Apparently these little fellas became popular during the Pol Pot regime when many people were starving. They decided they liked them and they are still a delicacy.
I didn't dare! I've tried some strange foods on this trip so far, but my revulsion was so acute I couldn't even get close enough to take a proper look.
19th January 2005
Phnom Penh is the most chilled capital city on Earth. I found it strange that it has that vibe about it at first, because of all that this city has endured, but then maybe that’s why. We found a lovely little guest house called ‘TAT’. The lounge area has a row of hammocks in front of a huge TV which shows loads of really good films. There are five dollar bags of ‘happy’ on the menu. You can also get happy pancakes, happy milkshake, happy green curry, basically happy anything. Tim was overjoyed. He had a three course Happy Meal… of course. I just had a quarter of his pancake and was buzzing for hours! It's the kind of place where you could just stick around doing nothing at all for months, (especially if you order too much from the happy menu). The owners are lovely and they have a three month old pure white puppy called ‘White’ who I have fallen in love with.
I was a bit doubtful about going to the Killing fields and the S 21 Museum at first, but I'm glad we went. I was really surprised to find the vibe at the Killing Fields to be really peaceful - the same as any other cemetery. Only this one housed so many tortured souls. I figured that at least here, despite how brutally they were murdered, they finally found peace. Our guide was 14 when the Khmer Rouge took over. He was bitter and still had tears in his eyes when he pointed out the now empty graves. Imagine how many times a day, every day he tells the same story and it still makes him cry.
What happened to these people was horrendous, unthinkable. And it was only 30 years ago. It happened to the Jews in WW2 and I guess then everyone said they would never allow such an atrocity to happen again. Bollocks! It's happening now in Somalia. It happened in Croatia. The weirdest thing about this is that they were doing it to their own people, same creed, same country.
Walking around you hardly ever see any old people in Cambodia. Most of them were murdered. Tim’s mum mentioned to her Cambodian friends in France that we were here. They said they had no family left to put us in touch with because they had all been wiped out. It’s horrendous.
With those older people you do see you can't help but wonder which side they were on. To be honest, I don't think it really mattered. Most of the adults in the Khmer Rouge knew full well that they had no choice. That’s why those animal ‘leaders’ turned their children into monsters. “Year Zero”, they called it. Poison the minds that are not old enough to have an opinion or understand and then train them to kill without mercy. Sound familiar?
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