Chapter 3: Leaving Cambodia
In January 1975, the political situation was intense in Cambodia. People feared that the country would fall into the communist regime. Some people began to migrate to different countries all over the world such as Europe, America, Canada etc,.. Richard got a contract with a national mining company in Zaire formerly called Congo in Africa. He began his new job in January 1975 at Gécamines in Kipushi, Zaire.
Cambodia’s political situation got worse with bombings in different parts of the country. It was not safe to stay in the capital as the bombing was dropped in the suburbs of Phnom Penh almost everyday, and soon would be in the capital city. One day while my daughter took shower, a bomb was dropped very close to where we lived, she came out of the bathroom with the shampoo bubbles on her hair and was so scared. I tried to calm her down and assured her that it was ok at our house and took her back to the bathroom finishing her shower.
Richard sent me a telegram asking to leave the country as soon as I could. I decided to leave Cambodia as I thought that the government wouldn’t last to the summer. I applied for a visa at the French Embassy to go to France and was granted. In February 1975. I submitted a letter to the Ministry of Education and requested for a leave of absence from my job and was granted. I left Cambodia with my four years old daughter and my eleven month old son. The departure date was set to March 23, 1975. As I left the house around 2:00pm, most of my family members including my aunt along with my children’s nannies, about fifteen of them, stayed in line at the door to say goodbye. I hugged each one of them with my teared eyes without saying a word as it was so painful. Tears came down to everyone’s face. This was my last goodbye to them.
My brother drove us to Royal Air Cambodge Office near the Central Market in Phnom Penh to take the bus from there to the airport. As the bombing was quite intense around the airport, people were not allowed to go there. Only the airlines bus could drop the passengers. Richard’s family including his mother and sisters and some of my friends were waiting to say goodbye to us at the airlines office. We talked a little bit while I was waiting for the departure. It was so sad to say goodbye to them when we entered the bus. We waved to each other with tears while the bus was moving out of the station. Words couldn’t express how I felt that afternoon. I was so sad leaving my family.
Arriving at Pochentong airport, passengers needed to move quickly to the airplane that was running and ready to depart. I hold my son in my arms. My daughter was hold by a young man whom I asked to take care of her during our bus trip. Another young man helped me with my carry-on. When getting on the plane, we buckled up and the plane began to take off without announcement from the airlines crew. When the plane was in the sky, I felt relieved as I could escape Cambodia safely with my two children. But on the other hand, I was sad thinking of my family and Richard’s who didn’t want to leave the country because of the business or other reasons. On the plane I was upset with Cambodian politics and the corrupted government that made the country fell into this sad situation. I prayed for the situation to get better and that people in Cambodia were safe and one day we could come back to our country. How little I knew about the communist regime.
We had to stop over in Bangkok, Thailand to make a connection to France. When we arrived in Bangkok, we saw hundreds of Cambodians that were stranded there because of the shortage of flights to go to France. The airlines asked the new passengers to form a group of ten and needed a leader for each group. I volunteered to be the group leader. The airlines provided us accommodation while we were in Bangkok. We waited for three days in order to continue our trip. I only brought a few clothes for the kids and there was no pyjamas for me and didn’t have enough milk for my son. I did not expect to be delayed in Thailand. I asked our group if they wanted to go shopping for clothes or other stuffs. We all went to a local market near by our hotel and got things that we needed.
After three days, we left Thailand and arrived at Paris airport around 6:00am the next day. I got my two luggages and went through the immigration. At the gate, I expected to see Richard’s cousin whom I sent a telegram from Cambodia of my arrival date in Paris. But no one was there. The cousin didn’t know that I was delayed in Thailand for two days. We took a taxi to the cousin’s house. He lived with his family in an apartment in Paris 13, France. He worked at the Cambodian Embassy. We stayed in his apartment for about two weeks.
I wanted to send a telegram to Richard from Paris to inform him of our arrival in Paris, but did not have his contact number. As a new traveler and no experience, I didn’t take with me the name of Richard’s company in Zaire nor its contact number when I left Cambodia. I went to Belgian Embassy in Paris with the cousin and looked for the name of Richard’s company. We checked from page to page and looked for the name. In one page, the name of a company, Gécamines, caught my attention as I was vaguely recalled it. The cousin contacted Gécamines headquarter in Brussels and informed them that I arrived in Paris with my two children. Gécamines in Brussels asked us to fly to Bruxelles in order to continue our trip to Zaire. As I hold a Cambodian passport, I need to have a visa to enter Belgium. Fortunately, the cousin who worked in Cambodia Embassy got a diplomatic visa for me from the Belgium Embassy in Paris.
When we arrived in Brussels, Belgium, an agent took us to the company’s apartment. Again, I needed to have a visa from Zaire Embassy in Brussels in order to enter Zaire. It was not easy to get a visa to visit Zaire at that time. We stayed in the apartment while Gecamines office worked with Zaire embassy to get a visa for us. During our stay while waiting for the visa in Brussels. The next morning on April 1975, I heard from the radio that the communists “ Khmer Rouge” took power, overthrown the government, and controlled Cambodia. Since that day, it was a complete silence from Cambodia. No news was leaking to outside world. We didn’t get any news from the media and did’t know what happened to our family and people who lived in Cambodia.
Richard was so happy to hear of our arrival in Brussels from his company as we lost contact since I left Cambodia on March 23. Richard never got my telegram that I sent from Cambodia of my departure date. He called me on the apartment telephone from Zaire and assured me that the company was working on my visa with Zaire Embassy and we will reunite soon. He also was worried of our Cambodian passport as the country had changed the political status. But fortunately, we didn’t have any issue and got a visa to enter Zaire.
It was the first time that I had to manage to live in an apartment with my two kids in a foreign country and got three meals a day on my own as I never did household chores before in Cambodia. I used to have servants and maids who took care of everything. I was lucky that I could speak French and got all things done easily. We left the apartment a week later. I was told to meet a Gecamines agent at Brussels airport around 3:00pm to get my air tickets and my passeport. I called a taxi to take us to the airport. He just dropped us and the three luggages at the curb. I asked my four years old daughter to watch the suitcases while I hold my son in my arms and ran inside the airport asking the agent to take Podaly and the suitcases inside the airport. It never crossed my mind at that time that it was not safe to leave the kid unattended on the curb. One lesson to learn about children safety.
We departed Brussels in the late evening on April 23, 1975. The travel time from Brussels to Zaire was about 14 hours including a connection in Kinshasa, the capital of Zaire.
It was about time to reunite with Richard after four years living apart. My two children never met their father before. It was the first time for the kids to meet their father. New adventure was awaiting for us in Zaire, Africa.