We took a short flight from Bangkok, Thailand to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Before arriving we read a little about the checkered past of Cambodia, including genocide and political turmoil. On paper it was hard to imagine that these events could take place. Before we decided to come to S-E Asia we had never really looked into the Cambodian history and because we live in a peaceful society it is hard to understand. If you are interested to read about Cambodia, I recommend you Google Khmer Rouge and Cambodia.
Phnom Penh was crazy… hectic, smoggy, tons of cars, motorcycles and tuk-tuks. It was hard to imagine that during the Khmer Rouge’s rule the city was abandoned and all the people were forced to work in fields in the country side.
We had arranged to meet our friends Cameron and Nicole whom we haven’t seen since Chile and Argentina in April. We met in our hotel which was located right in the thick of things. We were close to restaurants and street stalls. We planned to stay in Phnom Penh for 3 nights, just long enough to see some of the sights in the city.
Our 2nd day in Phnom Penh was a pretty “heavy” day. We first started by going to the Killing Fields, it was so sad. This is the site where many Cambodian’s were put to death. There was a pagoda with the skulls of the victims that has been executed in the site. Words can’t explain how awful it was to be there and see the mass grave sites that men, women and children were found in. After the Killing Fields we visited the S21 which is a prison where thousands of men, women and children were held and tortured before death. I can’t explain to you how awful it was there… we saw the tiny cells where prisoners were chained and we saw some of the tools that were used to torture prisoners. I think the worse part of all was the faces of prisoners that they had on display. Since the Khmer Rouge documented all the prisoners, there were many photos that could be displayed. There were hundreds of faces of men, women and children all with fear in their eyes. We were all affected and it took awhile for it to actually sink in. We spent ages reading the literature that was on display, trying to comprehend why it had happened. I think I will never understand why and how mankind could do such a thing.
On the 3rd day we went to see the Kings Palace, which was such a contrast from the previous day. The palace grounds were nice to visit, and we saw a very large emerald Buddha.
We really enjoyed our stay in Phnom Penh, even though we visited some places that were truly awful it was a must needed visit. I think it is good to have things like S21 open to the public, so that hopefully in the future nothing like that will happen again.
It seems so unreal that something so terrible could have happened to such a wonderful country with such amazing people. The country seems so diverse and inspiring to me, on one hand there is their horrible past, and on the other hand we witness incredibly warm and charming people that have overcome so much.
Click on picture below to see the album in Picasa.
~Nicola
Phnom Penh was crazy… hectic, smoggy, tons of cars, motorcycles and tuk-tuks. It was hard to imagine that during the Khmer Rouge’s rule the city was abandoned and all the people were forced to work in fields in the country side.
We had arranged to meet our friends Cameron and Nicole whom we haven’t seen since Chile and Argentina in April. We met in our hotel which was located right in the thick of things. We were close to restaurants and street stalls. We planned to stay in Phnom Penh for 3 nights, just long enough to see some of the sights in the city.
Our 2nd day in Phnom Penh was a pretty “heavy” day. We first started by going to the Killing Fields, it was so sad. This is the site where many Cambodian’s were put to death. There was a pagoda with the skulls of the victims that has been executed in the site. Words can’t explain how awful it was to be there and see the mass grave sites that men, women and children were found in. After the Killing Fields we visited the S21 which is a prison where thousands of men, women and children were held and tortured before death. I can’t explain to you how awful it was there… we saw the tiny cells where prisoners were chained and we saw some of the tools that were used to torture prisoners. I think the worse part of all was the faces of prisoners that they had on display. Since the Khmer Rouge documented all the prisoners, there were many photos that could be displayed. There were hundreds of faces of men, women and children all with fear in their eyes. We were all affected and it took awhile for it to actually sink in. We spent ages reading the literature that was on display, trying to comprehend why it had happened. I think I will never understand why and how mankind could do such a thing.
On the 3rd day we went to see the Kings Palace, which was such a contrast from the previous day. The palace grounds were nice to visit, and we saw a very large emerald Buddha.
We really enjoyed our stay in Phnom Penh, even though we visited some places that were truly awful it was a must needed visit. I think it is good to have things like S21 open to the public, so that hopefully in the future nothing like that will happen again.
It seems so unreal that something so terrible could have happened to such a wonderful country with such amazing people. The country seems so diverse and inspiring to me, on one hand there is their horrible past, and on the other hand we witness incredibly warm and charming people that have overcome so much.
Click on picture below to see the album in Picasa.
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| Phnom Penh, Cambodia |
~Nicola
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