Aussie Roadtrip: Go directly to gaol, do not pass go, do not collect $200

Sydney to South West Rocks and Trial Bay

Leaving Sydney the weather was looking up and the traffic was looking down, neither of which was hugely surprising. Once getting through the traffic we drove fairly solidly to Port Stephens, only stopping for a coffee in Gosford. Above Nelson Bay we had lunch at the fantastic Gan Gan lookout. From the two sides of the lookout you can see Newcastle, the Myall Lakes, Soldiers Point, Hawks Nest and Nelson Bay. I convinced a couple at the car park that they really should go on the 200-metre walk to other side of the lookout as it was worth the view. (They weren’t keen to get the kids out of the car which I can see would be a nuisance but worse would be missing that breathtaking view!)

One view from Gan Gan lookout with Gymea Lillies in the foreground (5 metres tall and, according to the sign, used by Aboriginals for spears)

Gan Gan lookout

Back in the car we enjoyed a mixture of audiobooks, conversations, an excellent roadtrip playlist (copyright Sarah Chalmers!) and some podcasts. Swapping drivers every so often, it got us through to the beautiful Macleay river. Driving beside the river was a lovely way to get off the highway early and make our way to Trial Bay as the sun began to descend. With memories of Sydney monopoly still in our heads, we made it to Trial Bay Gaol campsite (Arakoon) with enough light to put up the tent, greet our new kanga neighbours and fly over to South West Rocks proper for sunset.

Scenic drive along the Macleay River

Traditional tent photo

Sunset at South West Rocks

Yoga was the first order of the next day followed by breakfast and a strenuous 100 metre walk to the campsite beach. Our first swim of the road-trip was very refreshing. Rob was perplexed to discover some USD in his boardies. We calculated it must have been there since our 2013 U.S. road-trip, a nice symmetry!

Our beach at Trial Bay campsite

How long has this buckaroony been here? 

The land our campsite was situated on was once a convict gaol and then later a German/Austrian internment camp during WWI. It was initially created with the aim of using prisoner labour to build a breakwater. Trial Bay was a place ships would stop to shelter from storms between Sydney and Brisbane, and got its name when a ship called the Trial was seized by convicts and wrecked there in 1816. The breakwater was built over about a decade then abandoned, quite a contrast to the success of the Snowy Scheme project we had learnt about days before. Remains of the breakwater are still seen scattered around the place.

Touring the gaol was quite interesting, though there was repetitive information at some points. Compared to the gaol Mum, Rob and I visited in Ireland, it seemed like a pretty good place to be imprisoned. In contrast to the freezing temperatures and monotonous work the Irish suffered through, prisoners at Trial Bay got baths once a week, had supplements to their rations and had access to the beaches in between. Aside from the work of the breakwater, the prisoners of both eras had some freedoms and punishment was reportedly lenient for the times. There was an article about a time where the POW’s discovered they could jump on a beached whale and use it as a slide! After this they harvested the whale for oil with less than ideal results. (The oil they had packaged in tins to send to Sydney exploded stinking up the bay for a long time.)  To add to the disappointment, when they heard the explosions in the middle of the night, the prisoners thought that a German navy ship had arrived to rescue them!

Kookaburra sits on the gaol wall

Trial Bay Gaol

Kangaroo tries to get some shade using the gaol wall

Inside the gaol

The breakaway attempt

In the afternoon we headed over to Smoky Cape Lighthouse which was recommended to us by my Uncle Peter for its extraordinary views of the coastline. From the lighthouse you could see seemingly endless km’s of rolling sandy beaches south east of the cape. The views were certainly stunning and we were glad we made the trip up. It seemed like there were some fantastic walks in the area that we’d love to do next trip.

Smoky Cape Lighthouse

Enjoying an early contender for best view of the roadtrip

Joey sneaking out for a nibble

View from the other side of the lighthouse

Before leaving the area we did some early morning yoga. This time a male kangaroo that appeared to be courting an unwilling mate decided to come rather close to our set-up. His rather aggressive stance and what I took to be mating calls meant I called on some recently acquired knowledge from the back of the campsite bathroom’s doors. All my youth I was taught to “Slip, Slop, Slap” and “Stop Drop and roll” but never knew a thing about the all important “Roo roll.” So, knowing what to do, I dropped to the ground in a ball and rolled towards Percy the car, eventually ending up in the right spot for “Child’s pose” as the kangaroos hopped off! We ended our yoga practice unscathed.

Boy were we glad we chose to stay in this area. It really had a lot to offer with several beautiful beaches, a relaxing town, wildlife, an interesting history and excellent views from the nearby Smoky Cape Lighthouse at Hat Head. It isn’t all that close to Melbourne, but neither is most of the world (!) and hopefully we can come back at some point.

Beach at South West Rocks

Enjoying sunset near the campsite

Beach sunset at Trial Bay

S-21 Prison, Phnom Penh

Cambodians, like the Vietnamese, have been through horrific experiences in recent decades through US/allied bombing, the disturbing rule of the Khmer Rouge, ongoing civil war, Vietnamese invasion and the nasty vestiges of war.  The eastern part of the country was heavily mined to restrict the movements of the Vietcong and the process of mining continued throughtout multiple regimes, as a way to maim but not always kill enemy combatants. The 'logic' behind this is that injuring a soldier takes two  enemy combatants out of action but killing only takes one.

Somehow while growing up, I either never learned or somehow blocked my mind to these tragedies.  When I did hear of Pol Pot, I imagined some far off dictator, some regime in South America, something that happened long ago.  But the truth is so much closer in time and geography.  Some of these heinous crimes occurred before I was born, but much of it so close that people on the street, little older than me must have suffered through the experience in one way or another, and many of those much older could have been directly involved with them, as perpetrator or victim.

S-21 Prison is actually a school that was used as a prison and torture facility after the Khmer Rouge came to power (1975) and drove most people from the cities to the fields.  Their brand of communism (like many others I suppose) was the belief that labouring in the fields was a glorious pursuit and that intellectuals and artists were a threat to the regime.  People would be brought here for "re-education" or "re-training" if they were not of use in their prior role, if they were somehow a threat to someone in power, or if they were suspected of being a CIA spy (or perhaps that last one was just used as a way to getting rid of people the Khmer Rouge didn't want around).  People were whipped, drowned, electrocuted, starved and executed within the walls of this school.  If they did survive the prison, many were taken out to the killing fields to be executed.

In one remarkable room, there was a section dedicated to a visit, in the late 70's, of a Swedish journalist who came as one of Pol Pot's guests to Cambodia, and left writing about what a glorious place Cambodia was.  He wrote about a classless agricultural communist state could thrive. He now writes about how horribly wrong he was, how ridiculous it seems that the wool had been pulled over his eyes, with he a willing participant. None of the others in his party have similarly stated these revelations. Kat found this display especially fascinating as it was a new addition to since her visit in 2008. It certainly raised questions as to whether we are turning a blind eye to the various conflicts or dictatorships around the world at the moment.

During our visit, we saw a documentary, where two of the only seven known survivors of the camp told of their experience, along with a "prison guard" who told of his role at the prison, and at being forced to murder someone at the killing fields to prove that he was an "absolute" follower.

Now setup as a quasi-museum to expose these crimes for what they were, a visit here is a sad, soul-crushing experience, leaving you to (again) wonder how humans can be capable of such atrocities.  Even after being driven out by the Vietnamese invasion in the late 70's, the Khmer Rouge continued a guerilla war to 1991. Disturbingly, the court cases against men like Pol Pot and his cadres have only recently commenced, with the man himself dying in 1998, before justice was done.

Stories we have read and seen are reflective of tragedies elsewhere where people under a dictatorship have been forced to do horrendous things to save loved ones or themselves. It is impossible to know what lengths one would go to in these circumstances. Although evidence perhaps points to the contrary, one would hope we as humans can learn from the devastation of war or turning a blind eye to our neighbouring countries and avoid any sort of repetition of these events. Cambodia is showing tremendous strength in rebuilding their communities with such fresh memories and resulting (and ongoing) pain of a truly horrifying time.

The War Remnants Museum, Ho Chi Minh City

Can't imagine what it would have been like to see these Hueys coming at you 

The War Remnants Museum exhibits the horrors of war in Vietnam's recent past with a message to never to forget the long lasting and devastating impact of war. The Vietnam War (as we refer to it) is known more locally as the American War, and really was a continuation of hostilities of the First Indochina War that the Northern Vietnamese saw as a colonial war, originally resisting French occupation and trying to reunify Vietnam as a communist state.

Kat spent a short amount of time in Ho Chi Minh in 2008 and the War Remnants Museum was the standout experience of her time. It is a powerful museum that exhibits some of the horror of the war and the continuing impacts it has on those involved. Most people know that as technology had improved, the horrors of this conflict was better documented than prior to this time. However, for us, nothing really compared to the photographs and stories shared in this museum. Two particular things stood out.  

From French photographer Huet

Requiem exhibit

On the top floor there was an exhibit called "Requiem" (Tim Page and Horst Faas brought it together and have a book of the same name, and we should credit the book itself here). This description from the exhibition itself puts it better than we could summarise:  

"....Between the height of the French Indochina War in the fifties and the fall of Phnom Penh and Saigon in 1975, 135 photographers from all sides of the conflict were recorded as missing or dead. This exhibition is a memorial to those men and women, and in many cases it includes the last photographs they took...."

Not just the last photographs they took, but ones they took moments before their own death, the words "last roll of film" give an extra definition to the full stop at the end of the caption.  

Capa stepped on a landmine after this "last frame"

This was truly a moving exhibit because it focused less on "we this..." and "we that..." but really just allowed you to see people and their experiences with a journalistic and artistic eye.

It's hard to pick a favourite (even the term doesn't fit), but some punched harder than others.  This image from Eddie Adams is of a South Vietnamese colonel threatening a Vietcong prisoner.  He would have only had seconds to take this photo, and didn't know until after it was developed what significance it had.  If you actually want to know what happened next, the photographer talks about it in this Youtube video.  

Eddie Adams' photograph of South Vietnamese colonel and a Vietcong prisoner

It has been a little harder to find online copies of North Vietnamese photographers.

Shadows of war (Dinh)

We don't want to diminish the other parts of the museum, for they too have a very significant and important message, and leave one feeling quite worn out, horrified, sick and generally disgusted that we as humans continue to do this to each other. An interesting element of the exhibitions was the use of language to show perspectives of history. In several places "American War" was used or "Vietnam War" (with apostrophes) to intimate how many view the atrocities that occurred here. It actually used to be called the "Museum of American War Crimes" among other names, which gives you an idea of the tone of the place.

Self-immolation as protest

The long-lasting impacts of Agent Orange

The other major element of the museum that stood out was the section dedicated to the horrific "Agent Orange".  Rob knew very little about the use of dioxin during the war or its devastating impact on land, crops and people generations later. Kat's knowledge was based on her last visit however the depth of information actually makes a second visit worthwhile. Dioxin can cause debilitating disability for millions of children and families, even now.  The vestiges of this insidious weapon are still felt in the Vietnamese (and to a smaller extent American) communities today, and there are still sites that have not been cleaned or treated since the anti-communist presence in the 70's. Particularly striking was the below letter to President Obama written in 2009 which shows how the devastating impact continues in second generation victims. This letter was exhibited after hundreds of photos of adults, children and babies affected by dioxin and asks if the President could spare some time trying to address this “forgotten problem”.

Letter from a second generation victim of Agent Orange to President Obama

Questions of accountability for actions of war and responsibility for the consequences loomed large during our visit. This article provides information on how 40 years post-war the U.S. has begun decontamination of the worst affected areas in Vietnam. This marks the countries first direct involvement in decontamination and is expected to take four years.

Parts of the exhibition showed the incredible skill that people with disabilities due to exposure to war chemicals have developed. For example, one story told of a man who could write with his feet. Seeing such stories and photos, especially those that involved children, Kat considered what impacts of war would she see when she began volunteering at an orphanage in the next few days.

The displays also made us think about what supports are there for victims of dioxin and how these differ between countries. For example, the article mentioned earlier compares the compensation which American veterans exposed to Agent Orange receive ($1,500 a month) to Vietnamese families with disabled children (just over $5 a month). Court cases and pleas to both the US government and chemical companies from Vietnamese victims have not been successful, whereas U.S. veterans' cases have. 

The direct and indirect effects of dioxin will continue to be felt by many Vietnamese now and in the future. It is obvious that a huge undertaking is needed to improve the lives of those with disability in Vietnam by providing better supports. Whilst the decontamination project is significant, if long overdue, it is only really part of the picture.