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Published: December 7th 2006
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So we caught the boat from Siem Reap and travelled down the Tonle Sap lake and river to arrive at Cambodia's capital, Phnom Pehn some five and a half hours later. The boat journey itself was excellent, especially as sitting out on the roof of the boat we managed to pick a spot far enough forward to get the only dry seats in the house. The first bit of the journey involves crossing the lake part of the Tonle Sap which is massive. For several hours there is nothing but water on the horizon and consequently reasonably large waves. The spray from said waves seemed to soak all other roof dwelling passangers to the bone except us and the couple next to us. Result. Once the lake turned into the river part of the Tonle Sap we were treated to views of the surrounding landscape, palm trees, stork like birds, villages on stilts and lots of friendly fishermen who waved as we passed by.
On arrival in Phnom Pehn we transferred to our hotel, Indochine 2, a block away from the river front. Here they did good breakfasts in their cafe which we enjoyed whilst reading their newspaper, The Cambodian
Daily. Several things struck us on arrival in Phnom Pehn, how poor Cambodia is, evident in the number of beggars and slums and how friendly the Cambodians are. We also experienced how dangerous their roads are, every time we crossed the road we took our life in our hands as you simple have to step out in front of moving traffic and pray ferverantly that it is going slow enough not to hit you. Althought technically they drive on the right, they actually drive anywhere really including, occasionally, the pavement.
On our first day in Phnom Pehn we visited the National Museum where a lot of the original Angkor treasures are now housed to prevent looting at Siem Reap. After lunch at the Foreign Correspondents Club we visited the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda. Set in some beautiful gardens we saw the famous silver pagoda floor, made up entirely of silver tiles, and the Emerald Buddha (not unlike the one housed in the Grand Palace in Bangkok) as well as some giant Buddha footprints.
On day two we made our way to Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum which is the site of the notorious S21 prison, main detention camp
for the Khmer Rouge. It has pretty much been left as it was when the invading Vietnamese forces liberated it. Of the 17, 000 inmates it held, only a dozen or so survived. It is a very distressing place to visit, not least because the Khmer Rouge photographed each of the inmates, alive or dead, with many of these photos are on display. Nearly all of the pictures were of ordinary men, women and children, most of whom looked frightened and bewildered. Some were even trying to smile for the camera. Whilst here you are able to see the tiny, tiny cells they were kept in, shackled to the floor or each other, the instruments of torture used to extract 'confessions'. There was also a short film about the period focusing on the impact to one particular family. The film culminated with a survivor discussing his artwork depicting scenes from S21 (on display at the museum) with a former guard confirming these were accurate representations of events.
The following day we took a tuk-tuk out to see Choeng Ek, or the killing fields. This was the largest mass grave they have excavated, although there are many others throughout Cambodia.
Here they have found over 8,000 bodies, with many other graves left undisturbed. Prisoners from S21 and other areas were brought here and brutally murdered, including babies and children. Today the site is little more than a field with grassy hollows, dominated by a charnel house memorial that contains the skulls of the exhumed victims. Here you can burn incense and take a guided tour around the fields where you can fully understand the gruesome atrocities of the Khmer Rouge regime. What is hard to comprehend is how the Cambodians remain so friendly and positive, despite many of them having lived through the Khmer Rouge, and despite the fact the international community did almost nothing to help.
On our final day we decided on some light relief so we headed for Psar Thmey market and purchased a few souveniers and then caught a tuk-tuk across town to the very posh Cambodiana hotel and borrowed their pool. Some much needed relaxing and topping up of tans was done.
Our next stop in Indonesia via Changi (again) so it is off to the airport (again)......
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