Capital city

Still loving Cambodia, we made the bus trip into the capital of Phom Phen. Talk about night and day! There is actually a road! A nice road and smooth with a modern bus and all. Not one wheel did we see come off any vechiles the whole time! This place just gets better and better.

01-everyone loves a monument

We spent a few days poking around the city though, after Angkor Wat, the capital is harder to get excited over. We toured the Killing Fields and the S.21 prison where somewhere in the neighborhood of 3 million Cambodians were tortured and executed by the Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot. Good old Brother Number 1,a.k.a.: Pol Pot, was a sick, twisted little fellow. The prison has been left exactly as it was found, including the metal beds where people were tortured and killed. The only addition being a photograph on the wall of what the room looked like when people entered. And yes, this included the mutilated corpse of the victim. It is simply amazing to us that the people of Cambodia could suffer as much as they have in the last 40 years and still be as happy and open as they are. At S21 there are photographs of every person intered there. These people knew what was in store for anyone brought to S.21 yet a surprising number actually managed to smile in their pictures. I have no idea how they could have done that while bound and tied to a metal chair, but they did. Of everything that I saw at those two places, that stuck with me the most.

02-The Killing Fields

We only spent a few days in P.P. The food here is just as good as in Siem Riep, if not better and architecture and nightlife are great. We spent two sunsets at the old Foreign Correspondants Club and let me tell you, the Cambodians know how to make a proper drink! The Kiwi's, the Aussies, Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand can't pour a decent drink to save their lives.Well, I guess if you had to go through life with the Khmer Rouge, you'd pour a proper drink too and after seeing S.21 we needed several!

Here's to you Cambodia, we love ya!

Tomorrow we set sail for Viet Nam. We're venturing down the Mekong Delta and into the land of Old Uncle Ho.

03-sad monuments

Wish us luck!

Mekong Mooners

04-reality

06-S.21

07-long halls

08-faces of the dead

10-faces behind bars

10-view from the deck of our hostel

11-victims

12-remains

13-cells

14-gas stations

15-FCC shot list

15-Phom Phen on the river

16-more balcony