My current location
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Healing
To be honest, as you all know me ofcourse, there was supposed to be another blog here, but since it has been on my computer for 5 days now, a lot has changed. The first difficult time in my travell has passed. In Chiang Mai (Thailand), I met my Belgian friend, and the impact was bigger as I ever expected it would be. We shared a week together in Chiang Mai, learning to drive a motorcycle, trekking to the highest point of Thailand, visiting hotsprings, and just walking and talking, which we can do for hours. Being together with her, made me realise how alone I am sometimes on this trip, and it got to me. I don't think there was any better option to be there for me than Sara. She made me think, reflect and have some great times again. Travelling alone was partially chosen because of the confrontation with myself, but some parts I'd rather have seen in Nepal, where I still feel at home and more comfortable. On the other hand, those parts will propably never show there, because I feel at home there. Many good things come to an end, so Sara had to leave, and I decided to take my trip different from now on. Try to be more social. It's not always easy, but it works. I took a coocking class, which was really amazing and tasty, and after that I tried to spend my time in a place more useful as just hanging around becoming depressed. I wanted things to change, and so far they seem to do.
Sukhothai gave me a wonderful bycicle drive of almost 50 km's, chased by dogs twice, and some amazing views on ruins and landscapes, as well as seeing some dutch friends again whome I met in Chiang Mai, because of Sara who already knew them. They were becoming a big part of my next days as I saw them again in Kanchanaburi.
Kanchanaburi on the other hand gave me a room on the water, yep one of those floating rooms which are diferent from the flooding rooms in Hoi An, a tour to a seven stage waterfall, a ride on the dead railway and a walk over the bridge on the river Kwai. The day before the tour I visited the death railway museum, on my own (I know), which gave me much more useful information and much more feeling riding that dead railway, which would otherwise just have been a railway, sitting on a hard bench.
I decided not to spend that day to much in Kanchanaburi, and left after three days, which had a visit on the tiger temple the last day (is that a tourist trap!!!!!??!!!), and left for Surin. Surin fits in my plan to cross the Thai-Lao border in Chong Mek, within a few days, to see Sara again for newyear. Propably I'm the most lucky man on earth getting the chance to see her twice in such a short time, because she's also ravelling Asia for seven months.
Surin can be very tricky again, as there is not that much to do here, unless you're willing to spend at least 50 euro and taking the risk just being there with the guide. The risk is on a social level, because Mr. Pirom, who does some excellent tours here, seems to be a very nice and trustworthy man, whome I heared a lot of good about. Sara took a trip here, but she works in advertising and they make loads of money, as we all know! This is also the place where she met the Dutch people, so maybe it's kind of holy ground here for me and that's why I had to stop over here. I stay in Mr. Pirom's guesthouse, for only 3 euro, but as I'm the only guest there, I decided I'm leaving further to the Lao border tomorrow, more specific to Ubon Ratchathani.
Travelling alone on 2nd class busses is special, on the other hand. Being the only one that speeks English, and being the only one that doesn't speak Thai can be hard sometimes. Specially at the lunch stops and when you're a vegetarian. It all fits in the process of appreciating people that I do communicate with. At such a moment a smile of sympathy can do miracles, when you start thinking you're isolated from the rest of this world. The most beautiful smiles at those moments are even the ones that only show two or three teeth left over in a womans mounth. That smile is the most warm smile I can get at that moment.
PS: As pathetic as it sounds to myself, I's like to dedicate this post to Sara, who stood by me in that difficult time. Thank you sweetheart!!!!
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Tuol Sleng
If there’s one place about Cambodia that will propably always remain in my memory, it won’t be 
Ankor Wat, it won’t be taking a boat over the Mekong, it won’t be the people being friendly, it will be Toul Sleng, aka S21, aka museum of genocide.
There’s really no other place in Cambodia that left that big an impression on me. To be honest, I really had a hard evening after visiting this place.
The formal school is now a museum about the cruelty that took place in there years ago. Cruelty commited under the regime of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. What originally used to be a school for children, changed into a prison where extreme rules were explained to be the security of regulations. The first part of the trip true what became this horrible place took me in some rooms where just one bed is placed, and on the bed, there is either an extremely thin matras covered in restants of blood, torture machines, or a combination of both. On the walls hangs one single picture o
f the old days, showing craving people on the beds, or people bading in blood after the horrible torture. As if people would start laughing looking at this, sometimes around the buildings you get to see a traffic sign that forbids everybody to laugh at this museum. Adding this detail to the walls made the whole atmosphere in there even more grabbing my troat.
The second building took me to some prison cells. The first and second floor of the building were reserved for the isolation. Almost 
as expected, the people were locked up in inhumanly small cells, with their legs attached to the floor by chains. The difference between the ground- and the first floor was the fabric of the cells. On the ground floor cement was used, and at the first floor the cells were made out of wood. I didn’t go any further into why this was, because to me the experience of just seeing those cells was cruel enough, and I didn’t even think about why those differences in fabric.
The top floor of this second building was reserved for the imprisonment in group. This room is used as a room filled with anecdotes, these days. Anecdotes from relatives of former prisoners of Tuol Sleng. Anecdotes that tell stories about how people chose to join the Khmer Rouge, seeing it as their only way out of the miserable life they had, but in the end they ended up tortured and murdered in this “what once used to be a school for innocent children”.
At 10am and 3pm, a documentary is shown in the tv-room. A documentary that tells the s
tory of two lovers living, and suffering apart under the Khmer Rouge regime, told by letters they wrote eachother that were found later. The most chocking part in the documentary, to me, was actually the part where they take a former guard back to the prison, together with an ex-prisoner. Both of them show a lot of respect for eachother, I think, but when I saw the guard telling a story how he didn’t kill any people on the Killing Fields (which is a different story, but with the same bases), but just hit them on the head, so someone else could kill them, with a smile on his face…I was astonished.
The former prisoner is a painter who made paintings showing the cruelty that took place in S21. Cruelty that he himself didn’t suffer under all of it, but some of them he heared about. The guard admitted that the actual 
scenes took place the way the man painted them. The paintings are there to see at the third building of the school/museum/prison. Under each painting stands the torture machine shown in it. It really makes everything coming even closer. Other rooms in the building are reserved for foto exhibitions. Photo exhibitions that don’t only show the people that were imprisoned, but also some of the leading characters in the prison. Pictures that are ruined by people carving in it, writing on it, one obscene text over another. It’s a hard decision to make if this is to justify.
Not being a person that visits museums often, and most of the time I get out faster as I get in, this place really made me walk around for over three hours, but its impression sticked with me until this day on. The regulation that you couldn’t scream during electrification or lashes even made the biggest impression on me. I don’t know why, but the cruelty of the whole place is in that one sentence, to me.
Ankor Wat, it won’t be taking a boat over the Mekong, it won’t be the people being friendly, it will be Toul Sleng, aka S21, aka museum of genocide.
There’s really no other place in Cambodia that left that big an impression on me. To be honest, I really had a hard evening after visiting this place.
The formal school is now a museum about the cruelty that took place in there years ago. Cruelty commited under the regime of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. What originally used to be a school for children, changed into a prison where extreme rules were explained to be the security of regulations. The first part of the trip true what became this horrible place took me in some rooms where just one bed is placed, and on the bed, there is either an extremely thin matras covered in restants of blood, torture machines, or a combination of both. On the walls hangs one single picture o
f the old days, showing craving people on the beds, or people bading in blood after the horrible torture. As if people would start laughing looking at this, sometimes around the buildings you get to see a traffic sign that forbids everybody to laugh at this museum. Adding this detail to the walls made the whole atmosphere in there even more grabbing my troat.
The second building took me to some prison cells. The first and second floor of the building were reserved for the isolation. Almost 
as expected, the people were locked up in inhumanly small cells, with their legs attached to the floor by chains. The difference between the ground- and the first floor was the fabric of the cells. On the ground floor cement was used, and at the first floor the cells were made out of wood. I didn’t go any further into why this was, because to me the experience of just seeing those cells was cruel enough, and I didn’t even think about why those differences in fabric.
The top floor of this second building was reserved for the imprisonment in group. This room is used as a room filled with anecdotes, these days. Anecdotes from relatives of former prisoners of Tuol Sleng. Anecdotes that tell stories about how people chose to join the Khmer Rouge, seeing it as their only way out of the miserable life they had, but in the end they ended up tortured and murdered in this “what once used to be a school for innocent children”.
At 10am and 3pm, a documentary is shown in the tv-room. A documentary that tells the s
tory of two lovers living, and suffering apart under the Khmer Rouge regime, told by letters they wrote eachother that were found later. The most chocking part in the documentary, to me, was actually the part where they take a former guard back to the prison, together with an ex-prisoner. Both of them show a lot of respect for eachother, I think, but when I saw the guard telling a story how he didn’t kill any people on the Killing Fields (which is a different story, but with the same bases), but just hit them on the head, so someone else could kill them, with a smile on his face…I was astonished.
The former prisoner is a painter who made paintings showing the cruelty that took place in S21. Cruelty that he himself didn’t suffer under all of it, but some of them he heared about. The guard admitted that the actual 
scenes took place the way the man painted them. The paintings are there to see at the third building of the school/museum/prison. Under each painting stands the torture machine shown in it. It really makes everything coming even closer. Other rooms in the building are reserved for foto exhibitions. Photo exhibitions that don’t only show the people that were imprisoned, but also some of the leading characters in the prison. Pictures that are ruined by people carving in it, writing on it, one obscene text over another. It’s a hard decision to make if this is to justify.
Not being a person that visits museums often, and most of the time I get out faster as I get in, this place really made me walk around for over three hours, but its impression sticked with me until this day on. The regulation that you couldn’t scream during electrification or lashes even made the biggest impression on me. I don’t know why, but the cruelty of the whole place is in that one sentence, to me.
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