Blogs from Phnom Penh, South, Cambodia, Asia - page 224

In order to celebrate the arrival of Cascade Premium and Coopers Pale Ale at their bar, my friends Yvette and Majid decided to hold an ‘Australian Music Night’. Monsoon is a gorgeous little bar that serves excellent Australian wine (Yvette’s influence) and delicious Pakistani cuisine (Majid’s influence). I was well and truly supportive of this idea, and took to the task of sourcing some great Aussie music for the event. One week before the party, Yvette and I spent a whole day collecting Australian music from both of our computers, and CDs donated by another AYA. We ended up with an amazing playlist, which I was quite proud of. The night was huge, everyone loved the music, the Aussie beer was sold out by 10pm, and Yvette and Majid were sure it was the busiest they ... read more

Four hundred eyes stare back at me, pictures arranged in rows - eerily like passport photographs only there is intense fear in many of the faces. The photos are arranged in rows, twenty by ten, on boards around two metres wide, the faces are Cambodian, they wear some kind of uniform. The room has maybe five of these boards, two hundred people on each side of each board, the room is one of many, chequered brown and beige tiles on the floor, windows barred, rooms the size of class rooms. Before 1975 this building was a high school, from 1975 to 1979 a torture camp and prison in the heart of Phnom Penh, Cambodia's capital city. Tuol Sleng - the former Khmer Rouge S21 Prison. The photos are the faces of the thousands of victims of ... read more

New Year was one of my best yet. Romy and I joined our friends Linda, Erwan and Sopheap for a feast of grilled prawns and lobster with a glass of Rosé in Linda’s little flat. As her neighbourhood suffers from frequent black outs, with no exception for NYE, our dinner was set in very enchanting, although hot, candle light. As the New Year drew closer, the five of us rode through Phnom Penh (despite the rain) and arrived at Elsewhere Bar just before midnight. It was lovely at Elsewhere, as most of the friends who have become very dear to me over the past four months were there. The rain stopped, and we all prepared for the countdown. Linda had smuggled in a bottle of good champagne, so we were able to toast in the New ... read more

All good things must come to an end, and so does my time in this country. Boarding a plane tonight. These last days have been taken at a far more leisurely pace and have been more contemplative than their predecessors. Lingering lazily ... Walking on the riverfront is easy from where I am staying. The footpath is wide so there is no problem dodging oncoming traffic or reversing cars, with fewer fumes and generally a lot of space between people. The breeze that blows also helps with cooling - it has been rather hot and humid these last few days - 36 degree days, (it is winter by the way ... perish the thought of summer days). So I walked quite a way until I found that lake area. Down narrow streets and winding around to ... read more

On Boxing Day I headed for the Killing Fields and Genocide Museum. A stark contrast to the symmetry of the architecture of the regal buildings and gardens, these 2 venues are a testament to a very asymmetrical time democratically. Sobering sites Tuol Sleng Museum is the site of a former high school that was taken over by Pol Pot and his security forces and transformed into a venue for detention and torture. Some classrooms were divided into cells for torture, others were used to house detainees en masse. It was known as Security Prison 21 or S21. In this place, the rooms remain intact and the instruments of torture are on display as evidence of the atrocities committed. Thousands of people were held prisoner here. They were all photographed and records kept of their backgrounds and ... read more