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| Stupa at Choeung Ep |
On our first visit to Phnom Penh we went to Choeung Ep, the largest of the killing fields, and the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, which was originally a school but then was converted into a prison by the Khmer Rouge. It was interesting to learn more about but also sad and shocking and horrifying. Our guide told the story of his family and how they had moved to Pnohm Penh several years earlier but then had to move back when Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge forced everyone to leave the city. There hasn't been a day that we have been in Cambodia that someone hasn't talked about the Khmer Rouge, the whole country is still trying to recover.
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They put fencing around the upper floors
at the Toul Sleng prison so that the
political prisoners wouldn't be able to
jump to their deaths |
Choeung Ep has been converted into a nice memorial. In the center is a large stupa with 17 tiers of bones, which were recovered from the mass graves. There are over a hundred graves at this site alone but they haven't all been exhumed. The largest had 400 bodies. When you walk through the grounds you can see the large holes in the earth where the graves were. Toul Sleng, or S-21, was where political prisoners were detained. It still looks like a school from the outside, except that they put up fencing and barbed wire on the balconies to keep the prisoners from committing suicide.
Our second day in Phnom Penh was less depressing. We went to see the National museum and the Royal Palace with it's silver pagoda. I would've loved to see it when it was first built, but now the floors are all tarnished and covered with rugs, and the statues and other items weren't very well displayed.
We returned to Phnom Penh on New Years Eve, before leaving Cambodia. We took a cyclo tour which was great. A cyclo is like a backwards rickshaw where you sit in a seat and the driver is on a bicycle behind you. Touristy but a nice way to see the city.
We went to Friends restaurant, which is a non profit, something to do with educating street youths, and I had my last mango sticky rice. It was a bit different than the ones I had in Thailand, very decadent, although I think my favorite was at the market in Pai.
We had a quiet New Year's Eve playing cards at a rooftop bar by the water where we had a great view of all the party boats going out. After losing horribly we went for dinner at Titanic, a nice looking restaurant with average food and aggravating waitstaff. What kind of waiter tells a customer that he doesn't want to ask the cook a question because he'd be mad at him, seriously?
At midnight everyone gathered along the water and watched a great fireworks show.
As we were leaving Pnohm Penh we hit another protest, this one was political though. We didn't really see the protest but we got stuck in a ton of traffic so we didn't get to Cham Bok until mid afternoon. We rushed to hike up to a waterfall and got back to the community center just as it was getting really dark.
We had a great dinner with a delicious vegetarian curry for me and then watched a dance by some of the children in the community.
