Phnom Penh & The Khmer Rouge

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The tour of Cambodia would be wrapping up soon and our final stop was in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. We only had 1.5 days in the capital before we had to get to Vietnam. Day 1 was mainly markets. I visited a store I first saw in Siem Reap that employs people disabled by polio and landmines to create handicrafts out of many recycled materials. I picked up a few more things for friends/family back home. We got to see the workshop which was in full force to fill a 10,000 item order shipping to the US. We randomly met some Australians whose dad was from Oregon and she came from Salem only 2 weeks ago...very small world.

The next day we'd be doing a full tour of Khmer Rouge related sites. Stop one was S-21 which was a makeshift detention center in the heart of the city. It used to be a school before it was used as a prison/torture chamber. It was scrubbed down but otherwise nothing has changed. All the barbwire & temporary cells are still there. It was pretty scary to see and realized this only happenned 30 years ago. Next we went to a site known as the "Killing Fields". Prisoners were transferred hear to be executed on a daily basis. Over 17,000 people were killed here and most of their bones are still buried. There were 100's of mass graves all over the site. You could see bones and scraps of clothes sticking up from the ground. This was a lot of more full on then we were expecting. To save ammo, the Khmer Rouge didn't use bullets for the executions. They employed a few very gruesome tactics on the people. In a weird conincidence, the last remaining Khmer Rouge leader had a preliminary hearing while we were in Phnom Penh. All the leaders have since died naturally and the people are anxiously waiting for the trial to begin. Because of government corruption, the trial was pushed off over 30 years. A very sad story to hear.

For our final night in Cambodia we went out big to "The Heart Of Darkness". We had a full on pat down upon entering which got a little too fresh for most people. Inside were the elite of Cambodian youth along with their bodyguards. The locals are known for picking fights with backpackers and then letting the body guards jump in...fun fun. Most of us were out till about 3-3:30 and we were catching a 6am bus. The following 6 hour busride was very very quiet.

I've loved Cambodia and I'm already looking forward to making a return trip. By far the kindest people I've ever met. Next up in Vietnam which will be a whole different story. Much of the coastline has been bogged down in flooding and typhoons. Not sure how far I'll get, but we'll see.

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Photos

Unrecovered Bones
There were bones like this everywhere along the paths...very eerie