Rest Days in Phnom Penh

July 31, 2019 to August 4, 2019

The hotel proved to be a most excellent base camp for the next few days. I was pleasantly surprised by the number of food and nightlife options and made the most of both.

Of course I had to do the tourist thing and this time was the Tuol Sleng prison and genocide museum. Truly horrific stuff and it makes me wonder how these Khmer Rouge could even call themselves humans.

One of the rare survivors, this was his cell

Barbed wire prevented people from jumping off the roof and killing themselves

Since they'd die in the prison anyway I can see why they'd want to jump off.

Worse yet, this kind of thing is not over yet in the world, not in the least. I felt sick to my stomach knowing that the Chinese Communist Party is actively doing stuff like this to the Uyghurs in Xinjiang province to this very day

[Update November 2022: Not only that, just look at what Russia did and is doing to occupied areas of Ukraine.]

For better or for worse I have the kind of personality type that is affected by these kind of injustices and wants to get involved to do something about it. This also ties into the misled worldview I got in university about an emerging liberal democratic world order. This isn't how the 21st century is playing out, not even close. If anything, we are regressing not progessing.

Over the years I've come to learn that you have to pick your battles when it comes to this global stuff. We do bite sized chunks of small things where we can to help out and make this sustainable. Otherwise, compassion fatigue can leave you overrun with the sheer amount of stuff that needs to be done to solve the world's problems.

In light of all this, it was most entirely fitting that I met a trained psychologist at an Internations social event in the city. She had come here from Australia to work for an NGO and basically do exactly what I was mentioning above. Her former career was a parole officer in the criminal justice system. We then got talking about my trip plans and desire to check out Sihanoukville. Before I could even get two sentences in, this lovely and well educated woman told me "Don't go to Sihanoukville, it's a piece of shit".

Well that settles it. I asked her to clarify what she meant but I knew the reason already thanks to my earlier conversation with James. The Chinese had destroyed it. Sure enough, Angela confirmed this in great detail.

I told her, "Before you go on, let me just say I'm ashamed to admit I have been living and working in Shanghai over 15 years". She laughed at that one and said, "Well at least we know you don't represent the Chinese government".

Angela went on to say, "You would not believe what's happened in the last 12 months alone. I've been making trips there every year since 2011 and it all happened so fast."

I told her, "That's more or less the same with me but it was at least two years since my last trip and when my friend told me all this happened in the last two years I didn't believe him at first as it happened so fast."

She said, "You got that right. It was only in the last year that the Chinese bought all the land. This was including your favourite party beaches like Otres Beach and Serendipity. The casino and high end hotel construction just started and is going nonstop 24/7. They quickly demolished all the beach bars and restaurants except for a few holdouts on the south end that now have very limited options. The beach is full of trash and is a complete eyesore. Where there were once tourists like us is now filled with Chinese tourists and they are loud and filthy and throwing their trash all over."

I tried to explain that Shanghai was instituting mandatory garbage sorting rules but she just scoffed at me and said "What does that even matter? Wen they go abroad they obviously don't follow those kinds of rules. They do whatever they want. They buy up everything with their greed and think money will solve all the problems. You should know that the infrastructure can't keep up with all their so-called developments and that power and water shortages are happening all the time. What's more, a normal 5 hour bus ride turns into 8 to 9 hours because of the traffic jams caused by all the trucks heading to and from the construction projects. On one of my trips it took nearly 12 hours! The road is also a complete mess"

Sadly I knew exactly what she was talking about because after 15 years of living in China I had seen the Chinese do the same things to their own country. For example, I saw a new express highway project starting in Chongqing province that completely destroyed the local roads due to trucks using them as transit points. Meanwhile, the local people could not afford the expressway tolls and be forced to use the old roads which were in such dilapidated condition. The companies in charge of the expressway would make a killing off the tolls and go celebrate with $1500 bottles of wine and women at KTV. This was just one of countless examples

I tried to explain to her that ever since Xi Jinping came to power he wanted to stop all that and do a complete reversal, with the focus on getting people to follow rules, do things like sorting garbage, and rooting out corruption, that sort of thing.

She said, "You know better than me since you live there, but what happened with Sihanoukville was long after Xi Jinping took power, am I right? It sure doesn't look like they're following rules to me, they are flaunting international rules. This project is connected to his Belt and Road Initiative, which is basically a form of bondage for lesser developed countries be in debt servitude to their masters.

Angela went on to say, "I'll forgive you as you work there but you still don't get it. It doesn't matter whether it's Xi Jinping or anyone else, the CCP by nature is corrupt. So you have this guy going around forcing people to follow traffic rules, it doesn't make a difference. It's not like Xi is following any of what he forces people to do or is frugal himself. You can't legislate civilized behaviour. Even if you could as he seems to want to, then explain to me why these same people behave like animals abroad?"

[Update November 2022] If only we could have a crystal ball at that time and see into the future what the covid lockdowns would be all about.

Angela certainly had a point. I immediately recalled at the Yangzhou airport when the trip just started how all the Chinese started pushing and shoving their way towards the airplane gate after they had cleared immigration.

She went on to say "Here's an example to back up what I'm saying. You can't use the government to change habits from the heart. Just look at what the Chinese are doing with the casinos here. Locals in Sihanoukville are moving out and they can't afford the costs anymore. Landlords don't want to rent to Chinese but they end up doing so because they get offered prices 5-15 times higher than what they got with westerners and others before. Crime is increasing dramatically and yes you're quite right about the mafia. It is dangerous. Western tourists don't want to go there anymore. The same thing is stating to happen right here in Phnom Penh. No brother, you should not go to Sihanoukville. You should go to the islands. Even those you better now go see them fast."

Angela had plenty more to say but she certainly proved she was a registered psychologist. This conversation was enough to dash my hopes and dreams about China. More importantly, she was 100% correct.

Forget about the chilled beaches in Sihanoukville, the fliers for free drinks, the invitations, the cooperative atmosphere of those running the businesses. It was all demolished and razed to the ground now. The only things left were the memories of previous trips that I was fortunate to see while younger.

Today's ride: 26 km (16 miles)
Total: 1,760 km (1,093 miles)

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