The Time Has Come To Say Goodbye....

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The Last Few Days Before Parting Ways....

The journey from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh covers about 400km of rural Cambodia and provides glimpses into the lifestyle of some of the people from the regional areas. Food stalls on the side of the road selling almost nothing recognisable, to rice fields, to someone killed in a traffic accident.... yes that's right.... we drove directly passed a body lying on the road while everyone just stood around looking!!!

Back to the big smoke and instantly hassled by tuk-tuk drivers again, we struggled through the masses before finding our guesthouse. Ny Sokun, the owner, met us at the door and we sat down and had a few drinks with him while he brushed up on some of his English. In the mean time, we brushed up on some Cambodian, and proceeded to learn Sawasday (hello), Or Khun (thank you), and Mon, Be, Mai, Buon, and Phrum (1,2,3,4,5).

The next day, armed with our new vocabulary, we headed off to see the sights around the Tonle Sap River. The Royal Palace faces an open garden area that leads down to the river and the National Museum is situated directly next door. A few hours spent looking through Khmer artifacts dating back to before the period of Angkor, and we headed back to the guesthouse before the inevitable afternoon thunder storm.

We decided to take Phnom Penh a little slower and space out our sight seeing with a bit more relaxation time in between, so Saturday saw us visit Tuol Sleng museum in the afternoon. This museum (also known as S-21) used to be a school before the Khmer Rouge took over Phnom Penh in 1975 and evacuated the city, turning this school into it's main security office for the detention, interrogation and execution facility. Over the next 4 years, thousands of men, women and children were bought there under the suspision of treason (with often no evidence). Very few ever made it out. If you were educated, located to close to Vietnam, or even in the administration of the regime and seen as having ambitions, that was often enough to be branded traitor to the cause. It was a sobering sight walking through the cells and reading stories of guards or the families that had someone taken. A big reminder to all that this should never be allowed to happen again.

Sunday was a further insight into the atrocities that were prevalent during the late 1970's, with a trip 15km south-east of the city to one of the hundreds of Choeung Ek killing fields used by S-21 to execute the "traitors". The site is pockmarked with ditches of excavations where mass graves were found, sometimes with more than 500 remains in one pit. During 1979, the amount of prisoners being sent to the killing fields had increased so much due to not even bothering to interrogate or detain them, that they were not able to kill them all within the day and were left blindfolded in cells while listening to others die. There has been over 8000 skulls found at this field alone, which are now housed in the shrine built for the victims.

That night, Sokun invited us out to an eatery with him for a real Cambodian experience. We headed to a little place where we sat with the owner of the restaurant and one of Sokun's friends, a policeman, and had plates of food brought out (starting with the identifiable and ending with some a little more cringe-worthy. Beef Lok Lak was delicious and almost a ritual in how it's eaten, with a dip in a mixture of salt, pepper, spices and lime juice. On to the next course and out came the frogs..... not bad at all but a little bony for my liking. Next came snake..... and pretty bloody good I must say. Not many bones, soft flesh and a nice taste. Last dish and it was bought from a walking vendor..... fried frogs all lined up on a shish-kebab. Crunchy goodness!!! Amy finally got to try something exotic with some locals.

To bed early as we were off to the airport early Monday so that Amy could be on her way home and I.... well, I am heading to the land of the rising sun.

It's been a good 5 weeks with Amy and I'm glad she has enjoyed the majority of it..... she must have cause she plans on coming back in the future. But for now.... the lone traveller continues.....

"A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles." - Tim Cahill

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Comments

[amy denning]

"you crazy lady!!! "
i wanna go baaaaack!!!! i miss the stench and the crazy food and the rubbish and storms and cheap alcohol!!!!!