Phnom Penh...omenal

From Goodbye Vietnam to Hello Cambodia!

First stop - Phnom Penh. Not the easiest capital city to spell, so you won't see me use the word again in this blog. It's a little charmer of a city with the usual SE Asia colonial French feel of long boulevards. With 2 nights in The City, we were able to see the main sights and also start to explore a bit further into the suburbs. We're a bit behind on blogging, and have a flight to catch in 3 hours, so apologies that some of this is short!

A Naga - SE Asia's mythical (?) river snake

Tucking in to even more pizza!

The Royal Palace in all it's glory on a bright day

The most intricate gate we've seen yet!

No photoshopping required - stunning colours eh?!

The courtyard of the National Museum

Sadly, The City has an intertwined history with the Khmer Rouge - the offshoot Communists who were in power from 1975 to 1979. Both of us had heard things about Pol Pot, Brother Duch and the Killing Fields. You don't know what you don't know, but the ignorance that we both had of this shocked us. In 3 years, KR were responsible for the death of nearly a quarter of the population (8 million in 1975). Coming into power they swiftly evacuated the cities to create one class of people who would work the land. Any hint of intellectuality or dissent (believed to be the same thing) would result in torture and execution. Not just to the inidividual, but to their entire family including newborns - "Kill the tree, dig up the root."

S-21 Prison Camp and gallows, in what used to be a High School

One of the torture rooms, cleaned but left as found

The Gallows

Leaving S-21, we headed out of town to the Killing Fields, or Choeung Ek, where about 17,000 people were executed.

Memorial Stupa containing bones

Rain brings clothes, bones and teeth to the surface

Lost faces

Inside the Stupa

After a very sombre but memorable day, we headed back into town to the Friend's Restaurant. Full of people our age learning the trades of cooking and waiting on tables - one of the best meals we've had on the trip so far was enjoyed. We had Tapas with lots of things we miss, including Houmous!

A big thanks to Luke and Lucy for this wedding gift - it covered our tickets and transport to everything, as well as this great restaurant you recommended!

Just to end on a happy note and picture:

London tube friends - this is what proper overcrowding looks like!
Tokyo subway friends - this is what spacious travel looks like!

No tuk tuk today