enter cambodia - phnom penh

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After my flight I headed into Saigon for one more night, again attempted to finish my marketing project with no avail. The room we stayed at last time was booked so after some lunch I decided to check out this place the waitress was telling me about. I don't know what made me stay but I did, the place was however well dodgy and in need of a total reno. I stood their contemplating what I would do to the place and how I would run a hostel business instead of doing my marketing plan (typical).

Woke up in the morning and paid $8 for the room (even though it was suppose to be $10) and ran to the bus. The guesthouse guy came running after me after he realized his mistake, there was however no way I was parting with my 2 dollars for a well dirty room. The bus into Cambodia was lush sans the karaoke but its Asia so its to be expected. Got into Phnom Penh around 2 ish and checked into a nice riverside guesthouse, can't really complain for $4. Ate some lunch with a pair of German girls and kiwi's.

One thing to note about Cambodia is the poverty you see, Just in the tuk tuk driving to the guesthouse you see children begging, garbage thrown everywhere and broken down shacks that are home to a whole family. I really wanted to go volunteer at the garbage dump in town to help feed the kids that work there but time just did not allow. I wish I could have cause this is really one of the places where you want to stay for a long time and help anyway you can...

After lunch we journey to the Tuol Sleng museum which was a high school turned prison under the Pol Pot regime. I'm not an expert at Cambodian history by any means but from what I gather - Pol Pot, leader of the Khmer Rouge attempted to turn back time to year 0 and make Cambodia an agrarian farming society. Money, private property, schools, hospitals were all wiped out. Cities were abolished and people were forced to move to the countryside to work the rice fields. The majority of those who were educated, or opposed the change were either tortured or killed. Over the 4 year period from 1975 to 1979 2 million Cambodians died.

The museum showed the rooms where people were tortured and imprisoned. As you walk into each room you just wonder what horrible things occurred in the place were you stood. You could still see marks on the walls and blood stains on the floor. There was barbed wire barring the balconies so people couldn't commit suicide. Sad moments in history right here.


The next day we went to the killing fields which again just brought so much emotion as you walk around the site. You see these divets in the ground and then you realize that there are mass graves and 400+ people are buried underneath. At some of them you could even see clothes protruding from the soil.

The last 36 hours was a bit intense - which words truly cannot express. I do have a few pictures but I'm not going to post them I'll show you them if your interested.

Interestingly enough even with everything Cambodian people have been through they are still always smiling and very kind.

xx

kris

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