front page of all of the local news sources. Here's the NY Times Blog coverage with photos here, and some background info here from CNN, and a great NY Times article with quotes from his statements here.  Check out the Phnom Penh Post website for several articles.

island biking

Yesterday, a couple friends and I went on a bike tour called "Islands of the Mekong," described on the tour company's website as follows:

Cross the river by boat and take in this relaxing 30km ride through Cham Muslim communities on quiet back roads to reach the Mekong Islands. On the islands, cycle through orchards and market gardens. Enjoy the peaceful farmland and learn about the lives of the people who live here.

On the map below, Phnom Penh is in the middle lowest portion, and the river on the right is the Mekong, which is more than 2700 miles long from the Tibetan Plateau in China to Vietnam.

I didn't want to risk taking my nice camera biking, so I settled for some lower quality photos. The picutre below was taken near the beginning of the bike tour, with the Tonle Sap (the river on the left above) in the background. The floating house likely belongs to Vietnamese fishermen, and the dragon that I'm awkwardly leaning on is part of a Chinese temple. The steps lead into the river, an unknown number covered by the water.


We took a ferry across to the islands, and biked right into a raucous group of young people going door to door to raise money to pay for a new pagoda. They wore brightly colored costumes, like the giants below and a Chinese dragon, and banged on a loud drum and cymbals. My friends below contributed - check out our stylish helmets!

Women on these islands weave beautiful silks, which are sold in the markets in Phnom Penh for around $70/each, according to our guide. It takes them about a week to make one. Garment workers in the city, on the other hand, make a similar amount of money in a month. The video below shows two women working at looms side by side on the bottom level of a traditional wooden house.

In the second picture below, our guide, Mean (pronounced me-ann), is picking the leaves of the rambutan plant, whose tea he says will help him sleep well.

This picture is taken in a garden with statues of the symbols of the Chinese years, like Year of the Rat, Year of the Tiger, etc. I'm technically a cow, but this donkey (I think?) was more fun to imitate.

This temple was all gilt. The buddhas below were smiling; their counterparts on the other side of the stairwell were frowning. Inside the temple, the walls were painted with Buddhist scenes. If you look closely, the panel in the middle row on the far right is pretty graphic, and our guide said it is meant to remind us that "everyone dies." It's hard to see, but I hope we don't all have our entrails pecked out by a bird though, like this poor guy!

the beach + three meals

This past weekend, the organization I work for organized an all-staff meeting in a beach town about 4 hours away from Phnom Penh, Sihanoukville. Though most of my time was spent trying to take the minutes of the meeting (it was held in Khmer...), I did manage to use breakfast time to soak up some early morning sun. The woman in the foreground was one of several selling snacks.
That night, there was a big dinner, where everyone played musical chairs (the girl in the leopard print won the women's round by pulling out the chair from under the girl in the red shirt!), ate lots of seafood (including delicious whole shrimp that you peeled yourself and dipped in spicy sweet and sour sauce), and sang karaoke. Below is one of a series of a photos that these girls and I took while waiting for the food to be ready. From left: Randi, Chakriya, me, and Viceka. Their English is excellent, as two of them have university degrees, and they're a lot of fun, if you can't tell from the big smiles on their faces!
The next morning, I stumbled upon a little seaside restaurant (literally, seaside - no problem getting a table with a view here!) and enjoyed one of the most relaxing breakfasts I've ever had. The beach was nothing fancy, no dramatic rock cliffs or picturesque harbor, just sand that gave way to waves and wide open sky, but there was something peaceful about that. Soundtrack: Colbie Caillat and Santogold.

And on the way back to Phnom Penh, the group stopped for more whole boiled shrimp and crab in these little seaside shacks with hammocks inside.

That night for dinner, I heated up a frozen pepperoni pizza and ate it on the porch of my lovely new apartment (more pictures to come later!). Not a bad set of meals for a Monday!

un, deux, trois

My language skills are slowly getting better, thanks to my extremely kind and patient tutor Sokan. I'm not about to discuss Buddhist philosophy in Khmer, but I can direct a tuk-tuk or mototaxi driver. How to count to ten in Khmer:

1 - mouy (moo-ee)
2 - bpee
3 - buy
4 - boon
5 - pram
6 - pram mouy
7 - pram bpee
8 - pram buy
9 - pram boon
10 - dop

Not too difficult, right? Well it gets more complicated, but instead of getting into that, here is Angelina Jolie's tattoo of a Buddhist incantation written in Khmer in honor of her adopted son Maddox:

It translates to: "May your enemies run far away from you./ If you acquire riches, may they remain yours always./ Your beauty will be that of Apsara./ Wherever you may go, many will atend, serve and protect you, surrouding you on all sides." Don't worry, Ma, I'm not planning to get a tattoo in Bangkok!