Phnom Penh

Having left reluctantly Siem Reap , we were on our way to Phnom Penh - the hopeful capital... it was a 6 hour bus journey , so we stopped half way at a town for a snack stop ..... oh you know the usual, grilled spiders, newts, ants, locusts and fried cockroaches.... now as our calorific content per day is mainly beer , I resisted the fried cockroaches... if they had been grilled different story... these big metal platters are piled high with our 8 legged friends, and all the hawkers are offering them up every where you go ... ( I think they are good value for money as you get 8 legs ) always looking for a bargain !!

So we arrived in the Capital and checked into our hotel , and decided on a walk along the delightful riverfront, we stopped at the famous Foreign Correspondents Club ( FCC to you and me ) for a sunset cocktail, this is the famous colonial bar where, journalists, photographers and politicians met during the coup to exchange stories etc..

The next day we went to S21 - Tuol Sleng Museum, this was a High school in 1975 , but the Kymer Rouge took it over and used it as a torture and interrogation chamber... a very very sombre place, you can only try and imagine what atrocities these people must have had to endure, some for 6-7 months, these were educated people and the paradox of using a school as a vehicle to torture the educated was very disturbing, the place which had given them a future became their nemesis ... and a very painful one at that...  20,000 people went to this torture chamber .... to cheer ourselves up we took the hour drive out to 'the killing fields ' !!  a very serene place away from the chaos of the capital, this is where after having tortured the people they then bought them out here and executed them and threw them into mass graves... it is hard to even comprehend, this was not a war , or about communism or religion , just a genocide, Pol Pot ideology , eliminating anyone who would challenge his authority and paranoia ... wanting to go back to Day 1 .. books were burnt, temples were destroyed he wanted rid of every scrap of history...  as we wandered bewildered amongst the mass graves it had rained and rags of clothes and teeth and bones were brought upto the surface.. a stark reminder that yes it did really happen and only 30 years ago...  sadly it has taken upto 2009 to trial the war ciminals and crimes against humanity.... well after such a great day out, we stopped at the russsian market in torrentual rain and bought a DVD to relax in our room with , yep " the killing fields " which I am reading at the moment .... how can these wonderful people beam you such a genuine smile when they have endured so much ?

The next day we went to The Royal Place... wow , silver floor tiles, golden thrones, might do Westcliff lounge up like this when we get back ....the sky was amazing, really high cloud against brilliant blue ,  then onto Wat Ounalom... Brian wasn't keen , he has seen more than enough temples... I was ... apparently it houses a hair from the famous Buddha Monk... I know immediatly what you are thinking as I thought the same !!! where did this hair come from !!! they all shave their heads.... a temple built for a pube ?! it was very beautiful and the biggest in Cambodia, I was shown around by my own monk who wanted to practice his English .. he was very muscular ... I asked him about the Monks hair and showed him the story in my guide book, he looked bewildered as he nonchalantly scratched his nuts ...... I rest my case.......