Khmer Rouge

On April 17 1975 the five years civil war that had engulfed Cambodia ended with much jubilation on the streets of Phnom Penn as advancing soldiers were greeted as heroes

Three days later the entire city was emptied of everybody and so began one of the most radical, barbaric, brutal and incredibly tragic episodes of modern times. The advent of the rule of the Khmer Rouge had begun and would last for almost 4 years resulting in death of up to 3 million men, women and children, one in five of the population.

With Brother No1, Pol Pot in control the country cut itself of from the outside world, no postal system, all currency, schools, law courts abolished and the proclamation of Year Zero. What followed is barely believable, torture, execution, beatings resulting in a massive death toll. Malnutrition and disease accounting for just as many as the despot implemented his revolution.

Fear ruled and in no place more so than the Security Prison 21 commonly referred to as S-21 and the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek.

S-21

To call it a prison would be wrong as no one left alive. Over fourteen thousand “enemies” including children were questioned, tortured and eventually executed for counterrevolutionary crimes. Torture would take the form of electrocution, beatings, suffocation, drowning the removal of fingernails by pliers and much more. This would only end once a confession had been received. In the silence of a city devoid of most of its population it was said the screams of the tortured could be heard outside the prison gates. Execution was just as brutal often people beaten to death.

Pictures taken by the liberating army of the Vietnamese of recently tortured victims

As an indication of the spiraling mayhem eventually even some of the torturers and executioners befell the same fate as others replaced them.

A visit to S-21 now a museum is a very sobering experience. The Khmer Rouge were very diligent in documenting their atrocities and hundreds of haunting black and white photos of all the victims stare back at you from displays around the now empty cells. Descriptions of torture and peoples stories further add to the tragic feeling of the place.

Pictures of prisoners. All executed.

Incredibly as the Khmer Rouge were ousted by the Vietnamese only seven prisoners survived to tell their tales.

Killing Fields of Choeung Ek

As the need to eradicate the enemies gained pace places to execute and dispose of the bodies became even more necessary. One of these laying just a few km outside Phnom Penn was the Killing Fields of Choenung Ek.

A monument to remember and honour the dead is filled with over 8000 skulls of the many who met their death here. Prisoners bound, blindfolded and shackled were then bludgeoned to death into an awaiting pit. Music would be played to cover the cries.

About the site many excavated pits remain and even now some 30 years later parts of bones and teeth still rise to the surface in wet weather. Somehow the very bland nature of the place makes it all that much more poignant.

30 years on body parts still rise to surface. Notice tooth in centre of picture

Two of only three men still alive to tell their tale of the seven who survived

Neil

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Poverty

How do you measure poverty? There is no one single definition much will depend on the context in which it is given, much by the organization giving it. Definitions include Absolute poverty, Relative poverty and then there is a poverty line of living under $1.25 a day.

Whatever we all have our own preconceptions. The reality is people do not live by statistics and definitions but by putting food on the table and a roof over their heads. Having completed a one-day trek in the Cambodian tropical rainforest I overnighted in the local minority village of the Bunong and got an understanding of what poverty could potentially mean.

My guide for the day had been Hong and I was fortunate enough to stay with him and his family before heading off on an elephant trek the following day.

Unbelievably Hong lives and sleeps here with his wife, five children, mother-in-law, five dogs, two cats and a pig. Akin to medieval England there is no electricity, no running water and no sanitation, cooking is done on an open fire in the middle of the floor. Every meal is rice and vegetable and occasionally when he has spare money meat. Kids run about in bare feet and dirty clothes and have no toys.

Dinner being prepared

I would consider this family to be living in poverty but by some definitions they may fall outside this description. What is surprising is the appearance of general contentedness and happiness of the family and privacy is non existent but that does not seem to bother anyone.

Some of Hong’s family

The days trek was a tough one. At least 15k crossing rivers in full flow, up and down muddy inclines and occasionally some wildlife such as a cobra. Unfortunately did not manage to get a picture. However another regular inhabitant that seemed to find me appetising was the leeches. Had a great day and being completely knackered at the end of the day I was happy to hit the sack at 8pm in complete darkness. Perhaps one of the benefits of no electricity.

One of the easier river crossings

Hong cutting bamboo to cook the veg in

Neil

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Lara Croft

First it was a play station game that spawned many a sequel. Then a movie staring Angelina Joline., namely Tomb Raider.  And the relevance of this?  Well the inspiration for these lies in the temple complex Angkor Wat.

Angkor paid homage to the power that this country once but no longer has and many will argue it is the 8^th wonder of the world. Built over a number of centuries, hundreds of years ago it was only rediscovered in the late 1800s. Whilst here in Cambodia I will find out if it deserves its billing.

Hiring a bike yet again this time pedal power only I spent 3 days in and around the many temples. At the height of its power the population exceeded one million whilst at the same time London ‘s was a mere fifty thousand.

Well the temples certainly lived up to their justification, pictures below.

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Iwahig Prison

As to what has become a regular occurrence since I’ve been in the Philippines hired a motorbike and went exploring. This time in the company of a couple of lads from Denmark.

So one of the things we decide to do is visit a local prison housing up to 3000 inmates of various security risk. To make things easy for the guards, inmates and presumably for that matter visitors like myself all detainees wear a coloured shirt indicating their potential risk/danger.

See a guy in a brown t-shirt you know he is classed as a minimum security risk. It actually says so on the front of the shirt.

A guy in dark blue, one step up the scale, medium risk. And the hard bastards get to wear tangerine, maximum security risk.

Riding to the prison it was like something out of 50s America Mid-west, there on the side of the road doing a stint of hard graft in the paddy fields are large groups of inmates. Helpfully all wearing the dark blue shirts so medium risk. Stopped and spoke to a suitably heavily armed prison guard who pointed us in right direction whilst getting a big hello from all the jailbirds.

After passing through the prison gates, didn’t even have to sign our names or even check our luggage etc went to the minimum security compound.

Minimum security compound

Brought a carton of fags from an inmate and in an extremely bizarre situation were told to throw them down to the prisoners below. It was like something from a circus. As you threw out a packet a large group would wait below scavenge and grapple for anything they could catch. It was like feeding a pack of animals. Anyway that lasted all to briefly and we hopped back on our bikes to explore more of the grounds.

Found a shooting range and spoke to a couple of prisoners (no guards about) who said we could fire some guns if we wanted.  Responding in the affirmative he called up a guard who appeared about twenty minutes later.

The conversation went something like this.

Can we have a go on the firing range?

Yes no problem, did you bring your own guns?

Err no????

Did you bring your own bullets then?

Err no????  Silly us didn’t think we could bring our Ak47s to a prison.

No problem I will let you hire my gun and bullets.

So price negotiated, well not really negotiated, he told us the cost and wasn’t moving on price didn’t really have much options. So there we are in the prison grounds firing live ammo at targets with five, six detainees just hanging around.

Getting instructions from the guard

Having done our impressions of Rambo back on the bikes and this time found another bunch of internees and sat down for a bite of lunch.  Probably seven, eight of them and one guard sitting about all without a care in the world. All very relaxed.

Lunch at the prison

Unfortunately never got to see the elusive tangerine clad guys and was never allowed to take pictures of prisoners. Most of the guys we spoke with were minimum security but this did not seem to mean short jail time as at least two of them I spoke with were doing 20- year stretches.

Prior to this spent a week with Danes for a bit of beach life and some stunning scenery and oh! almost forgot lots of alcohol, somewhat a recurring theme in Philippines.

Neil

 

 

 

 

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Men and their cocks

Sun, sea, sand, San Miguel, sun bathing, San Miguel, so many late nights, San Miguel (stretching the alliteration I know) welcome to Boracay.  Said to be one of the world’s best beaches.

Beautiful white sands, crystal clear waters yes, but after numerous bus, jeepney, ferry and tricycle ride paradise proved to be a little too touristy. Nonetheless this did not stop me enjoying a week of beer and sun. I know it can be tough be a backpacker!

After days of inactivity a change of pace was needed and this took the form of the title of the blog. Now this is not reference to any literal meaning, lady boys or anything sexual for that matter. Some will view it as barbaric but it is engrained in the culture and that is cock fighting which takes place all over the Philippines and provides a good opportunity for the locals to gamble away what little they earn.

The fight between the birds is a frenzied blur of feathers, blood, action and eventually death for one of the participants. Although having said that the victor can take a pretty serious slashing too and look a shitty mess.

But before you even get this far a ritual just as if not more entertaining takes place.  A cauldron of noise suddenly erupts as shouted exchanges take place about the arena. In something akin to the stock exchange trading floor wagers are made and received in semaphore. Amongst the noise somehow bets are remembered that eventually result in money being thrown between winners and losers as debts are collected.

Over the space of an afternoon many bouts take place always resulting in the death of at least one bird. Each cock is armed with an incredibly sharp blade attached to one of its legs. Whilst they are paraded around a ring the betting takes place.  The two protagonists are then left in the ring to commence battle. Once the carnage ends both birds are removed, the floor is then swept clean of blood feathers etc. and the process begins all over again.

Blade being attached to cocks leg

The aftermath

Not for the squeamish sure but as I said this takes place everywhere and although a predominately male preserve women also attend.  This was definitely the ying to the yang of beach life.

Neil

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Philippines hospitality (Island of Siquijor)

So I go to rent a motorcycle. Whilst negotiating a price another traveller turns up. Seems a pleasant enough guy introduce myself and ask his name. To which he replies Mr. Happy. Not sure I heard correctly I ask him a second time and once again he replies Mr. Happy. So muppet it is then!

In fact I am being a little disingenuous as he is a decent bloke just perhaps a little eccentric. Anyway that night we head of to the village San Antonio supposedly a celebration with two days partying in reverence to St Anthony should be taking place.

Arriving at the village we stop to ask someone if there is anywhere we can get a bite to eat. Apparently there is nowhere but fortune smiles on us and we are invited to have dinner with this guys family and friends.

Entering the house there is a whole roast pig surrounded by mountains of food on the table and we are summoned to help ourselves. Suitably nourished we head outside with more family and friends and hit the rum and beers. Mr. Happy and I acquire more rum and the evening goes extremely well.

Taking leave of out new friends we then head to an open air disco and party the night away with yet more drink finishing about 2 in the morning.

Me having fallen asleep at disco

In all a great night but made for me by the generosity of complete strangers. Oh and the alcohol helped a little bit as well.

But to prove it was not all drinking and eating here are some pictures of the island of Siquijor

Finally bikes and I just don’t get along. No running out of petrol this time just numerous punctures over the course of a day which eventually lead me to leaving bike overnight some 10km from hostel.

Fixing punctures Philippines style

Neil

 

By the way Mr. Happys real name Henry.

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Balut

Balut

The things people eat. A Filipino speciality and I quote from my Lonely Planet travel guide. “a boiled duck egg containing a partially developed embryo, sometimes with tiny feathers”

Now life is about experiences and although not the tastiest meal I’ve had it was not as bad as expected and fortunately I didn’t notice the feathers.

Motorbike

For those who have enquired (and that is not many of you) about how I got back after being stranded 20k from home.

Somewhat appropriately for a Catholic country a Good Samaritan came to my rescue. Noticing me pushing my bike along the road he stopped and asked if he could help. After explaining my dilemma he put me on the back of his bike and into the next village. It is a common practice here and all over Indonesia for people to sell petrol from tiny side of the road shops. So armed with a plastic litre bottle of gas we returned to my bike filled it up and I was on my way. Like all altruistic gestures the gentleman refused to give me his address so I was unable to return to pay him.

Neil

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The Good, The Average & The Stupid

The Good

It can almost rotate its head 360 degrees, leap 5 metres, its eyes are 150 times bigger than ours in comparison to its body size, its ears can move in the direction of sound and its oh so tiny. It can fit into the palm of your hand and is one of the world’s smallest primates. It is a tarsier.

These bug eyed creatures personify cuddly but are so fragile that kept in captivity will only live one to two years but left in their natural habitat will live past 20 years. This is where The Tarsier Research & Development Centre comes in and where I caught a glimpse of them. They provide a protected stable, natural environment to allow them to flourish.

This also gives you the opportunity to learn a bit more about these fascinating creatures and to get up close and personal but without ever touching them. The good work done here offsets the harm done elsewhere on the island as unfortunately you can still find tarsiers in cages around the island although this is meant to be illegal.

The Average

On the same island (Bohol) as the tarsier is a tourist attraction that receives quite a degree of publicity so renting a motorbike for the day I set off to see if the Chocolate Hills deserved their reputation.

I was neither overwhelmed nor underwhelmed therefore as such whelmed, if such a word can be used (and yes it can I looked it up and the word exists). The hills part of the name lived up to it’s billing but the chocolate bit seems somewhat of a misnomer. I leave you to judge your own thoughts. Nonetheless some of the surrounding scenery made it an enjoyable day out.

The Stupid

Two things come into this category.  Firstly careful where you walk in the Philippines. Due to a slight misdemeanor through ignorance on my part I was offered the choice between community service or paying a fine. My crime? Jay walking! Another pointless useless law left over from the Americans. I chose the fine option and had to fork out 200 pesos on the spot. I will let you work out the sterling equivalent.  All the poxy Americans seemed to have left behind is crap food, guns and ridiculous laws.

Now a law breaker in the Philippines

Secondly having hired the motorbike for the day it also gave me the opportunity to explore the rest of the island. First thing I did was fill up with petrol and off I went. After a long satisfying day in the saddle I decided to head home. After numerous police check points around the island I was finally asked for my driving licence.  Now this proved a problem on two parts, one, I didn’t bring my licence with me and two, even if I did it would not have authorized me to ride a bike anyway. Finally I managed to persuade the officer to let me go and on my way I went.

Now my mind was preoccupied with potential problems that could follow elsewhere. However this passed as an overwhelming feeling of hopelessness took over me as with 20 km to get home my bike completely ran out of petrol. Now you would think this should not be too much of an issue, but the nearest petrol station was probably 10 miles back. But even if I could get there it wouldn’t matter, as I had no money on me having spent the last of it on feeding my face. It was at this point I realised what a complete dick I can be sometimes. 20 km from home no money, no petrol and no idea where to find any!

The offending culprit

Neil

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Philippines (first few days)

Like many countries throughout the world the Philippines has been subject to the whims of other cultures forcing their way of rule upon them. Of these, two powers have left a lasting impression.

Firstly the Spanish, their legacy being colonial architecture and a religion that invades most aspects of daily life namely Catholicism.  Secondly the Americans with their legacy being huge shopping malls, basketball, 7 elevens and fast food everywhere.

Manila was my first stop and it is a massive, chaotic, noisy city. Obvious wealth of 5* hotels juxtaposed with the poor sleeping on bits of cardboard and street children everywhere. Initially the city seems overwhelming but once I got my bearings I grew to enjoy it very much. Although this could have a lot to do with the fact I spent two very enjoyable nights on the piss. Alcohol is very cheap. A bottle of San Miguel sets you back about 50p whilst a bottle of rum a little over a pound.

The Philippines also has a reputation as a sex tourist spot and I have to say this is completely founded. Landing at Clark airport about 60km north of Manila you pass the town of Angeles not so much a red light area more a red light town and by the looks of it very seedy. Fat, beer bellied overweight European middle-aged men walking hand in hand with slim attractive girls. In the area of Manila where I stayed girlie bars are numerous and the offer of anything is never far away.

The legacy of Spain

These ubiquitous vehicles are known as a jeepneys. It works something like this. Put a bench down each side enough to hold 7 to 8 people comfortably. Once everyone is seated start journey and wedge more passengers enroute probably another 5 to 6. Once there is no room left cram another couple each side. Then use the back of the vehicle for those wishing to stand and after this anyone else will find space on the roof. Imagine how comfortable it is when travelling with a rucksack.

Modern day Manila

Security is taken seriously here. Another legacy of the US, guns.

Giving my liver a rest I moved onto Donsol with the aim to go  swimming with whale sharks. These creatures which can grow up to 24 metres in length are neither shark nor whale but in fact the worlds biggest fish.

Having hired snorkeling equipment you then board a boat for about three hours whilst the crew lookout for signs of their whereabouts. Once spotted it’s a mad scramble overboard and a frenetic pursuit of the fish. First day there we spent the best part of our allotted time without any success and then suddenly mask, snorkel and fins were quickly adorned and into the water we went. The encounter only lasted a few fleeting moments but it is amazing.  These fish up close are huge apparently the one we saw was approximately 19 metres long. It definitely looks a cross between a shark and whale and it huge jaws would be quite intimidating if it wasn’t for the fact you know they only feed on plankton.

I don’t own an underwater camera but this picture gives a fairly accurate idea of my experience. This whetted my appetite so decided to try again next day. Unfortunately after 4 hours bobbing around in a boat no joy so disappointed returned to shore. Nonetheless the experience the previous day was more than enough.

Neil

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Tanjung Puting National Park

Found only on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo. They move with a grace that belies their size and are extremely powerful. They possess 97% DNA the same as humans are very agile climbers. They are orangutans.

I spent three days and two nights cruising up and down the River Sekonyer in Tanjung Puting National Park. This was as near to a gurantee as you can get of observing our hairy cousins in their natural habitat. The park was the first site in Indonesia for the now controversial and consequently ceased practice of orangutan rehabilitation.

The original aim of the park was to reintroduce orphaned and former captive orangutans back into the wild. Unfortunately once they have had close, extended time with humans they never lose that desire for it. However as a legacy from that time regular feedings still take place for previously released orangutans.

First sighting an orangutan swinging through the canopy is a wonderful site. Actually you hear the creature coming before you see it as transports itself from tree to another. Others just suddenly appear from the forest.

They range from really very cute to an intimidating power that makes you keep your distance. Despite their hirsuteness you can’t help feeling how alike us they are, especially mother and child.

Without doubt one of my top highlights. The irony also being I have searched near and far for various types of wildlife during the trip and yet I saw more here in one day than in previous three months. Along the way apart from orangutans, I saw countless types of monkeys, birds and even crocodiles sunning themselves on riverbank. But most definitely the star of the show is the orangutan.

Neil

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