Another Capital City

---

Been in the Capital of Cambodia, Phnom Penh, from 5th of March. The bus journey from Kratie was ok- it seems that everyone in south East Asia is obsessed with Karaoke, on the tv on the bus they were playing loads of cheesy music including the Spice Girls with the words on screen! Our guesthouse was quite nice and we spent a lot of time in there just playing pool.

In and around Phnom Penh there are a lot of places that shed light on the darker side of Cambodian history. In 1975 the Khemer Rouge, a communist group led by Pol Pot, took the capital of Phnom Penh and unleashed unspeakable terror on the country. From April 17th 1975 it was seen to be Year 0, all aspects of old cambodian culture and traditions were destroyed and any semblance of old Cambodia was exterminated. It is estimated that 2-3 million people died as a direct result of the Khemer Rouge regime between 1975 and 1979. On our first full day in Phnom Penh we decided to go to S21, which was used as a prison by the Khmer Rouge. It was a horrifying experience: there were displays of the torture methods used by the prison guards and photographs of mutilated bodies. Perhaps the most horrifying aspect of the museum though were the thousands of mugshots of the prisoners who had stayed at the prison and were later executed.

After visiting S21 we went to the Killing Fields, a collection of mass graves. Often the guards wouldn't want to waste bullets when killing people so they simply beat them to death with bayonets, there were numerous occasions where people were buried alive. At the centre of the Killing Fields was a memorial to the 8000+ people that were murdered there, within the memorial were the skulls that had been unearthed from the mass graves.

Yesterday we visited the National museum which shows the brighter side to Cambodian culture: with old sculptures and artwork. Many of the pieces were from the Temples of Angkor, which we hope to be visiting in a couple of days. After walking around Phnom Penh all day we were pretty knackered and went to bed at around 12, we had a bus to Siem Reap to catch at 7am. I however decided to watch the Liverpool game at the guesthouse bar until 5am (Complete waste of time, as it turned out) so only managed about an hours sleep.

Today we arrived in Siem Reap which is a city about 10km from the Temples of Angkor. As soon as we got off the bus it was absolutely manic, tons of tuk tuk drivers were getting in our faces and grabbbing hold of us offering to take us to various guesthouses- not what you need after a 6 hour bus journey in the baking sun when you've only had an hours sleep. Siem Reap looks quite small, we'l probably spend about three nights here visiting temples and stuff before heading back to Bangkok.

Take Care, Mike

---

Photos

Killing Fields Memorial
This containd over 8000 skulls

Our Guesthouse
If you look closely you can see Will standing outside our room

One for the Cookmeister
I think Wills jibing you Dave!

Elephant walking down street
Random!

Comments

[Catherine Smith]

Spelling
Hiya Mike - your spelling is a bit hurried at times!!! The correct spelling is: Khmer Rouge, makes you feel so insignificant thinking one man could snuff out so many lives. Glad your history background is coming into play - I'm finding your website very interesting (especially some of the comments!!!!). Take care son, all my love, MamXXX