Advertisement
Published: January 11th 2007
Hanging around!
I guess it's more comfortable!!Phnom Penh really was an assault on the senses and emotions. Yesterday we did the serious stuff - Choeng Ek Killing Fields followed by the Tuol Sleng (S21) Prison. Although not as graphically 'in your face' as the War Remnants museum in Saigon it used it's vagueness to make you imagine the trauma that went on in these places. I knew very little about the Khmer Rouge and the suffering Cambodia went through before coming here and I still don't fully understand the whys and the hows, but its opened my eyes and I want to find out more.
There is actually very little to the Killing Fields. It is simply a 2 hectare site with what look like several bomb craters and signs reading this is where something was. However, the bomb craters were mass graves that have now been dug up and the shrine in the centre of the site houses 8000 skulls. That's enough to understand the scale of the genocide!
THe S21 museum is within the school that was turned into a prison. Again, the sparse interior is enough to make you imagine what it must have been like there.
Today was more relaxing.
Choeung Ek
Filled with 8000 Skulls - from Khmer Rouge genocide Saw an elephant in a busy street, trying to cross the road. GOt a picture of 5 people on a motorbike and saw a stall of fried tarantulas. Needless to say I didn't try one.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.134s; Tpl: 0.017s; cc: 7; qc: 45; dbt: 0.0487s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
