Phnom Penh

Firstly may we apologise for the length of time it has taken us to get this online. We are now in the islands of Thailand where there is very little internet at the best of times. Anyway....here is out story of Phnom Penh. P.s Can i warn you now some people may not like the picture we have put on here but this is what the Cambodian people have had to live with.

We arrived in Phnom Penh on the boat from the Mekong Delta. This is by far the best way to arrive and get an unbeatable view of the city. As we cruised along we could see the city skyline in the distance and as we got closer we got to glide along the river front seeing their beautiful promenade with all its restaurants, bars and hotels, it was obvious this was a capital city growing with all the building work.
We had a wonder round looking for a hotel and decided on one that we had read about called The Europe. It is rated number 4 out of almost 200 hotels in the area on trip advisor. The reviews weren't wrong, the location was prefect and the rooms were one of the cleanest we have stayed in. The owner was French, he married a lady from Cambodia and they settled in Phnom Penh and opened their hotel. His knowledge of the area and country was fantastic, he was able to recommend restaurants and tours, we were never disappointment by one of his tips. All this isn't bad considering we were paying $12 a night, half the price of any other capital or busy city that we have so far stayed in.

Phnom Penh skyline

 

Banks of Phnom Penh

 Our first day in Phnom Penh we managed to over sleep, jumping out of bed at 11am. We were worried we had wasted the day but in hindsight i think we needed the rest. Having had so many early starts and lots of travelling it was our first day in over a week we did not need to set an alarm (not sure how were going to cope once back in England and having to get up for work 5 days a week?). Anyway our first full day we did a lot of walking, Jonny took on the role as tour guide and walked us almost 3 miles in the midday sun, we did end up where we wanted to be though and that was S21 (Security 21).

Tuol Sleng Museum, more commonly know as S21, is now a museum. It started as a high school with 4 main buildings, each of which are 3 stories high. When the Khmer Rouge took over it was turned into a prison and torture unit. Anybody who had any connection to the old political party, anyone with a skill, anyone who wore glasses, anyone who looked intelligent would be arrested in case they threatened the reagiem of the paranoid dictator Pol Pot. As soon as you walk into the museum grounds you are faced with 14 graves which belong to 14 bodies that were discovered at the prison when Phnom Penh was liberated. Next to where they were berried were 2 poles with a beam across the top attaching them and there were 3 big ceramic pots underneath. When the building was used as a school this equipment was used for physical education classes. The Khmer Rouge used the equipment to tie prisoners up by their feet and swing them upside down while being questioned. The prisoner would often become unconscious during this process which is when the buckets were used. The prisoner would be dipped into filthy water until they regained consciousness, where the questioning would continue.

S-21, formally a school that was turned into a torture prison.

Graves of 14 people found in the prison after the liberation of Phnom Penh

Photos of the victims. There were rooms and rooms of these picture boards.

Prison cells built into a classroom. The blackboard is still in place.

The prison was filled with so many unforgettable hunting stories and images. In the first building, the classroom had not really been changed except glass put into the windows so screams of tortured prisoners could not echo into the city. The rooms have been left as they were found, they had a bed and a desk and some equipment. In the second building the lower level classrooms had been divided into the small cells. The cells had been created either by wood or brick. They were the smallest cells, they were empty apart from a metal pot for a toilet. The prisoner literally only just about had room to sit on the ground. The cells were very poorly built and you could tell that they had been built in a rush to start housing prisoners. One of the buildings had a barbed wire mesh on the outside, covering the building from top to bottom. It was used to make sure no one could try committing suicide by jumping from the third floor. The other 2 buildings were endless rooms of photos. The Khmer Rouge were notorious at keeping records and so a photo was taken of each and every person to entre the prison. It was so surreal seeing so many faces looking back at you, an image neither of us could ever forget. The final rooms told the stories of the 7 survivors of S21, they were the only people left out of 1000s when the Khmer Rough was over thrown. They were spared as they had skills the dictators could use such as painters who could paint the terrible scenes. It was really hard seeing so much hurt and utter devastation, there was an overall wierd feeling about the place, it was horrible yet overwhelming. We didn't realise the worse was yet to come as the next day we were visiting the killing fields. . . . ..

Oh my gosh were we in for a shock. Sometimes when you visit these kind of places its hard to imagine what went on as the areas have re-grown and a lot of the evidence has been collected and taken away from the sight. Cambodia is totally different to this and the people want you to see what they have lived through to teach other nations that the same atrocity can never happen again. The Killing Fields are probably one of the most peaceful places now in Cambodia but you only have to look down at your feet and you can see bones and teeth of the victims that were executed here to realise what a history this place has. As if this was not bad enough, every where you look you can see fragments of cloth. At first it looks like its litter spread across the fields. But as you listen to the audio tape we learnt that in fact this is clothing of the victims that they were wearing on the fateful day that they died. With every rainy season in Cambodia the ground moves and some of the dirt is washed away revealing yet more clothing, teeth and bones. On top of this everywhere you look you can see large craters which are mass graves.

Teeth and bones on the ground at the killing fields.

Clothing that is bought to the service with the rainy season.

Skulls of victims

Having learnt a great deal about the KhmerRouge it seems so unfair on all the 3 million victims that Pol Pot was able to die peacefully of natural causes in 1998 with out any form of justice being served to him. As we speak however there are four of High Command of the KhmerRouge on trial for War Crimes. All evidence and common sense will end up proving them guilty, and they will probably be sentenced to death. Even though this is the outcome most Cambodians want we still find it hard to believe that they have been able to lead a normal life for 40 years after these atrocities. Considering everything Cambodians have been through they are the most friendly nation and everyone walks around with a smile on their face.

On top of this we also found time to visit the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda. Its a spectacular sight to see such grand buildings but in my honest opinion it has nothing on Buckingham Palace. The Silver Pagoda gets its name from the 500 solid silver tiles that line the floor. Each tile weighs 1kg.

We also managed to find time visit a shopping centre, day market and night market and carry out some retail therapy. At the night market we decided to grab some food and sat out under the stars on a carpet in the middle of this square with very loud music being played over the PA System. A very serreal experience.

We have thoroughly enjoyed our stay in Phnom Penh and Camboida is proving to be a little gem in our tour.