Day 23 Phnom Penh

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Day 23
Up at 7am sat on the balcony watching the large market stalls below. It's like a lily pond with green umbrellas. Everyone selling and having breakfast street side. In Vietnam people take great pains to cover up their faces, wear hats gloves and socks even in sweltering heat so as to keep their skin as white as possible. They believe the whiter they are the wealthier they look. The body cream has whitener in it. I suppose it's no different to our fake tan creams. In Cambodia they don't do this. Breakfast was really nice I had cheese, tomatoes and veg samosas sat on a mezzanine overlooking the lobby.

Lesley has decided to go cold turkey today and take her arm support off. It's still badly bruised and limited movement. We're going to look for a small sling for support today. We've thrown the suitcase away and have reverted to her back pack. Good job we didn't throw it away but I'm not sure how she will manage. Every day she's improving. She's a tough cookie.

We set off to find a tuk tuk to take us sight seeing today. They're everywhere so it's not a problem. Lesley drew some U.S. Dollars from the ATM for us to share. It's much easier to pay in dollars. We negotiated a price of $25 with the driver. He will take us to the killing fields, wait for us, take us to S21 prison then back to the hotel. Good price! He was with us nearly 5 hours.

We arrived at the killing fields. It's very hard to describe. It was very quiet nobody spoke. Most people wore headsets and listened to an excellent audio. It is as described - fields of mass graves. The stories we listened to were horrific, torture, no regard for human life. People thought they were being relocated in trucks but they waited until evening then turned on party propaganda speeches to drown out the screams and they killed everyone. There is a large tree called the killing tree which was horrific. This is where babies were smashed against and killed. How could this happen in my life time? How could the world let this happen after what we'd seen the Nazis do to the Jewish people? From 1980 They have excavated some of the bodies. 1 in 4 people in Cambodia were murdered. Nearly 3 million in 3 years. At the end of the tour there was a shrine with all the excavated skulls in. They were marked with colours which shows the nature of their death. For example bludgeoned, shot etc. The Khymer Rouge took the head off their victims so they could not be reincarnated. I'm sorry if this seems upsetting but I'm saying it as I saw and felt it.

We then moved on to the S21 prison. There were many rooms that had a metal bed, shackles and boxes with torture equipment. These were interrogation rooms. Of the 30000 people kept there only 7 survived. You were taken to the prison if they thought you had done crimes against the state. The Kymer Rouge banned education. The S21 prison was in fact a school. Their thinking was the state belonged to the land workers. Anyone who was educated or in a high position were either killed or sent to prison for torture. We walked around. Many of the rooms had photos too graphic to look at. Men, children, woman. There were gallows too. I stood and listened to a young man telling his family story. His parents were captured and his father worked for the ministry so he had to lie and say he was a musician. The guards made him play instruments for their pleasure but it saved his life. There were the stories of the 7 survivors. All tortured. Some admitting to being CIA agents even though they weren't. I'll leave it there but I've not done justice to the story of all these poor people.

We got dropped off and went for a coffee to reflect. We decided to push on with the day. We walked passed the palace. It's the same as in Britain - royalty and prime minister. We pressed on and towards the large market, looking for a new sling for Lesley on the way. No joy. The market was huge but most stalls sold the same. We made a few purchases then decided to walk back. It was 6pm and we hadn't eaten since breakfast we decided in a snack and coffee. We walked in the main river front and stopped at a cafe. It was the worst coffee and tea ever! We decided a trip to our coffee shop Browns was in order! Neither of us are hungry for dinner so we get snacks and head back to the hotel - sitting and chatting on the balcony. Think we're going to try the roof top pool tomorrow.

PS - not having found a sling for Lesley - my luggage strap has worked very nicely! Happy times!

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