Blogs from Phnom Penh, South, Cambodia, Asia - page 211

Until 1975, located in a quiet street away from the cacophonous centre of Phnom Penh, was the Tuol Svay Prey High School. After their capture of Phnom Penh in 1975, the Khmer Rouge, having cleared the city of virtually all its habitants (sending them away to work in the rice fields), turned this otherwise ordinary-looking school into a prison. The rebaptised the place S-21 - "Security Prison-21". Here, over four horrific years, the Khmer Rouge imprisoned thousands of perceived enemies of the Revolution. The prison gates saw between 16,000 and 20,000 inmates on their way in. Only seven people came out. The classrooms of Tuol Svay Prey were turned into torture chambers. When the Vietnamese Army entered Phnom Penh in 1979 having toppled the Khmer Rouge "government", a team of Army photographers stumbled upon the buildings ... read more

We bought a couple of bus tickets for our trip from Battambang to Phnom Penh at the hotel. When we asked how long the trip would take (we should have seen this coming, really), the staff replied "six hours - actually it takes five but we tell you six so that you get a nice surprise". Or words to that effect. It was a remarkably candid reply we weren't expecting ! Obviously too many farangs are worried about the length of bus trips - to locals the issue is more or less irrelevant ! The passengers on the bus comprised about 20% foreigner and 80% Cambodian - have loaded up our luggage into the hold (along with countless sacs of rice and noodles - do they not sell rice and noodles in Phnom Penh ? I ... read more

In the morning I woke up early and headed out to some ruins north of Angkor Thom: Preah Khan a monastic complex from the late 12th century. It wasn’t so crowded in the morning and I had a chance to have a good look around. A funny thing happened while I was on my way into the structure, I met a young police officer who works in and around the temple complex. The funny part was that as we started talking, his English was quite good, he started giving me a guided tour and pointing out key features of the ruins. It seems that even the police are not beyond getting a little extra take home pay. One group of tour guides in training came past and the leader made a joke to the young officer ... read more

well look who's got addicted to her blog...! today was another wonderfully mad day..arising early and being in the office by 8am to meet Socheata (my favourite gal here...'bubbly and squeaky' would describe her perfectly..not in the tattie and spinach sense ofcourse). Everyone at CDPO has been amazing with arranging interviews and meetings for me, and today she'd got four women from all over phnom penh to agree to share their thoughts with me...so after a breakfast of beef noodle soup in a packed local restaurant (believe me, 100 pairs of eyes turned to see the sleepy-eyed white girl traipse in), we got a moto (both riding sidesaddle, ofcourse) over to TV Apsara to talk with a girl who's legs just hadn't developed properly after being given a faulty dose of medicine when she was a ... read more

Cambodia is a revelation. Pretty much all I previously knew about the place could be personified in two rather unsavoury men - Pol Pot and Gary Glitter (for the non-UK-celeb-focused, Glitter was a 70s glam popstar turned paedophile who relocated to Cambodia following his release from prison in the UK - old, bald, failed, evil). Yet this poor embattled country has a strongly beating heart and a warm character all of its own, and I can’t wait to get to know it better. We only had four days scheduled for our trip - essentially an extended run across the border and back to renew our Thai visas. We planned to spend a day in Phnom Penh, which was meant to be vile, and visit the Killing Fields - an unpleasant but important dose of history in ... read more