Made a trip to Phnom Penh, Cambodia at the end of 2010. I’ve previously visited Siem Reap to see the famous Angkor Wat, as well as all the other magnificent ruins in the region, but never out of the touristy areas of that beautiful country plagued by so much sadness and horror.

We found time to see the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum (it menas “Hill of the Poisonous Trees”). In August 1975, four months after having won the civil war, the Khmer Rouge turned what was formerly the Chao Ponhea Yat High School into a prison and interrogation center from hell. It was basically a torture house, with classrooms formerly used for learning converted into tiny torture and prison chambers, electrified barbed wire encircling the complex, and iron bars and barbed wire covering windows to prevent escape.

The structure of the buidling reminded me of the Primary schools of old that we used to have in Singapore, although the ‘exhibits’ (it seems disrespectful almost, to reduce them to being called that, when the lives of so many innocent were lost within those walls…) within told an entirely different story. The place held between 1000 – 1500 inmates at any one time, with an estimated 17000 people (real figures are unknown; one can only morbidly imagine how many more were killed) being imprisoned there between 1975 to 1979.

It was a really disturbing visit, especially for one with a very visual and vivid imagination such as myself. Prisoners and their families (inmates were tortured till they gave the names of family members; the Khmer Rouge thought it necessary to get rid of suspects’ entire familes) were locked up in tiny cells smaller than your average public washroom cubicle.

They were also tortured with various instruments, as the one below. This was mostly to coerce them into giving names of family members and associates, after which these people in turn woule be arrested and brought there, to suffer the same treatment.

I find it both appalling and very sad that people (always referred to as a group, the Khmer Rouge were after all people as well, with family members and loved ones, same as all of us) spent so much time thinking up ways to inflict maximum pain on their fellow men.

On to happier things; the primary purpose for our travel to Phnom Penh was to visit a children’s home there. The kids were lovely; we taught them to play zero point; they taught us so much more.

The quiet boy above is a talented hairstylist! He does the girls’ hair; and sometimes comes up with creative looks such as the one on the girl below.

To thank us, the children put up a little performance for us. The girls were all graceful and lovely, performing a traditional Cambodian dance for us, while the boys put up an energetic little monkey dance.

There is a sadness though. The place is actually an orphanage for HIV positive children. All of them take a cocktail of pills each day to keep their bodies stable. They know that they are unwell (there are so many of them that they had to be told how important it is to take their medication each day without a fuss) and yet you would never have known it watching them laugh and play, carefree as only children can be.

There’s a lesson learnt; during our day off, we took time out to act like children too!

And of course, we savoured the delicious local food.

And some more touristy, but no less delicious fare.

Yes, please indulge my fondness for bear-shaped rice and pretty table additions.

It was the annual Water Festival (Bon Om Tuk in Khmer) in Phnom Penh while we were there. Bon Om Tuk is the largest festival in the Cambodian calander, which celebrates the end of the rainy season, the start of the fishing season, and also the unique natural phenomenon – the flow of the Tonle Sap river changing direction. Despite having been warned by some locals about how crowded it would be (the festival is estimated to attract around a third of the country’s 14 million population each year to Phnom Penh), a few of us decided to brave it for the experience.

It started out fun; the place was a veritable carnival, with stalls offering food, games of chance and fair rides. We tried to take a tuk tuk to the river, but the place was so jammed and congested with people, cars, tuk tuks and bikes, we decided to jump off and walk the rest of the way.

A simple game of chance; for a fee, you get three tries to throw the basin such that it completely covers a drink of your choice. Looks and sounds easy, but not when the basin and drink are practically the same size!

We passed by a stall peddling snacks like beatles, crickets, spiders and some slimy-looking creatures! The bunch of us started egging each other on to try the stuff. I must admit I was one of the chickens (hmmm…that’s an ironic choice of word in this context, if you think about it!) who didn’t have the guts to have a taste, but well done, I say, to R and M, who gamely popped some of the stuff in their mouths!

But as we drew nearer the water, we began to sense something was wrong.

The folks in front of us, who before were also slowly making their way to the river’s edge, were stopped by some stall owners. From the body language, we could tell they were warning them not to proceed any further. We stopped as well, and saw that people were streaming away from the river, in the opposite direction from where the music and action was.

Soon, the police arrived and told us all to go back; as we walked back, the scene was one of confusion. Not being able to speak the language, and in an area with the vast majority of the people being local and unable to speak English, we had no choice but to follow the rest of the crowd, and turn back. Just like the flow of the Tonle Sap river, we changed direction.

Shortly after, the police shouted at the crowd to clear the road at the huge roundabout.

It was to make way for ambulances. That was when we realised that something really serious had happened.

What we saw next was extremely harrowing; lorries and pick-ups zoomed out of the same area by the river, and in them were people, some covered in blood, some looked like dead bodies.

We made our way back as quickly as we could, although slowed down amidst the throngs of people trying to do the same thing. Back at our hotel, we saw reports on the stampede at the Water Festival.

The death toll from the incident is an estimated 353 people, with an upwards of more than 700 injured, some severely so. The verdict as to the cause is still not entirely clear.

According to one witness, ”too many people on the bridge and…both ends were pushing. This caused a sudden panic. The pushing caused those in the middle to fall to the ground, then [get] crushed.” Apparently, while trying to get away from the stampede, he said that people pulled down electrical wires, causing more people to die of electrocution. Doctors treating patients who were injured in the crush confirmed this, saying that electrocution and suffocation were the primary causes of death among the casualties.

A journalist from The Phnom Penh Post said that the stampede had occurred due to police forces firing a water cannon into people on the bridge in an attempt to force them to move off the bridge after it began swaying, which had triggered panic among those on it.

Information Minister Khieu Kanharith said that the stampede began when panic broke out after several people fell unconscious on the crowded island.

All in all, something (whether the firing of a water cannon, the swaying of the bridge, people fainting or simply far too many people crowded on the bridge) caused mayhem among the people, and many were crushed in the mass hysteria.

Our hearts and prayers go out to the people of Cambodia.

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