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Published: August 19th 2006
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A short flight to Phnom Penh with some amazing views of the Cambodian landscape and the river Mekong! A quick bus ride and we arrive at the hotel… I have a really nice room overlooking the river. Perfect. We headed to the riverside restaurant where I decided to sample some Cambodian pizza… Not bad. Not Bad. Average to good I would say. After the meal we went upstairs to this little room where this guy has set up a mini cinema to show his documentary on Pol Pots regime and the Khmer Rouge… It was a sad but informative movie. Well made with lots of real footage! It's hard to believe that all this stuff happened and it wasn't really that long ago. 50 percent of the population in Cambodia is under the age of 18 due the number of people that were killed by the Khmer Rouge. The population is slowly recovering. It is even harder to believe that a number of ex - Khmer Rouge leaders are in the government today. This place is still extremely corrupt.
Having learnt some more about Cambodian history the next morning we went to visit the Tuol Sleng genocide museum. In 1975
A torture cell at Tuol Sleng
The photo on the wall was pretty grim! Pol Pots troopers turned Tuol Sway Pre High school into a security prison known as S-21 which became the place to torture those who dared to oppose him. We had another local guide who showed us around this dreadful place. We started by looking around some of the cells which still had the original beds and torture equipment. On the walls of a number of rooms is a graphic photograph of how the poor beggar had been found tortured to death when the prison was found by the Vietnamese. We visited various different parts of the prison including some rooms that had been separated into tiny cells with bricks, a display of photographs of victims of the Khmer Rouge and skulls of some of those who had been murdered. As we went round the prison our guide explained about what happened here and how it had effected him and his family some of whom had died as a result of the regime. It was pretty hard as he broke down half way round and had to stop talking. A grim place. Most people in our group found it hard. Some left.
Our next stop was the Killing Fields of
Choeng Ek where between 1975 and 1978 about 17,000 innocent people were transported here to be brutally exterminated in some horrific ways. What now remains is a number of giant mass graves. Around 9000 of these bodies have been exhumed revealing the horrific ways in which these people were battered to death, however 43 of the 129 graves have been left untouched. Walking around the paths there are many bones, teeth, and clothes that are lying about and visible out of the muddy path. It was impossible not to walk on them. There were some horrible things here such as a tree used for killing babies. Not nice. There is a memorial where 8000 skulls have been arranged by sex and age and a kind of monument. A sad morning.
On a lighter note we headed to a nice place for lunch. 'Friends' restaurant has been set up to help former street kids who learn, train and work at the restaurant. The food was absolutely fantastic... The raspberry and vanilla shake and the fish with salsa Verde were my favourites. I tried lots of other things off the menu all of which were yum yum yum, bubble gum. I
will be back here one day. Top munchies here. Good grub. Mint Scran. Nice one.
I then hopped in a tuk tuk with Fiona, Steve and Brooke and we headed to the Russian market for a good look around and to the Royal Palace to see some gold looking buildings complete with the customary Buddha shrines etc.. A quick stop at Wat Phnom but we didn't go in. No time and we couldn't be bothered.
For drinky drinky's we headed to the FFC club for some great views of the Mekong and some refreshing alcohol. We then went for a meal at a restaurant called Veiyo Tonle. I had a Cambodian fish curry which was extremely tasty but too big to finish even by my standards. I gave some to Steve (Amok) and the others. They said thank you please. This restaurant was a bit of a special place. The owner of it looks after about 24 orphaned children all of which were there at the restaurant. They were putting on a special show of traditional dancing which was pretty cool and they all looked pretty cute in there little costumes. There were also these Japanese people at
the restaurant who we had previously met at the airport. They were complete mentalists but amazing people excited and cheering at the smallest things. They were also here to visit the children and were paying to fly the kids to Japan for a holiday. Nice peeps these Japs. After, (and during) the meal we spent time meeting all the kids, and dancing with them. They were all so cute and wanted to hug us and ask us questions. They spoke good English were extremely polite and had obviously been well looked after and taught well at this place. They kept getting us up to dance with them and were such happy smiling people. Most of them don't even know what happened to their parents. We hugged the kids goodbye with a few high fives and headed back to the hotel.
The next day it was time to leave Phnom Penh and Cambodia. What an amazing country. What I will remember most here is the people.. so friendly and welcoming and always smiling. I would like to return here one day and perhaps travel around some other parts and of course return to some of the places that I will
Tuol Sleng
A depressing place. never forget. And so.. we boarded a smallish boat for a 5 hour trip down the Mekong river to the Vietnamese border. A thoroughly enjoyable boat ride with some great views. The border control peeps were slipped some money and some cigarettes to make the process as painless as possible... Next stop Chau Doc, Vietnam. Laterz... Stay safe. Over and Out.
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