Ok a little history lesson for you to start with. In a nutshell Cambodia has some really troubled history that dates back only 30 years ago. In 1975 the khymer rouge, led by Pol Pot began the genocidal destruction of their own country in an attempt to wipe out all other political campaigns that opposed them. This includes the imprisonment and execution of 17,000 Cambodians, most of whom were family of the said parties, so that the future generations would not fight back. We visited the S21 prison, that once was a high school, but was transformed to hold the kymers prisoners captive. Classrooms were turned into cell blocks and torture chambers and the halls were used for mass incarceration. It is said that upto 100 people were killed here each day while the masses were being detained. Little of the building has been tampered with since its use in the 70's so it is clear to see the nightmare that those people had to live their final days through.
We also visited Choeungek, better known these days as the killing fields. This is where the prisoners were transported to (about 15km away from the prison and center) executed in the thousands. There were grave sites, that had been excavated and in one in particular over 1000 human skulls had been removed from an area the size of half a tennis court. All these skulls have been placed inside a huge monument dedicated to those people and you are free to see and even touch the skulls (I have no idea why?) The most disturbing images we witnessed were of tiny babies being swung by the legs into tree trunks and added to the body count. Walking around the grave sites it is clear to see the remains of human skeletons on the surface of the ground, real disturbing stuff.
Since those days Cambodia has worked damn hard to reclaim its name as a nation. The people here were unbelievably friendly especially our friend DJ. He was a tuk-tuk driver who took us around on our sightseeing day, and boy was he a character. He told us how he was pissed off that porn was banned and had been blocked on the net in Cambodia, this really upset him. He also explained the difference between BOOM!-BOOM! (sex) and BA-BOOM! (rockets). Great teacher.
Being in Cambodia we took the opportunity to go to a shooting range where me and Abbie fired an M16 assault rifle. She hit a big fat zero out of 5. And I nailed 8 out of ten on the targets. She claims that she was aiming for my target, the video tells us otherwise, haha. But it was great fun. We passed on the option of shooting a rocket launcher at a live cow, it was too bloody expensive.
Our guesthouse, the drunken frog, was a lovely little spot with bamboo huts built above the lakeside, and a bar/lounge area also over the lake. It was a great spot to watch the sun go down.
I also checked out the central palace, Maj couldn't get in because he had a vest on, and he would scare the royal family. He didn't miss much except some beautifully decorated golden buildings. The area surrounding the palace was really nice though, again, next to the Mekong river, it was defiantely where the money was being spent in Phnom Penh.
Phnom Penh Photo Link:
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