Tuesday 28th July 2015
It was a sad day today as I left the farm along with another
volunteer. We headed to Phnom Penh by bus which took eight long hours despite
only being 360km. we arrived and found a hostel before getting some food and an
early night.
Wednesday 29th July 2015
This morning we were up and ready for the day. First stop
was Lucky Lucky Motorcycle shop to get a visa for Vietnam it was a quick easy
process all they needed was one photo and my date of entry then they took it
away to process ready tomorrow!
Once that was out of the way we went in search of breakfast.
Last night I spent some time looking up vegetarian options and found a
delicious looking bakery we headed there and got a beautiful feed (as well as a
little lemon tart for the road)
We then spent the morning checking out some sights we
started off with a pagoda followed by a walk along the river front and then
back into the city to the central market. I wasn’t in the business of buying
anything but it was fun to look at everything.
The pagoda outside the pagoda
ice arriving at the central market
Next we walked about 5km south to the Russian market which
was full of more of the same tourist tat that is sold the world over.
Who buys this shit???
After
walking in circles for a while we headed to Tuol Sleng Genocide museum also
known as S21. It was formally a school but during the Pol Pot regime was used
as a security prison and was basically a torture centre.
The place has a chilling feel to it you can wonder around
the different buildings and see cells both large (for multiple victims) and
small. In many rooms there are pictures on the walls of victims after they have
been tortured the room empty except for the bed on which they were tortured.
You can also see hundreds of pictures of people when they
first arrived at the prison including woman and children. There is also torture
equipment, artworks and testimonials form survivors. It certainly makes you
think.
While we were in the museum it began to rain heavily but by
the time we were leaving it had eased off a bit. We were close to another vegetarian
place I found so decided to go there it was a bit of a mission to find it but
we were rewarded with tasty food and a lovely covered balcony to watch the
rain.
We walked back to the hostel and I spent the evening
catching up with my blog and posting pictures
Thursday 30th July 2015
We got up this morning and had a spot of breakfast at the
hostel before getting a rickshaw to Choeung
Ek better known as The Killing Fields. After victims were tortured into
confessing bogus crimes at S21 they were bought here to be executed. As bullets
were expensive most victims were simply bludgeoned as they knelt beside the
pit.
Today 86 of the mass graves have been exhumed and the bones
are housed in a memorial stupa built in the centre of the site. Its nine
stories high and full. The place is excellently run with an audio guide
included in the ticket price which tells of the atrocities discovered at the
site when the regime collapsed.
There is also a small museum onsite which shows a short
documentary about the place as well.
Memorial Stupa Some of the thousands of skulls
some people leave bracelets by the graves
I spent several hours walking through slowly reflecting on
what I was seeing and listening to. Afterwards I felt pretty sombre and upset
that people can inflict that sort of pain on one another for no real reason.
We got a tuk tuk back to Phnom Penh (Choeung Ek is about
15km from the city) which dropped us back off at the hostel we walked towards
the river and got some happy pizza for lunch
Happy Pizza
After which we went to the national palace. I didn’t find it
too exciting as the only information is the name of what each building is but
no description of what anything is or history of the place. The silver pagoda
and the emerald Buddha were beautiful as well as the pagoda that is surrounded
by trees.
Inside the Royal Palace
We came out of the palace and had waffles and ice-cream
which went down a treat by the time we were done it was time to go and get our
passports. We picked them up and then returned to the hostel where I was
feeling way over stimulated and went to bed.
meat drying in the street
our hostel
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