The airport is only about 14km away from the city, but the traffic is unbelievable; motorbikes everywhere, weaving across the road, usually with three or four people on them, Liam saw one with five – two adults, a kid, a toddler and a baby. Our driver kept taking different turns to avoid the snarl-ups, he said sometimes if there is an accident, nothing gets cleared until the police arrive and that can take a few hours. Our hotel, Villa Langka was a little oasis. We’d had to book a deluxe room for the first night as they didn’t have anything cheaper and we were then moving into a smaller room for the next two nights. The deluxe room was massive, about twice the size of our old lounge and the bathroom (again huge) had our first bath in Southeast Asia. Only Liam actually had a bath.
At dinner we met the cute hotel cat, he didn't have a name - other than 'Chma' the Kymer word for 'cat' - but he enjoyed sitting on your lap and getting a cuddle.
The hotel had a lovely saltwater pool, in one corner there was a mango tree that at regular intervals dropped fruit into the pool, which Liam dived down for and handed over to the hotel staff to make the drinks. The staff were really friendly here and so helpful. Pretty much like every Cambodian we’ve met has been the same. There is a genuine feeling that they are welcoming you to their country and keen for you to see everything.
On the food front, we’ve not yet had a bad meal in Cambodia. We found a little deli place at the end of our road, that did the most amazing veggie and salad wraps. The restaurant at the hotel was good too; lovely breakfasts and on the first night after dinner we tried their deep fried chocolate and ice cream. This was literally dark chocolate deep fried (not in batter or anything) and it was scrumptious. Cliff also found a really good vegan place near the Independence Monument, where we ordered far too much food, but again it was delicious. On our last night in Phnom Penh we went to an Italian place down on the quay. There were no tables left inside so when we helped them bring one in from outside, there was much hilarity amongst the waitresses.
On the first day we took a tuk-tuk over to Tuol Sleng, otherwise known as S-21 or Security Prison 21. During the rule of the Kymer Rouge (1975-1979) it was transformed from a high school to a prison where around 17,000 Cambodians were imprisoned, tortured and taken out to the Killing Fields at Cheong Ek, where they were murdered and buried in mass graves. Often they were beaten to death to save precious bullets and the victims included children and babies (who were beaten to death against a tree out at the Killing Fields). One of the four buildings at S-21 still has the barbed wire up at the balconies, which was installed to stop prisoners committing suicide.
Four things really hit me here; the first are the hundreds of photographs of the victims (the Kymer Rouge were meticulous record keepers), the rooms that still house metal beds on which the people were tortured (some still with blood on the ceilings), thirdly, the fact that the Kymer Rouge was doing this to their own people, and finally that this was all happening in my lifetime. It’s still hard to fathom what it was they were trying to achieve. Conservative estimates put the total death toll at 1.7 million. If you want to learn more about the genocide, please go here.
On day two we went out to Cheong Ek – the Killing Fields. There is a Buddhist stupa built as a memorial that houses the remains of the victims found there. The mass graves that were found are on full view here and human remains are constantly coming to the surface. Despite this, the area feels a lot more peaceful than at S-21, where I felt there was still so much negative energy.
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