Cycling hell

The old pagoda at Wat Prek Prakrom

Mum Ing Srung and 18 year old daughter Siv Heng at their sugar-cane stand

This rather camp looking Neak Ta resides at the entrance to Wat Champuh Ke'Ek

In prep for a 5-day cycling trip to Mondulkiri province on the 17th of this month, I've been commuting to and from work by mountainbike in the past week but I needed a longer practice run, so this afternoon I got 'on my bike'. Along Norodom Boulevard, I took a left over Monivong Bridge and an immediate right along the road that runs parallel to the Bassac River and into the Kien Svay district. I started out under overcast skies but as if to put the boot in, the sun quickly appeared and shone strongly throughout my three hours of cycling hell. Why hell? Well I haven't ridden a bicycle since I was a teenager, many moons ago, and now that I'm back home, I'm really feeling it. My calf muscles are very distressed. The route itself was quite good, the smiles and hello's were very welcome throughout the trip, the road was being resurfaced so was adequate but a little bumpy and I made a few stops, mainly for sugar-cane and cold water refreshments and visited a couple of pagodas. The first pagoda was at Wat Prek Prakrom, which boasted an older vihara with wall paintings on the outside and locked doors, so I couldn't get a look inside. Nearby was the sugar-cane stall with mother and daughter duo, Ing Srung and Siv Heng providing refreshing drinks on the way out and on the way back too. Further along the river I had a good look around Wat Champuh Ka'Ek, a favourite pagoda of the Prime Minister Hun Sen and his cronies. It was a burial ground and prison during the Khmer Rouge time but has recovered dramatically since and is now one of the wealthiest pagodas in the vicinity, with more than 80 monks and a room full of Buddhist statues donated by its wealthy patrons. There's also a genocide memorial at the rear of the pagoda, with the remains of 1,500 victims found in 85 burial pits in the grounds of the pagoda. The wat's school was used as the detention center and 18,000 people are believed to have died there. I turned back for home after visiting the wat, as I needed to get back before dark and to visit Meta House for my Saturday evening film fix.

The stupa at Wat Champuh Ka'Ek

Some of the victims are housed in the genocide memorial at Wat Campuh Ka'Ek

The audience numbers were a little better this week for tonight's screening of Inside Pol Pot's Secret Prison, a 2002 American History Channel production that provided a look behind the barbed wire of Tuol Sleng. Interviews with survivors Vann Nath and Chum Mey, alongwith former S-21 guards, interrogators and photographer Nhem En formed the crux of the story of Pol Pot's infamous prison where more than 14,000 people were imprisoned, tortured and killed. Adding weight to the programme was David Chandler, David Hawk, Youk Chhang and Nate Thayer together with a series of fuzzy reconstructions and rare film footage. Afterwards at the Rising Sun, I met Mariam Arthur for the first time after a series of emails over the last few years. Mariam is doing her bit for the Cambodian film industry and founded the NGO Film Cambodia Organization in January. She has been producing the film trade magazine Mise en Scene since June 2007.