After three days of watching the rain and drinking coffee at Otres Beach we took a bus back up to Phnom Penh. We checked into the Fancy Guesthouse, fancy by name only, ( unless you consider it fancy to tile every surface) and headed out to one of the Night Markets for some fried noodle and Cambodian live entertainment.
This morning we met a tuk tuk driver who drove us out to the Choeung Ek Killing Field. While wandering amongst the trees we learned that almost 9000 Cambodians were beaten to death at Choeung Ek and buried in mass graves. This is only a small percentage of the estimated 2 Million Cambodians killed under the Khmer Rouge regime from 1975 to 1979. After Choeung Ek we visited Toul Sleng Genocide Museum. Once a high school, Tuol Sleng was converted to a prison to hold thousands of people in tiny cells. They were tortured until they signed confessions for false crimes before they were transported to Choeung Ek and executed.
While the history of Cambodia is deeply distressing it is the fact that similar human rights atrocities are occurring right now that makes you feel sick, powerless and strangely inspired at the same time. But I must admit that, like the hundreds of others who visit this prison museum every day, the images will blur, the sadness will fade and I will go on living as before. We are all only human after all and if humans are good at anything it is ignoring a problem.
So we spent the afternoon wandering the streets of Phnom Penh. We had our first travel argument - must have been the emotional tension - before reconciliation and discussion over a drink or two. After conversation became impossible due to an evening downpour we made our way to Romdeng restaurant. This is one of three restaurants in Phnom Penh which bring street children in and teach them the skills to work in hospitality. The meals were easily the best we have had so far and were a small sign of things to come from a country, only now finding its feet, 35 years on from the devastation of the Khmer Rouge.
- David
This morning we met a tuk tuk driver who drove us out to the Choeung Ek Killing Field. While wandering amongst the trees we learned that almost 9000 Cambodians were beaten to death at Choeung Ek and buried in mass graves. This is only a small percentage of the estimated 2 Million Cambodians killed under the Khmer Rouge regime from 1975 to 1979. After Choeung Ek we visited Toul Sleng Genocide Museum. Once a high school, Tuol Sleng was converted to a prison to hold thousands of people in tiny cells. They were tortured until they signed confessions for false crimes before they were transported to Choeung Ek and executed.
While the history of Cambodia is deeply distressing it is the fact that similar human rights atrocities are occurring right now that makes you feel sick, powerless and strangely inspired at the same time. But I must admit that, like the hundreds of others who visit this prison museum every day, the images will blur, the sadness will fade and I will go on living as before. We are all only human after all and if humans are good at anything it is ignoring a problem.
So we spent the afternoon wandering the streets of Phnom Penh. We had our first travel argument - must have been the emotional tension - before reconciliation and discussion over a drink or two. After conversation became impossible due to an evening downpour we made our way to Romdeng restaurant. This is one of three restaurants in Phnom Penh which bring street children in and teach them the skills to work in hospitality. The meals were easily the best we have had so far and were a small sign of things to come from a country, only now finding its feet, 35 years on from the devastation of the Khmer Rouge.
- David
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