Today was always going to be one of the hardest days of the trip. We had an 8am pick up from the hotel to take us to a former local school which was converted to a prison/interrogation/torture centre in the height of the Khmer Rouge reign. The school is made up of four blocks and the classrooms were turned into prison cells ranging from a large room to a make shift ricked up cell of about 1m x 2m. About 17,000 people were arrested and taken to this prison where they were tortured to give names and details of other people who were deemed to be traitors. Once the information was obtained they were taken about 15km to one of a few hundred Killing Fields which were dotted around the country. Of the 17,000 people who were taken there only 7 people survived and this was when the Vietnamese defeated the Khmer Rouge. It was a particularly moving place as in one building they displayed the photos of hundreds of prisoners (a photo was taken on entry with date/number/name) and sometimes again when they died. The most awful part of this was seeing several people smiling for this initial photo. We were then taken by bus to where the prisoners were killed and saw many of the mass graves where they were buried. Some of the stories from these two sites were very harrowing, especially as this happened only 30 years ago.
You can see human bones in the path:
On the way back we were dropped off at the Russian market for some shopping.
We bought a few things, but sadly due to the time we still have to travel and very limited space in our bags, there was no way we could buy as much as we wanted. I could have spent a fortune. The crafts are beautiful The market itself was buzzing with stalls and was like a maze. It was split into sections of clothes, food, crafts and one area seemed to be full of spare parts of every type of machinery you might ever own. You could probably get everything you wanted here.
We took a tuk tuk back to the hotel area and headed out to the museum.
The museum is housed in a magnificent building but it is quite small and only has four rooms to look around. Most of them rooms are filled with sculptures from Angkor Wat. Each of the four rooms enclose a central courtyard which was beautiful and serene. The courtyard had four ponds each full with lotus and fish. It was a pleasant change from the hustle and bustle of life outside.
We then moved onto the Grand Palace which is a collection of stunning buildings. The King of Cambodia lives here for part of the year with an area partitioned off so he has privacy from the tourists. There are many pagodas inside the complex with a collection of smaller buildings.
There are also numerous garden areas and potted plants. I particularly liked the teapot shaped plant!
(Anna with topiary teapot with Silver Pagoda in background)
Apart from the general buildings the highlight of the palace is the Silver Pagoda, named so because its floor is made of 5000 silver tiles, each weighing 1kg. Most of it is covered up but you can see them in one area and could imagine what a sight this would be when they were al on show and polished up.
(Outside of Silver Pagoda)
We took a stroll round the grounds to find a replica of Angkor Wat with a small pond around it full of Kio a tortoise. (We were impressed with this model which made us even more excited about seeing the real thing in a few days)
Three monks had taken a real interest in the tortoise but it wouldn’t move. They spent the whole time prodding the poor things and laughing when it tried to move.
The whole thing didn’t seem in keeping with the Buddhist way of life to me. Maybe they were new Monks and still learning…
On our way back to the hotel a guy called us over with the normal ‘are you English line’ so we tried to walk on as he had just jumped off a tuk tuk. He persevered though and started asking us lots of questions about English football. He told us he supported four teams and that Man U weren’t that good anymore as they had sold a lot of their good players. He seemed really interested in talking to us about it. However the hard sell was still to come. After he found that we didn’t need a tuk tuk, had a hotel, didn’t need a bus anywhere that day/next day he asked if we wanted to go shook an AK47 or fire some grenades. It seems you can pretty much do anything here! We politely declined and made our escape.
After an hours rest at the hotel we went out as a group again for happy hour. It was a bar over the road from our hotel which I had an upstairs and view over the river.
(l-r at the bar overlooking the river: Zach, Renee, Leigh, Bouna and Julian)
I had a delicious Angkor Wat cocktail and Tonle Sap Breezer (trying to keep things local). After this we went for dinner to a restaurant nearby whose profits go to help projects for the many children begging on the streets. The food was really good but we still did get a few children coming into the restaurant selling books. You are told to politely say no to them and basically try and ignore then after this but one rather pushy girl didn’t take kindly to this. She told us we very sarcastically we shouldn’t be rude and pay her attention when she was speaking. She must only have been 7 years old!
(One of a few local beers. Their slogan is ‘My country, my beer’ and is very good)
(My dinner of green curry and rice which came out in the shape of a heart – A)
We then headed further into town to another upstairs bar with views over the river for a few more drinks. This was a more upmarket bar/club with music and a dance floor but was mainly full of locals. As the evening drew on a few more westerners arrived, but most of them tended to be elderly men looking for some action with the young Cambodian girls. It wasn’t nice to watch them eyeing the girls up as they walked by. I think its quite rife here but maybe not as bad as Thailand. We will have to see when we get there.
(Leigh with his incredibly gay looking cocktail. I had a beer!)
On the way back to the hotel we were walking behind a couple of girls in tiny shorts which is quite unusual for Cambodia. I thought the looked young and had very skinny legs and didn’t look quite right to be so dolled up. As we walked past them one started speaking which is when we realised they were actually male. That was quite a shock!
