Our first impressions of Phonm Penh weren't that good, there are some pretty parts with temples that looked like Thai architecture, but it was super busy, dirty, and very manic ! As always we settled down in a local drinkery, for a new type of beer, Ankgor Beer, very nice, and begun to work the place out !
The main things that we wanted to go to whilst in this city were "the killing fields" and the Tuong Sleung Museum or S21 prison to understand the Khmer Rouge atrocities, and the history around that.
We had a real day of horror to say the least as we got the two big hitters done in one day. For those not in the know the Khmer Rouge were a political group that threw Cambodia in to turmoil after civil war, and basically within the short period of 3 years brought Cambodia to its knees and the economics back to the stone age, as well as brutally killing around a fourth of the Cambodian population !
The killing fields were our first stop and as the name suggests this is where there are a collection of mass graves that contain thousands of bodies of people killed around 30 years ago after being deemed against the revolution. It was a sad sight , most of the bodies have been exhumed and a pagoda of skulls were on show as a memorial. However there are so many bodies and bits scattered everywhere that it would be an impossible task to identify them all, especially as they were quickly degraded so only bones were left. The result is that a lot of bones and clothing have just been left in and around the grounds as they were , but in the hasty execution, the graves were shallow and you find yourself walking on fragments of bones and the peoples clothing that they died in. I dont think our feet will ever feel the same again!
Straight after we took the trip back in to the City to S21 to get the history behind it and walk around the school/ converted prison that the Khmer rouge used to imprison interrogate and torture before sending off to the killing fields. There were rows and rows of pictures of the people that died in that place including women and little children, all documented. Not pleasant at all and makes you realise what an amazing accomplishment it is that Cambodia is actually exsiting and moving on. For three years they had no currency , closed it borders , had mass famine and disease and exterminated most of the intellectual population in an attempt to make a classless society.
A up point of the day was to see what Cambodia is trying to do now to help the children carve a life for themselves and many are orphans or street kids. We went to a restaurant called Friends to have some Cambodian tapas, not only was it the best food we have had in ages it was served and made by Students who are learning to get in to catering and hospitality. It is a great charity and a little seedling in phonm penh !
So after a packed couple of days we decided to chill out in Sihanoukville on the coast and grabbed a bus there. But we will pop that in another post !
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