To Hell and Back

It's hard to imagine a mere three decades ago, it was just beginning to regain its shattered population from Hell. Climbing from depths few have ever seen, the Khmers frantically search out loved ones to see if they survived, while their Vietnamese liberators continued pushing the Khmer Rogue further west. And in all the chaos, a lost capital city on its last breathe, moved one finger to show the world it was still alive, even if barely.

It dreamed about the days it was known as The Pearl of Asia, lined with beautiful French architecture, a booming heartbeat and satisfaction of recent independence. It didn't need its parent anymore. Freedom was so sweet, and at full throttle, it ran towards the future.

In the distance, the bombs began dropping, and the men began dying. Its neighbor was under full attack from the American war machine, and a deep unsettling feeling of inevitable war began shadowing this new found golden age.

The bombs became more frequent, the chattering guns louder and more frequent, and the shadows of war began slipping across the border. The shadows grew into a black hole, and the Pearl of Asia ran straight into the event horizon, with no chance of escape.

And the Khmer Rogue, with reluctant support from The Pearl's exiled king from his Chinese hosts, gained ground and ferocity. The tearing forces and chaotic screams and bleeding dreams and broken bones and rotting skies with searing pain all converged....

April 17, 1975....

....Year Zero begins.....

....If you spoke another language, if you were glasses, if you had any contact with a foreigner of any sorts, literate, if you were in anyway deemed educated, you were forced upon the end of a shovel, the blade of a knife, the shock of electricity. All for what!?!? To make some idiotic idea of an agrarian utopia!? Too many died....too many died that didn't deserve to.

The Pearl of Asia didn't just get poo flung at it by a passing group of monkeys. It was shat on, shat on from every direction in every dimension in the universe. It was crucified, left to die while its soul was torn apart by the millions. Decent into hell was in a blink of an eye, and the climb out would be an eternity.

...But the climb would someday begin and the bright future it once ran towards would be realized. It took nearly four horrific years, but the climb did begin with the Vietnamese undoing the nails and throwing down the ladder; the first steps were laid out. A finger moved, a pulse was found....yet so weak....so weakened, in tatters. And now a famine descends upon those first steps, and many more perish.

But with the sheer willpower to live, it continued to climb. And climb, and climb. It saw the opening up to a world it once knew, now drastically changed from its last visit. And eventually it saw the embodiment of hatred, the Khmer Rogue, demolished by years of petty fighting and mass desertions. Justice hasn't yet been served, but it continues to climb. And it continues to shine brighter. It isn't as shat-stained as it was, and it continues to look to the sun towards the brighter future it once ran to. Now, there's no bombs dropping on the horizon, no black holes forming underneath. Old French architecture shares the streets with glossy shops, malls and a population full of life. The heart is beating faster and the wounds are healing.

There's still a long ways to go, but it doesn't matter, because it's been to hell and back. And it ain't looking back. All it asks of us, the world, is to learn what happened, to support its continual rise, and most importantly, to never EVER forget.

Welcome to Phnom Penh, the former, and future, Pearl of Asia.