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Published: February 24th 2008
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We arrived in Phnom Penh to a sea of tuk tuk drivers all wanting our business. We said no to them as we just wanted 5 minutes to get our bearings (I’d also read in the lonely planet that Phnom Penh can be quite dangerous so my guard was well up). A tuk tuk driver then came over to us with his big friendly smile and we both agreed for him to take us to Lakeside. This is a well known area which caters for us backpackers.
Our tuk tuk driver ‘October’ (He was called this as this was the month he was born in; Frank also being born in this month and trying to interact asked him ‘what date of the month is your birthday?’. He then replied to us with the answer “Tuesday”, hilarious) said he knew of some hostels in this area so off we went. Three separate viewings of rooms later and a big fat NO from Mr Robbo (Frank said I would have died as the rooms were disgusting), we decided to try a lively area by the riverside. We settled on a room for $10 but even this was border line acceptable.
Everywhere
Choeungek Genicidal Centre
The gate to the Killing Fields was really busy that night so we decided we’d stay the one night and look for other options while we were out that evening. As Frank went to pay October, he said he didn’t want paying straight away but we could pay him tomorrow when we agreed for him to take us to The Killing Fields and also S-21(the Khmer Rouge prison). After some top negotiating skills from Frank, we were sorted for the following day. That night we went on a mission to find a new home for the next few days and also to ‘Happy High pizzas’ which is mentioned in the Lonely planet guide book. We thought we may have got a buzz off the herbs used but the only buzz we got, was giving the street kids our left over slices instead of giving them money which gets taken from them, priceless.
The following day, October picked us up on the dot and off we went to our first port of call ‘The Killing Fields’. As most of you are probably aware, The Killing Fields were a number of sites in Cambodia where large numbers of people were slaughtered and buried in mass burial sites
Skull Tomb
Thousands of human skulls dug up from the Killing Fields. They have been stacked in a huge monument/shrine to remember those slaughtered by the crazy dictator Pol Pot's regime 'The Khmer Rouge', which had ruled the country since 1975. The massacres ended in 1979, when Communist Vietnam invaded the country. Estimates of the number of dead range from 1.7 to 2.3 million out of a population of around 7 million. Me being like I am, didn’t know much about these fields but had been reading up on them from my photocopied book.
As soon as you arrive at one of the sites; you’re greeted with a big glass tomb full of human skulls they had found after the massacre ended. They are sectioned into age range and some have bullet holes or gashes in the skulls so you have an idea of how they may have died. We then joined a group which had a tour guide and pretended that we were with the group so we got some further background information, cheek! After OUR guide had finished, we went for a walk around the site ourselves. As some of you already know, I was looking at some bones that are visible in the soil still and wandered off the beaten track. I then tripped over and shouted Frank to come and
investigate only to find that I’d actually tripped over a hip bone which was sticking out of the ground AAaaaaarrgghh!
After the Killing Fields, October then took us to the prison/ interrogation centre, S-21 used in the Pol pot era. Over 17,000 prisoners were interrogated, tortured, and executed and only a handful survived. This used to be an old school, however, each floor had been made into small holding cells and each floor housed different categories of people. We watched a film about how these interrogation centres were used and they also have pictures of prisoners as well as the soldiers that carried out some of the attacks. The faces will stick in my mind for a long time as will the feeling we got when we walked around the cells which people had been tortured killed in. There are still blood stains on the floors and also bloody hand prints on the walls of the ceils, weird!
After a very educational day, we headed to our now $20 a night room with balcony view over the streets of Phnom Penh and enjoyed an evening of people watching (now pro’s) and drinking. I must add that there are so
many small street children begging well into the small hours that it’s fascinating to watch. Needless to say, we both enjoyed our Cambodian experience and were looking forward to what Vietnam has in store for us. However, neither of us was looking forward to another 6 hour bus journey which turned out to be a nightmare but I’ll leave that for the next installment………
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FASCINATING!
Well them 3 blogs were really fascinating, you don't get stuff like that on your package hol to Benidorm! You're seeing some amazing stuff and your blogs are great, keep it up, love ya xxx