Phnom Penh

We arrived late at night in Phnom Penh, we chose a guesthouse at random from the lonely planet, and jumped into a tuk tuk when we left the airport.  The guesthouse we chose turned out to be a total find.  It was very cheap, very central, and had lots of friendly people.  We got chatting to some folk over dinner, one couple, an American teacher and a Cambodian tuk tuk driver,Gung,  and a volunteer teacher from Brighton, who’d just graduated.  Gung was rather good crack, he was funny and entertaining, and when he volunteered his services for a tour for the next day we went for it. 

We started off at the Royal Palace, which was very impressive and very similar to the Grand Palace in Bangkok.  I was surprised to find out that Combodia still had a king, I thought the Khmer Rouge would have wiped out all traces of the royal family, apparently not, the King fled to China during Pol Pot’s reign of terror. 

After the Royal Palace we moved onto Tuol Sleng Musuem.  Tuol Sleng Musuem was a prison during the Pol Pot era, also known as Security Prison 21 (S-21), it was the largest centre of detention and torture in the country.  Tuol Sleng Museuem serves as a testament to the crimes of the Khmer Rouge.  There are harrowing tales of a handful of people who survived the nightmare.  The prison was pretty much left as it was found, with rusting steel bed frames, shackles and torture implements in many rooms.  Like the Nazis the Khmer Rouge kept meticulous records of their depravity.  Each prisoner who passed through the doors of S-21 was meticulously photographed, often before and after torture.  Room after room displayed these black and white images of the men, women and children who had to suffer at the hands of the Khmer Rouge, and virtually all were eventually killed.  It’s a thoroughly depressing sight, and worse was to come when we visited the killing fields.

We stopped for a welcome lunch break, and then moved onto the National Museum.  The museum was ok, they had a good collection of statues from Angkor, but as we were going there the next day we didn’t really have the appetite and didn’t stay for too long.

The final and most depressing stop of the day was the killing fields.  Between 1975 and 1978 about 17, 000 men, women, children and infants who had been detained and tortured at S-21 were transported to this extermination camp.  Once the Khmer Rouge had identified an enemy of the state, the whole family was often wiped out to avoid retribution from relatives.  We walked round the site whilst listening to the audio tour.  The narrative was well done and informative, it was read by a survivor who was brutally descriptive.  When you hear these stories, it beggars belief how humanity could be so cruel.  The prisoners were often bludgeoned to death to avoid wasting precious bullets.  When the Vietnamese liberators found the extermination camp they found a tree covered with flesh, brain, skull fragments and teeth.  They later discovered this was the tree the soldiers had used as a bludgeoning device for killing babies.  Rags, bone fragments and teeth are visible throughout the site, every heavy rain pushes more to the surface.   There is a memorial stupa at the centre containing 8000 skulls arranged by sex and age, visible behind clear glass panels.  The whole experience was thoroughly disheartening but it was worthwhile and the audio tour and layout was well done.    

Our tuk tuk driver had suggested going to a wine tasting he was going to along with his girlfriend and some of her pals.  The wine shop was also a delicatessen with lots of interesting food stuffs from around the world.  The wine was free flowing and we stayed for an hour or two leaving decidedly tipsy.  We were then driven around by our somewhat drunken tuk tuk driver to sample some of the Phnom Penh nightlife.  It was good fun, we eventually arrived home around midnight, rather worse for wear and not relishing our bus trip to Siem Reap the next day.