Last day in Cambodia

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Today was kind of a solemn morning. We visited S21 (security office 21) and the Killing Fields. S21, was a high school which was converted into a torture chamber during the Pol Pot regime. At anytime during 1975 and 1978 it held about 1200 and 1500 prisoners. From this facility the vicitms were often transfered to the killing fields where they were killed and laid in mass graves. The site we visited had 129 mass graves, of which, only 86 had been excavated. Of these 86 mass graves, over 9000 bodies were discovered. It was very sobering to walk through these fields and still see clothing, teeth, and bone shards lying around these fields.
After our morning trip, Lauren and I visited the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda, where the royal ashes are held and a huge emerald buddha sits. We are kind of templed out, so we didn't stay too long. Then we walked over to Wat Phnom, which is another temple, built for Lady Penh. Lady Penh placed three images of buddha on the Mekong banks, and then the city of Phnom Penh was born. However we were more excited about the huge fat monkeys that were everywhere. People feed them lotus seeds constantly and they are definitely the fattest monkeys I've ever seen. I took some good photos of them.
Tonight at dinner I ate a tarantula! It sounds grosser than it actually was. It really just tasted like deep fried soft shell crab. Check out the photos!
I'm off to Vietnam by boat tomorrow on the mekong river!

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Comments

[D2]

Oh Em!!!
I can't believe you ate the tarantula!!! You are quite the adventurer! Love your blog and so glad you obviously have developed an iron stomach. Looking forward to hearing from you again! Happy Summer Solstice, D2

[Mom]

OMG
YOU MUST GET YOUR EATING HABITS FROM ME. WAS IT IN DATE AT LEAST?