Singapore Hotel Phnom Penh

... the KR used to murder children against. The whole thing is just utter hell. And what is worse is that only one man from the KR has ever admitted responsibility for what happened. The rest plead ignorance. Most of the main guys like PolPot are dead, but got to live to old age as they were never brought to justice. And its so strange to think it happened only 40 years ago. You come away from it and you find yourself looking at anyone older than 40 wondering what side they were on. As a ...

... be firm, sending them away so that everyone could get their share.
We ran out of food before the que had come to an end, but we had fed 400 which was a good achievement.
Exhausted from the heat we rested and had a lovely meal on the river front.

12th November
Our day began at 8am when our tuktuk driver picked us up for a half day tour. We went to the Choeung Ek killing fields first (15km from town). This is the site where between 1975 -1979 thousands ...

I am now back in Siem Reap, arriving back from the road trip
in time for the local festival of Bon Om Touk, the water festival celebrating
the reversal of the tides on the lake. Always timed around a full moon, it is a
time of great celebration matched with a full four day bank holiday. We could
learn a thing or two here.

Phnom Penh and Siem Reap celebrate with boat racing on the river, with ...

... a group to the Choeung Ek killing fields, where all the S-21 prisoners were taken to be executed. The ground contains a white pagoda full of skulls from the exhumation of the mass graves, with piles of clothes at its base - many of the skulls have evidence of the fatal bullet-saving methods the Khmer Rouge guards used to kill. The rest of the 'fields' are dotted with shallow pits, marking the graves which have been exhumed.

On a more cheery note ...

... and amount of macho that was about get thrown around. 3 young guys with an abundance of fire power and destruction at their hands. A grown up’s Disneyland I tell you. Haha.

Things started off with one the personnel shooting off the AK a few times to let cow herders or anybody near the shooting range know what was about go down. Terry had the first go at it. He buddied up with one of the personnel and went out in to the clearing to wreak havoc on that hill ...

... t met many though) and seems to hold no judgment about the Khmer people or myself. As for the others in town though, he described them to me as follows: There's Miles and Ruth, a middle aged conservative married couple with two young boys that work for MCC as well; Sara and Keith, a young Australian couple, Sara works for an orphanage and Keith just recently moved here a month ago to be with her; Catherine, a 26-year-old volunteer that works at the same orphanage as Sara; Rob ...

... to wander through it; we were limited to standing in a small viewing area.

Brooke wanted to do some shopping while in Cambodia so we went to the Russian market. It was a covered market with a variety of stands selling anything imaginable. She got some nice scarves and I got postcards. By the time we were done there, we all were ready to get food.

Our tuk-tuk driver Sam was awesome so we invited him to ...

... went on in Cambodia during this time and it hit home a little more in thinking that it happened not so long ago.

After that we took a walk over to the Russian Market that we have heard so much about. It was *****. It didnt havve that much in it, the corridors were tiny, it smelled and jaysus was it warm in there.

The next day we took a tuk tuk to the Choeung Ek Memorial (The Killing Fields) where a ...

... dropped out & joined the French Communist Party. On his return he briefly taught history & became a member of the clandestine Kampuchea Communist Party. He later led the Khmer Rouge & was responsible for the deaths of 1.5 million Cambodians. After the Khmer Rouge were ousted, he escaped & remained their active leader, finally living in exile in Thailand where he died of old age in 1998. Why did no-one pursue him ?

... of thing, that is: the S-21 prison and the killing fields. In both places, it is possible to get an idea of the atrocities committed in this country during the seventies. The visit is worth while, and again it leaves you with an upset stomach as some pictures and especially the visit to the killing fields is quite shocking. There are people who take pictures posing close to skulls and bones. I find it a little bit macabre.