Phnom Penh

Tuesday 19th July 2016 – Woke up to a cloudy and grey day…not a day to sunbathe and relax by the pool. We had decided the night before that if it was raining we would head to the capital Phnom Penh…so that’s what we did! We left at 12.30pm on a comfy coach…as we journeyed we passed the familiar stilted houses that I had so admired in Myanmar. Arriving at 7.00pm in the City it was starting to get dark. Not wanting to hang around with all our worldly goods on show we hopped into a tuk tuk and booked into Suite Home Boutique Hotel for the night. Having secured our lamely secure room we headed to the promenade by the river and dined on authentic Cambodian food. Fulfilled but tired we headed back to our hotel and watched ‘Star Wars’ on our TV before curling up to a good nights sleep.

Wednesday 20th July 2016 – After a sound nights sleep we arrived at breakfast ready for some nutrition…yuk is all I can say…today I tasted the worst toast ever made in the history of toast making…how can you get a thing like toast wrong…very easily apparently. White, stale bread, one side lightly toasted and the other side soggy and wet. Next to it sat 2 undercooked runny eggs…as you can imagine I didn’t have breakfast that morning! Sticky and hot we went in search of a budget place to stay and booked in at Sla Boutique Hostel…a double bed in a dorm…never slept in one of those before so we thought we’d give it a go. Having bought some pressies to send to family and friends we headed off to the post office to send off our little parcels…spread a little happiness back home is what I say. Aaron had mentioned visiting the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum in town…we had previously been to Rwanda’s Genocide Museum and it was heartbreaking…I knew this too was going to be devastating to visit but felt it was almost a duty to learn about how such atrocities come about. Does the human race ever learn? It seems not. The rise of Pol Pots regime in Cambodia…The Khmer Rouge…lasted from 1975 to 1979. The catalyst for this uprising …Americans bombing the innocent, helpless people of Cambodia…a country of peace…a country of neutrality. The reason for the bombing…because the Vietnamese were crossing into Cambodia to avoid the bombing in their own country. No warning…no thought for innocence…the Americans dropped more bombs on Cambodia than they did in the whole of the Second World War and kept it secret from the rest of the world! Thousands died. I could go on with the history but instead I will tell you about the consequences of such a terrible action. Angry, devastated farmers made rich, fertile ground for recruitment by the Khmer Rouge. On April 17th 1975 the Khmer Rouge rode into the capital city of Phnom Penh…the people cheered…they thought the fighting would stop…little did they know it would lead to the slaughter of one in four of the population of Cambodia! Almost immediately the cities were emptied and the people taken to the fields. There they would be slave farmers toiling the land. Anyone who was educated was arrested and taken to a prison. The prison we visited otherwise known as S-21 was the secret centre of a network of nearly 200 prisons where people were tortured by the Khmer Rouge. Between 12,000 and 20,000 people were imprisoned here. There are only twelve confirmed survivors. As we walked through the prison…I touched the cold stone walls and could only imagine the horrors it had heard and felt. Unimaginable pain and torture then death…all from a man…Pol Pot who was educated in France and was once a teacher himself. Torture chambers…photos of the victims and mass graves stared me in the eye…all wanting their story to be told. The look of terror in their eyes and unanswered questions…why? Again…it is always the innocent that suffer the most. Again…will we ever learn? By the end of Pol Pot’s regime at least one and a half million people had lost their lives…men, women and children. Quiet and sombre we left…the prison now a memorial…the rain drizzling down upon us reflective of our mood. That evening we strolled into Street 172…full of bars and met Julie, a larger than life Bristol gal who nourished our spirits with her great stories and salt of the earth character. Much Bacardi and beer flowed as well as a few games of pool. What a kaleidoscope of a day…from happiness to sadness to happiness again. Freedom to live our lives and allow others the right too…maybe one day we will learn, I live in hope.

Thursday 21st July 2016 – After moving to a new hostel that had a great bar and balcony we jumped in a tuk tuk and headed to the Russian market. There we browsed for more presents to send home. It is an enclosed market place with a myriad of things to choose from. Trying to get a good deal but also giving a fair price we left happy. That night I tried Mai Tai cocktails for the first time…lets just say it contains a lot of different rums and not much else. After three I had to have an early night…alcohol really isn’t my best friend!

Friday 22nd July 2016 – Up early…today we planned to visit The Royal Palace. The sky was blue and the morning air was fresh. On entering the palace grounds you see a wonderful array of palatial buildings, statues and stupas. It almost reminds me of a show home and whether the royal family lives in the areas we saw is a mystery as there is no evidence of occupancy at all. One of our favourite parts was the miniature Angkor Wat model surrounded by its very own moat where fish happily swam. The sun had become scorching as we surveyed our surroundings and we tried desperately to find any form of shade on offer. After a few hours we left a little disappointed at the somewhat clinical impression we had of the palace…even so some of the architecture was very beautiful. We refreshed ourselves with the best lemon iced tea in town and went back to our hostel for a siesta. That evening I witnessed one of the best films I have ever seen…Aaron took me to The Empire…a film house in a bustling part of the capital. There we saw ‘The Killing Fields’. All I will say is if you haven’t seen it please do…it is a true story about the Cambodian people under the Khmer Rouge. You live the film with them…the main characters are superb…and it is all true…it will break your heart. We sat in silence as we the audience saw the final credits…stunned…tears rolling down our faces…we the lucky ones who never had to live through such atrocities. On exiting the film house an old, wrinkled man with a child in his arms held out his hand for money…he wore no shoes…I wondered what horrors he had endured and seen. Aaron gave him an offering…he bowed his head in thanks and on we went into the night.