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Published: November 29th 2005
- FOOD: Sticky rice with hot banana inside wrapped in a banana leaf; good veg omelettes at the Capitol cafe; Angkor Beer; dragonfruit; top street food; eggs with duck foetus' inside (I didn't try one); tiny birds deep fried (I didn't try one); fish paste; the most amazing and filling breakfast I've ever had; free drink in luxury lounge of hotel; very good French wine.
- AREA: Cramped bus on very bumpy trip to the capital with 4 ferry crossings; the most beautiful jungle scenery and red rivers; manic, extremely busy roads (except when the Festival of the Dead is on) - many are unpaved and muddy; lack of orphanages!; smart and not very built up riverside; mad building numbering; badminton played everywhere; nice, calm lake away from the madness; Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda; litter all over the streets; food market with wriggling fish; Tuol Sleng museum and Killing Fields - both so incredibly tear jerking a huge history lesson.
- PEOPLE: Hasslers at the border; friendly, polite and smiley Cambodians; moto men everywhere; HASSLE; lots of French speakers; friendly Banyer the waiter; sweet Sarim the tuk-tuk driver; many disabled and limbless people; many beggars including small children
and elderly - so very heartbreaking; SO many kids; many with sad stories from Khmer Rouge days; saffron robed monks; Jo arriving - YEAH; very emotional tour guide at Tuol Sleng; hard working cyclo driver
- ACCOMMODATION: Crap room at Capitol 1, nicer one at Capital 3; ultimate luxury in the 5 star Intercontinental hotel
- WEATHER: Boiling sun; torrential rain (the joy of the monsoon)
Thur 29th Sep: A nice 6am start, taxi to the border and then border hassle. I was with 2 people I'd met at the hostel - Karen from the States and Brit Mike. We got approached straight off by a few men wanting to see our tickets, wanting to 'help' us, not leaving us alone. The walk from the Thai immigration to the Cambodian one takes 2 minutes so we didn't need the cart they were offering. They tried to sell us some health certificate thing from a little shack that they'd hussled us to and then explained the whole filling form in/visa procedure to us (as if we were stupid). We ignored them for all of this and did our own thing. We still had to pay the officials
Ghost town for Festival of the Dead
Usually packed with motorbikes and tuk-tuksextra for their pockets to get our visas at this point but not much.
More hassle, hassle, hassle and then we found our bus man. The bus was packed and the men who had stayed with us all this time seemed to work for him and expected a tip for their services!! 20 people were crammed into this 12 seater bus with no air con and a boiling sun beating down on us.
I sat next to an older guy from NZ who had taught at the uni for 5 years and visits Cambodia regularly. Lots of stories for me. But I wasn't keen on him as I knew more Khmer than he did and he seemed to be one of these ex-pat types who use the locals a bit.
The journey was really bumpy but as the sun was shining, it was better than usual. As it's the end of monsoon here, we were lucky as when it rains, this dirt track we were driving along becomes porridge with the bus slipping and sliding everywhere and the passengers having to get out and push.
We had about 4 ferry stops to cross all the rivers that don't yet
have bridges but this was a good thing as we could stretch our cramped legs, shake the sweat off and eat a sticky rice thing with hot banana inside wrapped in a banana leaf.
I got chatting to 2 Cambodian boys sat the other side of me who were fascinated by the hair on my arms and told me that people here get married at 16 and have kids at 18 usually. Lots of men go to the US to get married apparently and also darker men are considered bad husbands as they are 'real' Cambodian and therefore not as intelligent as the mixed race, 'whiter' men. They were very nice guys and bought me an apple at one of our stops as well as teaching me more Khmer.
The road we were travelling on didn't exist until a few years ago but there were so many tractors working on it that it won't be long at all until it's a smooth, paved road, making a much easier border crossing with Thailand.
I was gripped by the scenery we passed through. For hours upon hours the only view was lush jungle, rainforest and red rivers - so beautiful.
The 7 hour trip turned into 11 hours - it was somehow bearable even though the road was too bumpy to read and every so often there was such a big bump that we jumped out of our seats and nearly hit our heads on the roof. At one point the van wouldn't go into first gear - all fun and games. He kept on driving which was fine until we had to stop for the ferry crossings - he jolt started the van into the back of a car at one. They don't have insurance and so everyone around is the judge and jury about what should be paid (with a few shouts and police threats being chucked in for good measure) and suddenly money lenders are everywhere.
At last we arrived in Phnom Penh, the capital of this country. Cambodia is smaller than GB with a population of 13.5 million (95% of which are ethnic Khmer). The Khmer empire of the Angkorian era was begun by King Jayavarman II in the year 802. It was the mightiest empire in the whole of South East Asia until overambitious projects lead to it's fall. The Thais sacked Angkor in
1432, the city was abandoned and the capital moved to Phnom Penh. In 1864, the French stopped the Thais and Vietnamese squeezing the country into extinction and their rule lasted until 1953. King Sihanouk claimed independence from the French, who didn't much care for the country anyway and his rule lasted until the Khmer Regime. The Vietnamese overthrew the Khmer Rouge's brutal regime in 1979 but guerilla war continued until 1991. The Cambodian People's Party is now in power, although slightly on the corrupt side!
I was hit with confusion over the US dollar and riel being used as currency alongside each other and how quickly their minds work to give you change in dollars, riel or a mixture of both. I was also struck with how many people can speak French too, although this seems to be the older people more as English is now the chosen language to be taught.
The city is huge and my first impressions were: lots of petrol stations, LOTS of motorbikes and lots of hassle for a taxi (which is a motorbike as there are very few car taxis here). We walked for a bit but were so overwhelmed with the
crazy chaoticness of it here (worse than Bangkok) that we got a tuk tuk when we saw one.
Capitol hotel where we landed is ok but I got the crap room with mould and dirt and a smelly bathroom with just a hole for a window. We had cheap food and an Angkor beer at the restaurant on the corner and then sleep overcame us. It's customary over here to eat with a spoon in your right hand, pushing the food onto the spoon with a fork in your left. They don't eat with their left hand as they use that for toiletry purposes...
Fri 30th: I had a long lie in and a veg omelette for breakfast at the same place - such a nice waiter and free tea is given out (that seems to be the general thing for restaurants to do over here). The reception staff didn't seem too friendly, nor the gran at the launderette that I found after a trek. Cute baby though who was obviously adored.
I went to Psar Thmei market which wasn't great but I discovered a new fruit there that looks like a pink, spikey hand grenade. The
minute I got my wallet out I was surrounded by women with kids and disabled people without limbs. Very tough to ignore them or give them something and then get surrounded by yet more...
There are moto (bike) taxi people EVERYWHERE asking you constantly if you need a taxi, where you are going, where you are from, if you want a tour etc. 'Te ow kohn' is a very necessary, quickly learnt saying ('No thank you'). The bikes on the move make it very difficult to cross the road as even in the very few places with pedestrian crossings, they ignore the rules. The streets are not all paved and the roads were still wet and muddy from the recent rain.
There seem to be a huge amount of children running around (50% of the population are under 15). I found 2 ATM's after reading there weren't any but they looked brand new.
The Tonle Sap riverside area is quite smart with international flags lining this very wide, brown river which families use as their bath. Lots of nice shops line the riverside road, including specialised ones with goods made by disabled/young villagers/kids etc. I passed lots of
beautiful, colourful, detailed pagodas and wats but didn't stop at any as I'm waiting for Joanne to arrive. I couldn't find any volunteering work which is a shame as I have a week to kill. I was surprised at this and didn't even pass any orphanages or find anyone that knew of any. I had the miserable laundery woman look at me suspiciously when I went to collect it. That's because it's not due until tomorrow! I guess they don't have the luxuries of washing machines in a lot of these launderettes (if any).
Karen and I found a good Chinese style restaurant to have dinner in, away from the busy streets and into the back streets more. Some rich Cambodians with flashy jewellery were next to us - one who now lives in Oz was hammered and showing his English skills off to his mates. He taught us 'cheers' in Khmer and then proceeded to 'cheers' us a million times before passing out. It rained heavily and stormed all night - I was so glad to get back before it started!
Sat 1st Oct: I tried to change my room to one like Karen's which is
much nicer for the same money but no such luck. After breakfast in the good old Capitol cafe again I took a slow walk in the sun to the river, nearly getting knocked down by a bike on the way - the green man only applies for half the road and the bike was coming up the other half the wrong way! I chilled for a while in a riverside cafe but it was hardly chilled as so many kids come up asking you to buy postcards or photocopied books. They are very persistant but someone told me he'd seen them at the end of day gambling all the money they'd made that day away.
My observations today were how smiley all the kids are - they all say hello to you and love it if you speak back. There is rubbish everywhere on the streets - no bins here. I sat and watched whole families on one motorbike whizz past, even dogs go on these family outings sometimes. Somehow they all fit on the bike...
Lots of bike drivers wear masks as the city is very polluted but hardly any wear helmets. There seem to be lots of
NGO's about but the government rely on these heavily, the corrupt government that is.
I walked back down the road that seems to be my regular road to walk down now and passed the same family living on the corner of the street - lots of them living on mats on the street.
The house numbering here is mad. The street numbers make some sort of sense with even numbers going vertically through the city and odd going across to the river but the number of the building is chosen as the lucky number of the owner so No. 2 can be next to No. 171!!
I had a breakthrough with the gran at the launderette - the little baby recognised me and came up to me and she actually smiled.
I met up with Karen for a beer in our cafe with Banyer the waiter being chatty and then we ate at the street market next door with all the locals. We just had to point at what we wanted and hope it was what we thought it was! One meat was a bit non descript so I'm not sure what I actually ate but the meal
was less than 50p and very nice. So many people came up to us asking for money or food. We dished out 100 riel notes to lots of them without realising how little 100 riels actually is. Basically, it's a complete insult and we may as well given them nothing. We tried to give food but they didn't want it, except for a little girl who scraped all the leftovers into a bag until she had a meal's worth - heartbreaking.
We went for a beer after, sitting amongst the litter and started chatting to 2 men next to us. They were eating eggs which sounds ok enough - until we saw what was inside the egg - a baby duck! I'm willing to try most food but not that! The guys were very ambitious - one is a web designer studying hard to do a TEFL and go to the US to live (he informed us how much he thought he'd have to spend on living for a month over there. Think he will get a shock!) The other is a tuk tuk driver but wants to start his own shop business. He said in the low season
he's lucky to get 2 customers a day but lots more in the high season. He pays 35 dollars a month on rent plus 2 dollars for all the bills!
One elderly lady we'd given money to earlier came by and started moaning about us to him as we'd only given her 100. He tried to explain to her that there are many people after our money and we haven't got a limitless amount but he said she just didn't get that as white people are seen as millionaires. She was so skinny and looked so desperate. I offered to buy her a meal but Sarim said for the 1000 riel it cost for a meal here, she could buy a lot more elsewhere. So I gave her the money. My god it's only 10 pence but she was smiling away and stood there praying to offer me wishes. Sarim said the elderly get no money from the government, no pension and no-one to look out for them. A lot of them are alone as their family was killed during the Khmer Rouge regime. Some of them could well have been living healthy, wealthy lives just 30 years ago and
Not a bad view of the whole city
View from our posh hotel room, Intercontinental Hotel now they have nothing. He said the local people give to them regularly as they have it so tough. It really, really tear jerked me. There are hardly any elderly people still alive anyway and the few there are look so lost and distant and get sweet FA.
Sarim also explained to us about the 'Festival of the Dead' which is taking place this week - an important festival to remember their ancestors that takes place in the temples.
Sun 2nd: I had my usual breakfast - Banyer now knows what I have and just brings it out to me when he sees me. I changed hostels from Capitol 1 to Capitol 3 (so much nicer for an extra buck) and did my usual walk down to the river. WHAT a difference a Sunday makes. Hardly any traffic, people or shop goods taking up the streets. Such a pleasant walk!
One of the kids from the street corner family came up to me with a plaster on his nose, pointing to it with a 'feeling sorry for himself' look on his face (a very good actor). I gave him some fruit which delighted him. A few minutes
A beautiful tree that was used for horrific purposes
Tree children were tied to and beaten against, Killing Fields later another little boy appeared at my side. I talked to him for a while with neither of us understanding the other and then walked him to a stall selling food. Not food I would have that's for sure. It sold tiny birds which must've only just hatched, plus bigger ones. They were dead thank god but still all in one piece. I asked him what he wanted and bless him, with a big smile he pointed to the cheapest thing there (one of the tiny birds). He said he only wanted one. I got 5 for a dollar and the stall woman fried them up in boiling oil and put them in a bag with lime and the chili sugar stuff! A woman with a baby approached me (she'd had the same accident as the other boy as she too had a plaster on her nose!!). I gave 2 birds to her and 3 to him. They were so pleased and waved goodbye to me for ages, including the baby. I know it's encouraging them to approach tourists but this country just seems so poor and these people so grateful for nothing. It's breaking my heart.
I walked
along to where the Independence Monument is. The road got posher and posher with the houses getting bigger, embassies appearing, big companies with flashy lights, fancy paving and grassy bits where I found out what the popular sport is... badminton. Stacks of people playing it.
I felt at home that night as I went back to the quiet backstreet restaurant I'd been to with Karen and on the way back, Banyer spotted me from his accommodation and shouted out a greeting.
Mon 3rd: At breakfast I found out more about Banyer's life. At 21 he is an orphan who works all hours to support his brother and sister. He's very polite and friendly but has a sadness about him unsurprisingly. The streets were even emptier today as it is the Festival of the Dead.
My street family kids came running up to me again. I gave 2 of them popcorn and told them to share with the others. Of course, straight after they left one of the others came up to me looking confused as I'd given them popcorn but had nothing for him. Or rather 'looking confused'.
The shopping mall is huge and packed but I got
what I was looking for - some new trousers (green of course). Size Large - these people are tiny. Some kids from an orphanage were playing music and dancing but I still couldn't find their orphanage.
I then walked to the lake area, down tiny dirty streets where everything is crammed in. I found a guest house with a restaurant at the back to waste away the hours. A nice wooden patio overlooks the plants floating on the surface of the lake. The family that run this place were very friendly, especially baby Tom with his gold jewellery.
As the day ended all the guesthouses started to compete with each other with music. Our guesthouse played Britney and Eminem mixed together so loud it crackled. Not so relaxing but funny to see the teenage kids dancing away to it. Western life has certainly caught up with these kids - they are as obsessed with mobile phone cameras as anyone. Family life in Cambodia is very important - they take lots of pride in their family and all look out for each other. Perhaps that is why the babies are so smiley. The sun sets over the lake and then
in the distance I watched a storm take place behind the clouds.
I got my first moto taxi back - very fast and thrilling!
Tue 4th: Got up late yet again. Am getting used to this midday rising lark. I spotted Sarim whilst having lunch by the river and invited him along to the bar tonight with us all. Mike had to leave early though as he was interviewing the owner of another bar about life in the Khmer Rouge days. She was working as a BBC correspondent at the time and so had to scrub her hands and face hard with dirt and go to work on a farm so that the K.R. didn't torture her. Even so she was whipped and tied up... at least she survived.
Sarim told me more about his family - they all live in a little village and 3 of his brothers and sisters have died under the age of 13 as there is no hospital nearby. His uncles died in the K.R. days. I made him cry by telling him off for not going home for the Festival of the Dead. He's so camp that I reckon that's the reason he doesn't go home much.
What a day - I also heard Mike's story. Both his parents have died in the last 2 years too. He went to the temple for the Festival of the Dead where he said he was the only Westerner and the monk blessed him.
It started raining heavily while we were in the bar so that when we left we had to roll up our trousers and wade ankle deep in mud!
Wed 5th: I got up early for once - 10am! Sarim was supposed to pick me up to take me to an orphanage he knew of but his tuk tuk broke down so I spent the day in various cafes and bars chatting with an American guy. He told me about a woman he'd met who works for the UN here. Apparently she published an article with a theory that Cambodian people have a violent strain in them. She came to this conclusion as the vast majority of the population are descendents of Khmer Rouge soldiers. She also claims there is a high level of lack of intelligence due to the fact that practically all intellectuals were killed. Hmmm, this guy liked to talk so not sure how true this is!
I'm getting to like Phnom Penh lots. Considering how poor the population is, they are so friendly and laid back, even if they hassle the tourists lots. They live a simple life and seem to be recovering slowly from the pain of the past. Buddhism is the main religion and there are lots of monks strolling around in their orange robes.
The Cambodian food is not spicy but has lots of fresh veg. They use a fish paste a lot which I've smelt (it stinks) but not tasted.
Thur 6th: An even earlier start to go and pick Jo up from the airport. Sarim informed me at the last minute that all his friends were busy and so couldn't pick me up. So me and all my baggage got onto a moto instead. It was so nice to see all the smiley faces of everyone meeting people at the airport. I was one of them.
Jo arrived safe and sound and we splashed out on a luxury air con cab to the best hotel in Phnom Penh that she'd got a cheap deal on.
OH MY GOD - I'm sorry but I'm going to have to bang on a bit here about this place. Bear in mind that I haven't seen such luxury for a LONG time and in fact I've never stayed anywhere so nice in my life.
Lamps everywhere, pillows and cushions on the comfortable bed, a posh glass topped table, a desk to fit in with all the other dark wood furniture (with free writing paper etc), an armchair with a foot rest where you can look out of the huge window with a cool view. TV, fridge, toblerone, posh glasses, huge mirror in the HALL, a speaker with a volume knob in the bathroom so you can listen to TV whilst lying in the HOT bath using the free products (vanity set, dental set, toiletries for everything). Big fluffy towels, bathrobe and slippers. Phew, what else... bars, restaurants and long carpeted corridors filled with paintings, 4 lifts, staff to open doors for you and arse lick you generally.
We discontinued pretending we were rich and famous the minute we stepped outside and piled on the back of a moto to take us to the river. After a stop at the Independence Monument (erected in 1958 to celebrate independence from 100 years of French rule), we had some food and then got turned away from the Royal Palace for wearing vests (durr, we forgot). Sarim showed up to save the day and drove us back to the hotel and back. The staff didn't seem happy to see a tuk tuk pull up outside their posh joint - he wasn't allowed in the grounds to drop us by the door!
The Royal Palace has many different buildings in its grounds - all with coloured small tiled decorative roofs which detailed people hold up. King Norodom Sihanouk lives there so many buildings aren't open to the public. He became King again in 1993 after returning from exhile in Beijing where he'd gone in 1970 after being overthrown by the army and giving in to Khmer Rouge (he'd been a popular King for 15 years before that and still is popular, if not quite so).
The grounds are very well groomed and peaceful. In one building, everything seems to be covered in gold. In the Silver Pagoda (5,000 silver tiles cover the floor) sits a tiny emerald Buddha. Small Buddha images surround it and a human sized Buddha made in gold with 10,000 diamonds covering it sits in front of it.
We went back and chilled in our palace for a while and then found a small local restaurant for a meal of big, juicy shrimps, rice, pineapple. We were not sure they'd understood what we'd ordered but it all came - although in stages!
Fri 7th: Breakfast was something else - 5 different cereals and muesli, nuts, raisins (all in posh bowls), lots of fresh fruit cut up into little chunks, yogurt, toast, sugared croissants and cakes, lots of meats, cheese, juices, omelettes made up for you on the spot, noodles, soup, veg and meat, fry up material....
We stuffed ourselves and attempted to walk some of it off by walking to the Tuol Sleng Museum/Prison via the food market.
Quite an interesting food market - lots of meats in full animal form, veg, fruit and fish that were still just about alive and wriggling. Mixed with this was the usual amount of litter. The streets really are the bins here. The museum was on a muddy street and surrounded by barbed wire coiled up along the top of the high walls. We had missed the morning film so called Sarim and he took us to the Killing Fields first. The bumpy journey there in the tuk tuk was fun but that was the only fun part about the trip.
A history lesson first about Khmer Rouge... During the American/Vietnamese conflict, the Americans suspected Vietnamese communists were using Cambodia as a base to launch attacks. The US secretly carpet bombed huge areas to kill any Vietnamese communists, of course killing many civilians in the process.
King Sihanouk was overthrown by the most pro-American member of his government, General Lon Nol, who was discontent with Sihanouk's 'sitting on the fence' tactics between the Americans and the communist Vietnamese.
Lon Nol proved to be incompetent at ruling and his corrupt army meant many peasants joined the communist Khmer Rouge party to fight against him and the K.R grew at an incredible pace.
As Lon Nol's army became under threat of collapse, the US came in with support in the form of military aid and $7 million worth of bombs were dropped onto Cambodia, causing yet more innocent lives to be lost and more angry soldiers joining the K.R.
The corrupt officers of Lon Nol's army sold ammunition and supplies (given to them in abundance by the US) to the Khmer Rouge, giving them the power to continue.
Cambodians fought against Cambodians for 5 years in this bloody civil war until Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge army gained power in April '75 (the US support had fled the country by this point).
Many children had been sent to fight for both sides and so the population was relieved at first that the war had ended.
This joy didn't last long as the K.R. immediately forced the entire city of Phnom Penh and other cities and towns out onto the streets and into the countryside. Hospitals were emptied and anyone disobeying to leave was executed on the spot.
Pol Pot renamed the country to Kampuchea and restarted it at 'Year Zero' with an aim to transform the country into a totally self-sufficient, Maoist, peasant, communist state. This meant the eventual killing of many Buddhist monks, teachers, doctors (only 40 in the whole of Cambodia survived), students, ethnic minorities, intellectuals... even people who wore glasses. Many of these people scrubbed their hands and faces with dirt to pass as peasants.
Markets were demolished, hospitals and schools pulled down, there was no currency or books and families were seperated.
Permission was required from the new K.R. 'Angkar' organisation for practically everything and darkness fell over the country.
People were made to work in the rice fields and farms from sunrise to sunset and only given tiny portions of food each day whilst the K.R. stuffed themselves. Those who tried to catch wildlife for food were murdered. They all had to wear the black uniform of the K.R and if anyone tried to complain or suggest new ideas, they were executed. That is if they even survived the hard labour, disease and starvation.
Many were beaten to death, disembowled and their livers cooked and eaten, families of the executed also killed, babies thrown into the air and impaled on bayonets or smashed against trees.
As the regime continued, the K.R started killing their own soldiers even. Many considered the Khmer Rouge to be of human form but with demon hearts.
The Vietnamese came in to save the day and in 1979, the Khmer Rouge were overthrown and fled to the jungle, where they continued guerilla warfare.
In their masses, the Cambodian people returned to cities to find their families or fled to Thailand. Chaos hit Cambodia along with famine and disease and many more died.
In total, from a population of 8 million, 2 million people died as a result of the Khmer Rouge regime.
After one of the most violent regimes of the 20th Century, it wasn't until 1998 that, after various agreements and peace plans had been signed, the country became more stable.
The Killing Fields at Choeung Ek were where people were taken from S-21 (Tuol Sleng) to the extermination camp at this sight where they waited in a waiting room for their death. 20,000 people were killed here and no-one survived. In 1980 the remains of 9,000 people were found.
I was struck immediately with how peaceful the area is - green trees, flowers shooting through the ground, birds singing and a quiet calm. I was also struck with the depressing weight of death and tortured spirits. Kids play in the area and beg - do they have any idea whatsoever at what happened here?
There is a memorial stupa on the sight holds all the skulls that were found. Tiny mass graves are signed with who was found in them - one with naked women and children, one where people were blindfolded, bound and pushed in still alive, one where people had been forced to kneel and bludgeoned to death with pickaxes instead of shot to save bullets.
A tree was marked as being a tree which children were beaten to death against.
Tears spring straight to your eyes and with a gloom about us we left and went to the Tuol Sleng Museum.
The Khmer Rouge took over the Prey High School and turned it into the S-21 prison (Security 21). Tuol Sleng literally means 'poisonous hill'. It was the largest centre of detention, interrogation and torture.
Up to 1,500 people a time were held there and in total 14,000 people were imprisoned there; many were women and 2,000 were children.
7 people only survived. They were imprisoned for 2 - 4 months before being taken to the Killing Fields for execution.
Prisoners were brutally tortured to extract confessions by methods such as pulling out their fingernails, hanging them and dipping them into filthy, freezing cold water, twisting their nipples with pliers and getting scorpions to bite them and dipping head first into boiling water.
The best rooms had nothing except a wire bed, pots for toilets, torture weapons and shovels. Intellectuals were kept in tiny concrete cells, not even 5 foot in length where the open door looked onto the wall of the cell opposite. All these cells contained were the toilet pots. Prisoners had their feet chained together, had no clothes and had to be silent at all times, obeying all orders. They were tortured twice a day and were not allowed to cry out when being tortured. Barbed wire screens covered the entrance to the cells to stop suicide jumpers. Most suicides were by using a spoon to stick down their throats.
The museum contained photographs of everyone held there - many had their given number pinned through their skin. So many of their expressions were petrified but brave. Most of the Khmer Rouge soldiers (who were aged between 10 and 15) were killed here also. Our guide explained how her father, who was a teacher; brothers, uncles and cousins were all killed. She can remember working on the farms and then walking for 10 miles after it all ended back to the city. She was the most emotional guide I've ever had and tears were in her eyes and a look of such pain as she was showing us around.
A video was then shown with a mother talking about her son and his lover who were both taken to S-21. Such a heartbreaking story and such a heavy, intense, heartbreaking place.
We were wiped out emotionally after this day so took it easy in our hotel, making the most of the luxury on offer. We found the gym (don't worry, I wasn't so stupid as to actually use it) and the pool. We had the pool to ourselves for a while - a nice one with bar side stools in the pool itself. We'd been given vouchers for free drinks so went and sat in the posh lounge area and used the vouchers on very good wine. Almonds were brought out to us and we pretended we were living the high life for a while before going down to the river front for dinner. Tonight was supposed to be our 'night out' but we ended up just staying in the French restaurant we'd found, drinking French wine. The river front was not nearly as busy as I'd expected and in fact was quite dead.
For our journey back to the hotel, we took a cyclo. We both squished into the seat at the front and then the poor guy had to cycle us back. A slower way of travelling but fun and you get to see more. I had a go to see how easy it was but the guy seemed a bit nervous as we headed towards a main junction so he took the wheel again.
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