| Cambodia 2006 Part 2 |
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| On the way from Battambang to Phnom Penh, stopping for the usual noodles and dead animals, and time to wash the bus and change a tire. |
| Another way to get there - crammed inside a minivan packed to 150% capacity. |
| The bumpy lane behind leading to the many guesthouses around Phnom Penh's Boeng Kak lake. It's a popular area, but as soon as you are spotted on this road you will be assaulted from every angle by tuk tuk drivers and guesthouse touts competing for your wallet. |
| This is better - rooms at the Number Nine guesthouse (actually the rooms are pretty bad, but the views around the lake are very nice). |
| Arrival at last at a lovely setting with no one bothering me. Here you can have breakfast in the morning, beers in the evening. |
| ...and then off to see Phnom Penh |
| Crumbling riverfront - it's actually better if you keep going upriver toward the Royal Palace. |
| The city's only hill at Wat Phnom, for which the city was named (that and a girl named Penh who lived there). |
| Tee knows where she comes from. Flags of all nations can be found along the river near the tourist area. |
| River cruise boats (far too many of them) vie for tourist business. Every driver was crying out to us "Hallo sir you like river boat???" |
| Next stop was the "Killing Fields" of Choeung Ek. There are various memorials to the some 17,000 people who were exterminated and buried here. It's about 2 hours south of the city by tuk tuk (and incredibly bad road). |
| The "Magic Tree" as the sign says, "The tree was used as a tool to hang a microphone which made sound louder to avoid the moan of victims while they were being executed". The Khmer Rouge often beat people to death to save on bullets. |
| Inside the above pagoda are stacks and stacks of human skulls, which have been arranged accouring to age and gender of the person. Many of them reveal either bullet holes are severe cracks where people had been beaten to death. Very sad of course. |
| Then on to the Tuol Sleng "genocide" museum. It was a prison camp for suspected spies or anyone connected with a "threat" to the Khmer Rouge. Originally a schoolhouse it was converted into prison camp "S-21" (Security Office 21). It is one of the most sad and moving places I've ever been. |
| The first thing most people see are the faces - pictures of prisoners who became victims of torture and murder. The KR were shockingly thorough in documenting each prisoner in captivity and in death. |
| This is the sort of prison cell given to "prefred" inmates. Most people were thrown in mass rooms on concrete floors. |
| A chart on the wall shows the movements made to drive people out of Phnom Penh into the countryside. Families and collegues were intentionally broken up to undermine any possible counter-rebellion. |
| On April 17, 1975 the crowds cheered as the Khmer Rouge took control of Phnom Penh. This was seen as the end of many years of corruption and civil war. The KR were seen as "nationalists" who would restore order and national pride to the war-torn country. How wrong they were. |
| Upstairs in the museum are many informational presentations such as this one about the "Base People". These people were typically un-schooled farmers who came from rural areas and had remained there throughout the revolution. They were used as examples for the educated and city dwellers who had been forced out on how the KR thought everyone should be. They had darker skin, worked hard in the fields, and were easily subjugated and forced into obedience. The Base People were often given prilidges and minor titles of leadership in the work camps, but in the end they were increasingly used as a shield against the invading Vietnamese army. |
| The Security of Regulation (how prisoners were expected to behave) 1-You must answer accordingly to my question - Don't turn them away. 2- Don't try to hide the facts by making pretexts this and that. You are strictly prohibited to contest me. 3 - Don't be a fool for you are a chap who dare to thwart the revolution. 4- You must immediately answer my questions without wasting time to reflect. 5- Don't tell me either about your immoralities or the essence of the revolution. 6- While getting lashes or electrification you must not cry at all. 7- Do nothing- sit still and wait for my orders. If there is no order, keep quiet. When I ask you to do something, you must do it right away without protesting. 8- Don't make pretext about Kampuchea Krom in order to hide your secret or traitor. 9- If you don't follow the above rules, you shall get many many lashes of electric wire. 10- If you diosobey any point of my regulations you shall get either ten lashes or five shocks of electric discharge. |
| And now back to something happier. An evening beside the lake |
| You are not always left alone - even here. It's for a good hard-working cause though. This industrious boy popped up along the lakeside looking for plastic bottles. |
| Evening along the river near the National Museum and Royal Palace |
| The Independence Monument |
| The Cambodia-Vietnam Friendship Monument |
| Good times are back in Phnom Penh |
| One more sunset on the lake :-) |
| At last a beach! Sihanoukville |
| leg-waxing service - ouch! |
| The boat back to Thailand - if the sea is rough these boats are totally inadequate. I think we nearly died this time. It was Baaaad! |
| Goodbye Cambodia! Hello Thailand! |
| The big Lion roundabout near the beach - kind of tacky(?) |
| Another cheap attraction - a dragon statue on the most expensive beach |
| The last night on the long sandy beach, cooking with a very intelligent young girl. She seemed to know a lot about the world for someone so young coming from this remote place. |
| Gray and unwelcoming border |