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  Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Tuesday, November 27, 2007

We thought Phnom Penh would be even less civilized then Vietnam, I pictured nothing but unpaved dirt roads, dirty kids in the street, shacks, animals in the streets.. I had a very primitive picture in my head but was completely wrong! Phnom Penh is coming around to the 21st century, there are plenty of modern restaurants, big flash hotels, bars, cafes, shops etc. It still is dirty with trash in the streets and dirty kids running around selling you crap and begging for money, but every city we've been to has been like that.  In Nha Trang there was this one kid on a bike who ran into me at least 5 times, You wan buy postcard? Why not? You wan play connect 4? lol.
As soon as we got off the bus there were plenty of people fighting to get to us first to show us pictures of their guesthouse, we decided to go with the Floating Island Guesthouse, it sounded good enough in the guidebook.  It was down a little alley, a backpackers area for sure. The place should have been condemed!! Its built half on ground and half over the lake, so when you go down the hallway your walking over planks of old wood that bounce and creek

killing fields 1

. Then its upstairs to the rooms, they were fine, can't complain for $4 a night.  The best thing about this place was the balcony, it over looks the lake. We hung out there and saw the lovely sunset. A perfect chill out spot.  We all piled in a tuk tuk to go to the riverside for dinner. Kate was feeling sick and went back to the guesthouse.  We carried on and went to a pizza place.  Little known to us, we arrived on the 2nd night, the biggest night of a 3 day celebration, the once a year Water Festival! The streets were absolutely packed with people. It took us more than half an hour to walk just a couple of blocks.  When it got dark we had a great spot for watching all the floats go by on the river, lit up with hundreds of lights. 
All the guys that worked at the guesthouse spoke very good English, one with an British accent, so that was kinda wierd.... anyway we hung out with them a little, and we were sure to make it back there by 11:30 for the midnight moon ceremony.  We didn't know exactly what was going on, but we were down with it! A bunch of people gathered on the balcony, they passed out insense, and everyone holds some insense and says a prayer for prosperity, or whatever...it was me, Mariska, Tom and Tim, and we tried to be serious but couldn't help but giggle. After that they included us on another "tradition" Tim was attacked first. It goes like this, someone shoves a handful of dried cooked flattended rice into your mouth, then a bannana and then more rice, and you eat it as fast as possible

killing fields 2

.  Rice gets everywhere and you look like a pig. They got both of us twice! Not sure were the other 2 were hiding at this point.  I did it to one of the guys that worked there and made sure to put an extra shove of rice in and smear it around ! No idea if all this is really part of a tradition or just messing around, but it was fun!
The next day I went out to S-21 and the Killing Fields, I went by myself because there was confusion on weather the museum would close for lunch and i wouldn't have time to go to both. There was no way I was going to miss seeing either of these places as I had read some books and documentaries on them and they were one of the main things i had to see while in this part of the world.  It's not easy to organize a group of 7 people into doing something, all agreeing on it, getting ready and actually going... it's time consuming and frustrating.  Also this is one of those things I need to do on my own.  Kate said that I give out negative vibes or something when i want to do something on my own. This is absolute BS. It has nothing at all to do with me not liking anyone or not wanting to hang out, its the fact that i would be experiencing something very emotional and meaningful to me something that is not ideal to do with a group. When Im travelling for a few days with people that i meet, i have no problems at all with them doing what they want, they aren't obligated to me! And its their trip, ulimately who are you travelling for?? Yourself. Your not traveling to make someone happy who you just met. Anyway I'm just annoyed, most travelers understand this. 
Let me tell you a bit of history.  From 1975 to 1978/9, 1 to 2 million Cambodians were murdered under the communist regime the Khmer Rouge led by Pol Pot.  This government wanted to create an entirely new country basically. They set the clock back to the year zero.

killing fields 3

They first set out to kill anyone educated- doctors, lawyers, teachers, artists, etc. And their entire families. Anyone with connections to the Western world, anyone that speaks English.  Everyone was evacated from the cities and sent to concentration labor camps where they were 're-educated' and most died from exhaustion, disease, torture, etc. People were taught (especially children) not to love anything or anyone, not their families, but the regime. Even children became cold hearted guards, soilders, killers.  S-21 is a genocide museum, it was an old high school that was converted into a place of interogation and torture.  I paid an extra 5 bucks (no one i was traveling with would have done so!) to have a guide.  The guide took us through the 3 buildings bottem floors.  The first building were big rooms used to interogate and torture officials. In each room is an iron frame of a bed, a metal contain used to crap in and a plastic bottle to pee in, and a picture on the wall of the person who was found dead in the room.  When the Vietnamise liberated this place, there were 14 corpses remaining, and i believe 7 survivors.  Another section of the museum had hundreds of mugshots of people upon arriving at the prison, men and women, young and old, and children.  The pictures are very clear and you can see into the minds of some of these people, in their eyes there is fear, anger, indifference, and in one i saw humor. I made an effort to look at each and every face. At every picture.  There were lots of pictures of the dead after being tortured

molar

. Pictures of the leaders of this government, and other pictures documenting the era. I had seen on a documentary or a haunting show that the prison is haunted, I don't doubt it one bit. Sometimes I would be in a room and would be the only person in there. I'm not a sensative to supernatural type of person, but i still got a creepy feeling. The guide took us to one room divided into several small cells, he said when he first started working there he couldn't go in this room, he'd feel like hundreds of eyes were looking at him.  In these small cells prisoners were chained to with one foot to a medal pole. They slept on the hard bare floor, had to ask permission from the guards for everything, to relieve themselves, to turn over, etc.  After the guided tour I went back through on my own and did it over again and went to every room on every floor of every building. 
Then I went to the Killing Fields. (Yes like the movie) I got a guide here as well. Just glancing around it looks like a normal green field with a pretty monument, but upon closer look, the ground is dug out with big holes everywhere, and the monument is filled with thousands of skulls and bones.  It was here that thousands of people were killed, not by bullets, (too expensive) but mostly by getting their heads bashed in by something and beat to death.  Theres is a giant old tree that was used to smash babies up against.  Another tree that held a big speaker that played something that would mask the sound of screaming people

asian transportation local style

.  The dead were thrown into mass graves spread out over the area. Most of them have been excavated but not all. While walking along the pathways you walk over pieces of bones, and bits of clothing. A gruesome thing, but I'm not sure if it's real, left as is, or just placed there for dramatic effect.  Some of the clothing lying around is awefully bright in color, and i imagine after 30 years that the clothing would be faded.
After my depressing yet facsinating day, I had my tuk tuk driver drop me at the Russian Market, a gigantic market of mostly souvineers, it was closing in an hour so i didn't have much time to explore the whole place but i managed to buy a couple more t-shirts.
For dinner I went back to the riverside, and went to the second story balcony of a resturant just in time for the sun to go down and a fireworks show begin, it was the last night of the festival. Then back to the guesthouse and ran into Tim, Mariska, Mia and Tom and we had 1 drink at the guesthouse next door and settled in to watch a movie on their patio, but I couldn't keep my eyes open and keep sneezing. I think all the pollution from the millions of motorbikes in the cities are making me sick, i've been either coughing or sneezing for weeks!
I never saw Kate or Jorgen, don't know what they were doing. But the next morning Kate and I were supose to set off for Siem Reap

getting gas

. She comes by my room and I ask is she's already checked the bus schedule and she says 'i'm not going' and from there leads to another blow out with her cornering me and attacking me once again, calling out all the apparent crap that i do to her and what a bad friend i am and how im a selfish traveler and on and on and on.  I hate confrontation, and hate fighting, i never know what to say. So I don't say a whole lot, but she's said enough about me , to me , to know that I don't want to be friends anymore.  She says she wants to go to the beach with everyone else. We already worked this plan out so we wouldn't have to rush up to Siem Reap and rush back to Ho Chi Minh. But no, she wants to go to Sihanoukville with Jorgen and everyone. I said why is that more important?? She grew up on the beaches of Australia and New Guinea!! Give me a break!  So adios, I went on by myself to Siem Reap! And I didn't feel sad one bit, i was FREEEEEEEEeeeeeee!!! 

Post your own travel photos for friends and family More Pictures

big gas station, looks weird here!	sunset by the riverside	fireworks on the river	one of the floats for the festival
Tom with a load of Cambodian money (5 US!)	the hallway at the floating guesthouse!!	some kids that talked to me	The rules for the prisoners
s-21	photos of women prisoners	the 7 survivors	instruments of torture
tuel sleng museum (s-21)	room of cells	dead prisoners	one of the torture/interrogation rooms
road in phnom phen	monument at the killing fields	thousands of skulls and bones at the killing field	victims skulls
people burning prayers in a mass grave	tree that babies were bashed against	bones and clothes coming up through the ground	leaves used to saw prisoners necks
Floating Island guesthouse balcony	the gang on the balcony	Mariska and Mia	beer beer beer
Angkor beer mmm	Sunset in phnom phen	sunset	packed in a tuk tuk
by the riverside, the water festival	tim, mariska and tom giggling	a prayer to the moooooon	tim with his face stuffed with banana and ric
Room of torture/interrogation at s-21

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