Phnom Pen

..which I have finally managed to persuaded myself is pronounced with the 'n'. It just sounds so wrong somehow. I am currently typing on a keyboard with all the letters rubbed off - which is a great test of my touch typing ability and testament to the hard work I put into 'Mavis Beacon teaches typing' as a child.
So, after our great value guide to Phnom Pen with his extraordinary ability to say thank you in so many languages, we arrived in the capital to a sea of tuk tuk and motorbike drivers the likes of which we hadn't seen since India. Apparently my tolerance level has gone down in the past few months and I found this extrememly irritating. We found ourselves a cell ina cheap guesthouse, went out for some food and then proceeded to spend the rest of the day sleeping and watching parts of films.
The next day was all go and we started with a trip to S21, or Tuol Sleng genocide museum. This made the war remnants museum in Saigon seem easy to handle. It was orginally a high school, and at first glance looks like a typical school building complete with climbing apparatus. However, it was used by the Khymer Rouge as a security prison - or, it seems, torture chamber. We walked around the school buildings and saw cells that had been left as they were discovered, with the addition of photogrpahs on the wall of the tortured victims who had inhabited the cell. We saw blood stains still clear on the floors and walls in places. And in the final building we saw photograph after photograph of the victims which had been taken when they were brought to the prison - faces from the past staring out in fear, defiance and confusion. We also discovered the reason for the climbing apparatus being left in tact - it was used as one of the torture methods where victims would be hung upside down whilst questioned. This fact hit me more than anything as they could have been found in any playground in any school. I don't want to go into any more of the details of what went on there in this, but it's worth looking up if you, like me, were only partially aware of some of the monstrocities that took place in this country. After a heavy morning we deicded to leave our trip to the Killing Fields outside of the city for the next day and instead went to see the other extreme of tourism in Phnom Pen - the Royal Palace.
We were not allowed into all areas of the palace as it is still the official residence of the King, however a large area is open to the public with some impressive buildings and beautiful grounds. The best known attraction within the grounds is the Silver Pagoda, which is not qso silver as I had hoped - in fact Kev and I did actually manage to walk around it without noticing that was where we were... Having gone back in it was just about noticable that the floor was silver - but only just as most of it was covered in a variety of tatty carpets! We then had a relaxed beer or two by the river and a lovely meal.
The next day was another tough one, although the journey to the Killing Fields at Choeug Ek was relaxing as we took a tuk tuk there and were able to enjoy the sights of the city in some style (well, more style than a bus tour, anyway!). The first thing and most obvious thing seen when entering the sight is a large memorial to the victims of the Khymer Rouge, a stupa divided into levels. On the very bottom level are scraps of clothing recovered when the mass graves here were discovered. After that are several levels of skulls (more than 5,000 in total), then other bones that were found. The most unsettling thing was realising that this was where the tortured people at S21 were taken to be killed and those skulls were the same people that had stared out at us from photographs.
As you walk around the area, there are various signs explaining how many bodies were recovered in the numerous graves you walk past. Sometimes there are pieces of cloth and even bone noticeable in the ground as you walk. To realise that this sight is just one of many, and the sheer scale of the genocide that took place in this country is, well, I can't think of the right word. Perhaps 2 million people, perhaps more. Again, I think that's probably enough to be writing here, there are certainly more horrors we learnt that I could write, but the facts can be read easily elsewhere.
After a hard hitting day, we were looking forward to the evening and meeting up with Nina - an ex work colleague. It was great catching up if a little strange being in Cambodia to do it. We had a few beers at their (very nice..) hotel and a great meal - I hope you two enjoy the rest of your trip, it sounds amazing!
We're now in Kampot - escaping the city and getting into the countryside for some walking and bike rides by the river over the next few days. Something amusing to finish on - as we came down here on the bus Kev looked out of the window and remarked that the river was a lot bigger than he's imagined. Slight pause before I replied that it was actually the sea.