Phnom Penh, Cambodia

On the way to Cambodia it's necessary to take a ferry to cross the Mekong river. The bus actually gets on the ferry with other vehicles crossing the waterway. Next to our bus was a truck loaded with big, fat pigs that were pinned down and held together by a big net. They were squealing...as pigs held down by nets generally do, so the driver got out of his truck, climbed on top of the pigs and started stomping on one of the pig's faces. Then he took out a stick and kept jamming it in the pig's eye...which made that pig and the other pigs squeal even louder. It made my stomach churn and my eyes fill up with tears. I know stuff like that happens, and I have seen the pigs all shmushed together in a small cage on the back of a motorbike before....but to see what that man was doing to it and hearing it screaming seriously upset me. I hate that aspect of Asia.

We got in kind of late, so for our first evening we found a restaurant near to our hotel (the Blue Lime Hotel...definitely recommended for anyone visiting Phnom Penh!) and called it a night.

The next morning we hired a tuk tuk driver to take us to S-21, otherwise known as the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. The Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot's Regime dominated Cambodia between 1975 and 1979 and during that time they used this site, a former high school, as a prison. While in prison, the people underwent the most excruciating of tortures in order to give the Khmer Rouge information that they wanted. They were forced to admit to things that they didn't even do.





Under the Khmer Rouge about 2 million Cambodians died throughout the country. After the Holocaust people kept saying, "Never again, never again, never again..." and yet, this happened thirty years later. The most interesting thing is that many of the former Khmer Rouge are still living regular lives today and some are even in government. Not many of them have been convicted of the crimes they committed.



After the museum, our tuk tuk driver took us about twenty minutes outside of the city to one of the places known as a killing field - Choeung Ek. Choeung Ek was a place where the Khmer Rouge would take people to kill and then throw their bodies in large pits around the field. This was a really heavy day...







In the afternoon, we said goodbye to our tuk tuk driver, Peng, and went to the National Museum.

My brother has a friend who has a friend who has been living in PP for the past year, so we met up with him and his wife for dinner.

The next day Brian wasn't feeling so well, so we stayed in for most of the day. In the afternoon we went to the Russian Market which is this massive market where you can buy anything. We purchased a few souvenirs and tried some street food.

The market also included a lot of fair trade shops and cafes that were run by NGOs (Non-governmental organizations). What was really apparent to me throughout PP was the presence of NGOs and foreign government involvement. I read in Lonely Planet that 50% of Cambodia's economy is supported by outside funds. That's pretty incredible, but considering how much the Khmer Rouge destroyed the country it is not all too surprising because they were basically re-forming the country from nothing.

On our last morning in Phnom Penh we were able to fit in a trip to the Silver Pagoda before heading on our bus to Siem Reap and the Angkor Temples...