Phnom Penh - Cambodia

We arrived in Phnom Penh after our all day boat border crossing and then had to be transferred by van for at least an hour on very bumpy roads. Thank goodness we hadn't taken the bus! Luckily one of the girls in the van - Vicki from NZ had some food to share, as I was finding it all a bit much and was feeling somewhat off. We had been recommended the Happy Guesthouse. The people here were really friendly and helpful, and the food was fantastic. We stayed for 3 nights. The population of Cambodia is 13 million. Although they have their own currency, which is the Riel, they also use the US$. Ian and I decided then to use our emergency US$ instead of withdrawing any riel, and then probably not having to use two currencies. It is supposed to be winter here - it is SO HOT!! The National Museum showed Angkorian era artifacts which I found alittle disappointing, wanting to know more about the history, so we flew through it very quickly. The Royal Palace and Silver Pogoda was more interesting. Be warned that they treat the grounds like entering a temple and so you have to be dressed appropriately. Some women were having to buy t-shirts because they were wearing singlet tops, and Ian had to borrow some long trousers. The Silver Pagoda has over 5000 silver tiles covering the floor, and some jade small statues that had diamonds on it. The grounds and buildings were lovely. We had run into Mike from NZ who had done the Mekong Delta trip with us, and we also met Nathan from the UK whom we also spent a couple of days with. The four of us took motorbike taxi's for the day and firstly went to the shooting range. Only Ian and Mike had a go at chosing their weapon of choice and paying a US$1 per bullet. There are stories of tourists being able to pay more to shoot at animals, which is terrible. It was located on an army training ground which was somewhat intimidating. We also went to Choeung Ek, which is the Killing Fields. The Khmer Rouge regime in 1975 - 1979, led by Pol Pot used the Killing Fields to brutually execute more than 17,000 individuals, most of whom suffered through interrogation, torture and deprivation, initially in a prison (S-21). Choeung Ek is now a group of mass graves, which has a memorial stupa containing thousands of skulls. It is hard to understand why there was thought in grouping the people in the graves together, such as women and children together, and those beheaded together. It was within the time of the Khmer Rouge that between 1-2 million people perished, some killed outright and others dying from disease, malnutrition and mistreatment. On April 17th 1975 Phnom Penh fell to the Khmer Rouge and was completely evacuated until 1979 - 4 years! The people were told that it would be only for 3 hours and then 3 days, supposedly because the Americans were going to attack. This was not the case, and the Cambodian cilivans were made to work in terrible conditions on the land, with a high percentage dying and loads tortured in herrific ways!!!!! I have just finished a fantastic book called Surviving the Killing Fields. It's written by the Cambodian guy who played a character similar to himself in the movie and was the friend of the journalist. Only 22% of his family survived. It is a must read!!! I've been learning heaps about the history. It is hard to conceptualise that this all happened in my lifetime. We also went to the Toul Sleng Genocide Museum (S-21). It was initially a High School, taken over by the Khmer Rouge when the city had been evacuated and used as a prison of interrogation and torture. Once they had extracted confessions the prisoner was executed. It kept records (biographies and photos) of all those who were imprisoned. The photos are on display, which is abit eary to look at. Surprisingly most of the prisoners where actually Khmer Rouge (which explains why I noticed they all had the same type of hair cuts). We took a large speed boat once again up the Mekong River (5-6 hrs, US$22) to get to Siem Riep. Our other option was taking a bus that would have only cost US$4, but I didn't want to tackle the roads that are rumoured to be pretty crappy.