Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
1
Rouge cadres detained by the paranoid regime, foreigners, both Western and Asian,
were also interrogated and tortured.
Block D
Things get no easier emotionally as you progress into
Block D
. Here methods of
torture
are outlined, some of them unflinchingly depicted in paintings by the artist Van Nath,
one of the survivors. Prominent is a
water chamber
where prisoners were systematically
held under water until they confessed. Worth reading are the sombre extracts in the
exhibition area from forced “confessions”, and the exchanges of letters between the
cadres, who continued to victimize prisoners until their declarations conformed to the
guards' own version of the truth. Newer exhibitions detail the ongoing criminal
tribunals against the surviving Khmer Rouge leaders, the faces in many of the pictures
so covered in gra
ti that they now sit behind glass.
Upstairs in the same block, in the Documentation Centre of Cambodia, an
hour-long made-for-television docudrama is screened twice daily:
Bophana
, by Rithy
Panh, traces the tangled, tragic romance between two Cambodians caught up with
the Khmer Rouge.
The French quarter
During the colonial era,
Wat Phnom
was at the heart of the
French quarter
, its leafy
boulevards graced by several delightful
colonial buildings
, including the main post
o
ce, the National Library,
Ra
es Hotel Le Royal
and the rather grand train station.
Many of these survive today and the area is worth exploring to get a taste of their
historic grandeur.
Wat Phnom
Northern end of Norodom Blvd • Daily 7am-6pm • Foreigners $1
In the northeast of the city, set back just a few hundred metres from the riverfront,
the imposing white chedi of
Wat Phnom
sits atop the hill that gave the city its name.
This is one of the principal pleasure-spots for the inhabitants of Phnom Penh,
drawing the crowds especially at weekends and on public holidays. Before climbing
the hill (which is just 27m high), you can either buy your
ticket
from the payment
booth or a roving guard will inevitably approach you for cash once you reach the top.
The nicest way up the hill is by the
naga staircase
on the east side, passing bronze
friezes (depicting scenes of battle) and dancing apsaras (reproductions of bas-reliefs at
Angkor Wat) on the way.
The sanctuary on the summit has been rebuilt many times, most recently in 1926,
and nothing remains of the original structures. The surrounding
gardens
were
originally landscaped in the late nineteenth century by the French, who also installed a
zoo (of which nothing remains) and the clock on the south side of the hill, restored for
the Millennium, with a dial that glows in fluorescent colours at dusk.
The vihara
Inside the
vihara
(remove shoes before entering) is a sitting Buddha, visible through the
haze of burning incense, encircled by wall paintings evoking depictions of the
Jataka
stories. A constant stream of Khmer pass through the pagoda, paying their respects and
trying to discover their fortunes by holding a palm-leaf book above their head and,
without looking, inserting a small pointer between the pages; the page contains the
prediction, although sometimes it takes three attempts to get an acceptable fortune.
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT
PSAR THMEI
P.75
; ROYAL PALACE
P.61
; RUSSIAN MARKET
P.190
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