Phnom Penh

Finally getting out of Vietnam. This only required a 8 hour bus ride during which about 2 hours were taken up crossing the Vietnam/Cambodia border. Again, another huge fancy building in the middle of nowhere. As with all of our border crossings to date the difference in cultures and resources is pretty apparent from the moment you cross the border. Cambodia looks much more like Laos with the poverty and more people living in tiny shacks. There is also a much more desperate feeling here among the people. It was impossible to get off the bus without being surrounded by a crowd of women and children selling snacks, drinks, and requesting money. It's quite overwhelming and takes a bit of getting used to. At the same time Cambodians are incredibly friendly and kind, which is a nice change from the somewhat more aggressive atmosphere of Vietnam.





With the bus we were back to misery. At the peak of the afternoon the bus was about 101 degrees AND we were not allowed to open the windows. It was a horrendous ride as it felt like being baked in an oven with your clothes just dripping and sticking to you in every imaginable and unimaginable place.

After finding a guesthouse and having a good night's sleep we had a day of depressing sightseeing. We took a motorbike (3 of us on one bike) about 10 miles out of town to the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek. Seventeen thousand people, mostly Cambodians, were killed here from 1975 to 1978. In 1980 about half of these bodies were exhumed from mass graves.



The Memorial Stupa is filled with many of the skulls taken from the graves. It's a very simple yet quite powerful place.





Around the site there are many children wanting you to take their picture which seems to "cost" anywhere from 10 cents to 1 dollar. I spent a while with one of these boys and when I finally convinced him that I had no money (which was true as Michael had all our money) he was able to chat with me about his school, girlfriends, and sing me the English alphabet. Cambodia appears to be a hard place to be a child.





Part 2 of the depressing sites of Phnom Penh was the Tuol Sleng Museum, also known as Security Prison 21 - S 21. This was the largest detention and torture center in the country during the reign of the Khmer Rouge. S-21 was formerly a high school and is a series of run down 3 story buildings. With the exception of seven people, everyone detained here was either killed on site or transported and executed at the Killing Fields.







After the challenging day of learning some of the hard history of Cambodia we went back to our guesthouse, took showers, and napped - just about all you can do in this heat.

Next - dinner!