A Surprising Stay in Siem Reap
-Miss Defy
“Enjoy your breakfast!” says an aging man with a thin build, tan skin, and a smile that spans the width of his face. He places a large plate of crepes with bananas and Nutella in front of me and I say “thanks.” An older woman passes by as I chow down, and I give her a quick glance before attending to my hunger. I don’t think much of it at the time, but it would soon be a sharp reminder of the fact that you don’t know what anyone has been through.
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We had the pleasure of travelling with family and friends to Cambodia for 2 weeks over Thanksgiving 2019. One of the highlights of the trip was going to Siem Reap. Almost all come here for Angkor Wat- the massive temple complex built almost 900 years ago, still standing in its magnificence. However, to me, one of my favorite parts of Siem Reap was not related to any tourist hot spots. It was actually the guesthouse in which we stayed.
Normally, I don’t put much thought into hotel stays. If it is clean, quiet, and has warm water then I’m content. This particular guesthouse had been booked by my sister-in-law (as she was the master planner of this vacation for 7 people), and I can’t thank her enough because group planning is stressful. On the surface, the Seven Candles guesthouse appeared pretty typical. There was an outside area to leave your shoes, we were politely greeted by the front desk, and your room key had a keychain large enough to be picked up by Google Earth (we later realized this was status quo for Southeast Asia). After two nights, we were invited to come to a “talk” by the owner of the guesthouse Ponheary Ly. She was going to discuss her personal experience with the Khmer Rouge regime and tell us about her educational foundation.
I’ll be honest, prior to the idea of travelling to Cambodia, I knew little about the Khmer Rouge. I was always more interested in science and math in school, and history class usually took a backseat. However, after deciding to visit, I had prepared myself with the cliff notes version by reading a short history of Cambodia from a travel book and watching the Angelina Jolie movie “First They Killed My Father.” I was intrigued by the hotel owner’s first-hand account of this brutal time in history, but secretly thought maybe it was just going to be a way to get a large number of tourists together to ask for money. Irregardless, I felt a strong pull to go.
I couldn’t have been more wrong. It was not a large audience, but a handful of hotel guests cozied up in small chairs of the outdoor rooftop. Ponheary stood at the front setting up a Powerpoint projector, and the mood of the room was relaxed and calm. Mosquitoes whispered in my ears through the thick, humid air, and I began to wish I had put on long sleeves. Then, as Ponheary began to speak, my concern for the bug situation quickly evaporated as the room immediately quieted down and she had our full attention. Her cadence of speech and the diction she selected were carefully thought out to deliver a strong message. I couldn’t help but be enraptured.
The story began with a brief history of Cambodia and the rise of the Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot. As she spoke of the US involvement in the destabilization of her country, I felt ashamed. Unfortunately, the KR rose to power, in part, due to the massive US bombing campaign from 1965-1973 directed at Vietnamese communists stationed in Cambodia. The harsh side effect to years of explosions gave rise to this radical revolutionary movement, and support amongst Cambodian peasants who were tired of being blown up as collateral damage. In fact, the US was so focused on Vietnam, that they backed Pol Pot and the KR via significant financial and political support. China also gave millions of dollars to the KR efforts. With outside monetary and political support, Pol Pot and the KR won the civil war and took over Cambodia in 1975.
After gaining power, the KR worked quickly and in 1976 evacuated all the city dwellers from major cities (including Siem Riep) and forced them to walk miles and miles to the countryside. Originally, people were cheering for the KR because they thought freedom from war was upon them. But those cheers quickly turned to silence and fear as the KR began evacuating everyone from their homes and giving orders to walk. The goal of the KR? To have a fully self-reliant, communal society based on agriculture and turn everyone into farmers. Thus, city dwellers were sent to the fields to farm and forced to give up all personal possessions, money, land, weapons, medicines, and anything else that promoted individuality. The KR closed schools, hospitals, banks, and businesses. It was all part of their plan to make everyone equal and remove class and hierarchy.
In addition to a forced mass migration to the countryside, the KR also wished to rid the country of feared intellectuals (scientists, teachers, military officers, artists, ect) and all ethnic minorities. Even a person wearing glasses (educated or not) was thought to be an enemy of the KR. If you even resembled a person in one of the aforementioned groups, you were told you would be taken to camps to be re-educated. In reality, many were taken to be executed. This is how Ponheary lost her father. He was found to be an educator, and for that he was killed. As she spoke about not having the chance to say goodbye, it was pure heartbreak. I began to tear up as she continued with the story, and I looked around the room to see the other audience members with a similar disposition.
She continued…After taking the urban people to the countryside they were forced to farm (even though they did not know anything about farming). They would work for long hours in the hot sun and beaten if they did not obey, and were given rice porridge only once daily. No one was able to take extra rations or pick fruit around the fields or they would be beaten or killed. At one point, Ponheary was even forced to dig her own grave yet miraculously survived to tell her story. In addition to many executions, many people died of starvation, exhaustion, and preventable disease (due to removal of medicines and hospitals). Many executions also took place in Phnom Penh at S-21 or in the killing fields, both of which have been turned into memorial sites able to be visited in the capital city today.
In 1979, Vietnam invaded Cambodia and ousted the KR. The short rule of the KR is incongruent with its massive impact to the people of Cambodia. It is estimated that between 1975-1979, about 1-3 million people died under the KR. Some of these deaths also included KR members, as the paranoia that permeated the regime also resulted in executions of fellow officers for fear of treason. Anyone suspected of being against the KR were forced to write confessions and then were executed. Despite these atrocities, only two of the officers still alive at the time of trial were ever convicted of war crimes, and that wasn’t until 2014.
After being able to return to the city, Ponheary’s family was able to establish a city life again. She became a teacher and created a foundation that has a goal to keep kids in school and support families who value education (see link below). They provide food, money, transport, housing, uniforms, social support, and vocational training for youth. In one of the most poignant reflections during her speech, she said her weapon towards the KR was education. If she can teach the children and grandchildren of the KR leaders about the history of the country and the power of learning, maybe they will go back to their elders and start to ask questions. This, she said, was more powerful than any pent-up anger or resentment.
Her family was also able to create the Seven Candles Guesthouse. She stated her brother was the one who serves us the breakfast in the morning, and her mom was the older woman walking around the hallways. Some of her students work as guides or the front-desk staff at the hotel. I had a surreal flashback moment. I was in the company of amazing people who had been through so much in their lives and I didn’t even know it. They have found a way to positively impact others and move towards happiness, and I am grateful to be in their presence.
Everyone has their own personal journey, and sometimes we just need to ask the right questions and listen. As the inspiring storytelling came to a close, a question was asked of the speaker “How do you stay so positive in the face of so much negativity?” Her answer: “If I stayed sad or angry, then that is not helping anyone. If I use that energy to inspire young people and teach them about the past, then society can move forward and history will not be repeated.”
For more information, feel free to visit the website below:
Ponheary Ly Foundation: theplf.org
-Miss Defy
