Charming Cambodia and a heartbreaking Phnom Penh

Cambodia grabbed my heart from the moment we crossed the border. I don't know if it was because of its beautiful landscape, buildings and monuments of stunning, detailed and such a unique architecture, sights of such an extreme poverty in some places or no matter what gentle, smiley and content faces of locals. Or maybe most of all Cambodian so sad and quite recent history to which I can relate as my hometown Krakow is around 1h away from Auschwitz. Either way, the mix of all above already created unforgettable and compassionate feelings and memories in my head although being here only a few days and I hope the photos from the city tour around Phnom Penh (the capital) can reflect it at least a little bit.

To start with, in Cambodia as one can expect 1 US dollar can take you a long way and only few more of them can buy you almost royal treatment. We could experience it ourselves as for around £5 each per night we got a spacious room in a beautiful hostel

There are few photos from the evening we arrived

This may as well be the place which gave me a bad stomach the following night. We saw a queue of locals to this guy which always is a good indication. It was very tasty and only £0.75!

The Independence Monument

One of many temples around and place where the Buddhist monks live

The next day we took around the city tour

Royal Palace

National Museum (which we didn't enter because after seeing the leaflet of what is inside; mostly very old history including stone statutes and everyday tools found in the ground, we didn't find many things which would interest us)

And a local hairdresser...

Wat Phnom

  'A Buddhist temple located in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. It was built in 1373, and stands 27 metres above the ground. It is the tallest religious structure in the city.'

 For some reason I love making pictures of kids in Cambodia!

I didn't know I will find a mirror like image of my sister in this part of the world

I couldn't stop myselef and had to release one of these poor birds...

 

Inside the temple

Next one on our list were two very difficult places to visit. For a quick overview I will quote a Wikipedia although I know it is not a very credible source of information. It is just to give you an idea of the problem. I encourage a further research to find out more about what exactly happened in Cambodia under Khmer Rouge regime.

S21

'The Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum (Khmer: សារមន្ទីរឧក្រិដ្ឋកម្មប្រល័យពូជសាសន៍ទួលស្លែង) is a museum in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. The site is a former high school which was used as the notorious Security Prison 21 (S-21) by the Khmer Rouge regime from its rise to power in 1975 to its fall in 1979. Tuol Sleng (Khmer [tuəl slaeŋ]) means "Hill of the Poisonous Trees" or "Strychnine Hill". Tuol Sleng was only one of at least 150 execution centers in the country,[1] and as many as 20,000 prisoners there were killed.'

As Kevin told me long time ago, I also felt very inappropriate making pictures of the place (although it is allowed), especially in the rooms where there still are blood stains on the floors, walls and roofs.

 

The former school have 4 very similar looking buildings. I entered the 3rd one and the only one with the wire on its front, I walked inside and when I was in the middle of like 3rd floor and entered the dark, tiny cells, and I realised I am on my own in the whole building and I suddenly started feeling very very weird in there. The heavy rain falling outside didn't help the situation and I started panicking a little bit as I imagined I cannot find the exit from labyrinth of the cells. In this moment I almost started to run to get out from this floor, and as I was running downstairs (from the 3rd floor) I passed a couple of tourists. I can only image what they had to think when they saw me running down the stairs with scared look in my eyes...

Graves of last 14 victims

Killing Fields

'are a number of sites in Cambodia where large numbers of people were killed and buried by the Khmer Rouge regime, during its rule of the country from 1975 to 1979, immediately after the end of the Cambodian Civil War.'
Majority of people murdered in The Killing fields we visited were coming directly from S21.

Sadly, the place reminded me a little bit of Katyn from our Polish history, but compared to Cambodia the execution methods there were more 'humane'. In Cambodia bullets were too expensive for this purpose so victims were killed in whichever way was the cheapest and most effective.

At the entrance gate we were given an audio set with pre-recorded guide and other interesting additions such as stories of survivors and parts of interviews with people who used to work for a regime on killing fields. I think it is a very good idea because it set everyone in their own space and everyone can listen to the stories in their own pace. It also make the whole area sooo quiet as nobody talks to each other.

Identified, examined and stored bones of the victims

Each hole in the ground is another grave where bones of up to 300 people were found 

:(:(:(