Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville, Cambodia

Phnom Penh

This is the capital city of Cambodia which contains a horrifying and haunting past, one that gives you cold chills up the spine when you hear about the genocide.  During the years from 1975-1979 a genocide sweep through Cambodia, claiming the lives of nearly 3 million Cambodian people in just less then 4 years.  Pol Pot, who was a extreme communist, took over Cambodia and tried, forcefully, to change the way that society functioned.  He tried to eliminate all the intelligent people of Cambodia ( teachers, doctors, politicians, anyone who knew another language, people who could read and anyone else who was considered educated) were all executed.  

His thought was that once eliminating these intellects, he could start one equal class, which would create no competition amongst the people of Cambodia.  By having no competition he believed that people would not turned corrupt and damaged the flow of society.  So for just under 4 long painful years he ordered his Khmer Rouge army to execute and torture almost 3 million Cambodian people.

We went to the Tuol Sleng Prison were the Khmer Rouge would torture the people before sending them out into the fields to be killed.  Sometimes the people would last 3 months in the torture prison ( which originally was a school) and other times their bodies could not take the evil punishment and they would simply die in the prison.  People from 1 to 70 years old would be taken the the prison and brutally tortured.  We saw some disturbing rules that were posted on the walls:

"While getting lashes or electrifications you must not cry at all"

"Do nothing. Sit still and wait for my orders. If there is no order, keep quiet.  When I asked you to do something you must do it right away without protesting"

Every person had a mug shot taken when they entered

A bed

The prison was very shocking and eye opening as it really gave a great amount of information.  After the prison we headed out of town to the fields were the people were taken after being tortured.  At the fields, know as the Killing Fields, the people were killed and thrown into mass graves. 

............Little side note, So instead of paying some guy to take us to the Prison and then the fields (charging an incredibly inflated amount) we decided to be smart and rent a motor bike and navigate the city our selves!  But Phnom Penh is a big Asian city, meaning that there is way too many people driving on the road, nobody follows road signs, horns are the only noise you can hear, tourist are not seen driving and maps are thrown out the window (also we found out road blocks do occur on major roads!)  It took us much longer then we thought to get to the fields as the road block made us drive 20 minutes of back alleys, where we had to turn this way and that way.......we got lost to say the least.  But after only 30 minutes of being lost and one hell of a traffic jam ( crossing a 25 foot wide bridge, with hundreds of buses, cars, and bikes all fighting to get across the bridge first.  After we finally got across we were lucky enough to get a flat tire! Somewhere in the chaos we must of ran something or someone over! )

But soon we were back on track heading out of the city to the fields.  The fields were just as disturbing as the prison.  

Original Skulls. Sign said juvenile 16-20 year old women.

The next day we went and visited an orphanage.  We donated 50 kilos of rice to the children.  We played a very competitive game of football! 

Sihanoukville

The Beach!  and it was a amazing beach too!  we were not expected the beach to be so nice but it was great.  We met up with some friends that we had hanging around with since Laos.  Sihanoukville was a great time to relax, drink beer, eat seafood and even Borcht!  

Fresh Russian (Ukraine) BORCHT

Every night there would be fresh seafood BBQs on the beach, serving fresh Baracuta and other great seafood.  So life was pretty tuff as we would sit and soak up the sun rays during the days and then met up with friends at night to eat and drink the night away.  Boy o Boy life is a BEACH.  

Oh the buckets of Asia

After a good 4 or 5 days we travelled to Bangkok to meet up with a good friend Mammoth ( or some know him as Matthew Matras) was going to be in Bangkok with his friend Blair.  So Missie and I decided to go and get our India visas in Bangkok.  We had a great weekend as we drank and helped them shop for gifts for the family and friends.  It was really great to be able to see a good buddy along way across the world!

Khao San Road

Well we have a couple of more entries before we catch up!  Currently were in Nepal and heading to India in the morning.

Take care

Shaun