Quick note before you read is that some of the stuff about the Killing Fields is sad and terrible. I don't go into it that much but just the ideas of what happened during this time are distressing. I just want to give the heads up before I scare someone off.
We started the morning bright and early at 6am and went downstairs to grab a quick bite before getting picked up from our tuk tuk friend. We got downstairs and the kitchen doesn't open until 7am. We asked for a recommendation on where to eat and he just said to go out and look because he doesn't know anywhere that opens before 7. Wonderful, another day without food.
Luckily we found a UK chain coffee place that had some muffins to hold us over for awhile. We ate the muffins and hopped into the tuk tuk and were off. The guy was helpful and told us to keep our belongings (Alex's purse and my backpack) in between the two of us so people that drove by couldn't grab it from us. It's funny, we don't usually have that problem at home since everyone is in cars instead of mopeds.
Getting driven around is soooooo nice. It's much better, in different ways, than driving our own moped because we don't have to navigate or fight traffic. Since we left right in the morning we seemed to hit the work rush hour. It was fun to people watch while going for a relaxing ride.
The Killing Fields are outside of Phnom Penh so it took awhile to get there but it was fun to see the change in landscape from city to more rural. We got there and were the first people there of course. We paid the $6 and got the audio tour while we walked around.
It was an extremely eerie and saddening place. It's just a mind blowing thing to know that this genocide happened right here. And what's even crazier to me, is that I didn't even know it happened until I planned this trip. Everyone knows about the Nazis and the terrible things they did, but there are so many other tragedies like this that go unnoticed to so many people.
The audio tour was well worth it because it talked about the site, but also gave actual accounts from people that were affected by this and were willing to share their stories. Pretty much everyone in the country was affected in one way or another.
There's so much to say about it but it's depressing and if you want to know more about Pol Pot and the disgusting things he did I'm sure google will give you a detailed account.
Once we made our way through we met back up with our tuk tuk driver and headed back into Phnom Penh to check out the S-21 Prison.
The S-21 prison was one of the larger places that people were jailed. These were very similar to the concentration camps of the Nazi time. The museum was very informative and showed us all of the different things that happened there. There were lots of pictures of the people that were imprisoned there, all of which were very sad.
One quick fact about who they decided were the "bad people" that should die is that it was all the city people. Anyone that was educated or used any form of technology (including eye glasses...). This was run by rural villagers who forced their way into power.
This caused many people that were doctors, lawyers, professors, etc. to be killed. For no reason. It's a messed up thing. There were seven people from the S-21 prison that were found when the raid happened - everyone else was dead. This place was huge and only seven people were found. Crazy stuff.
So after a terribly depressing morning, we had a wonderful afternoon planned. We grabbed a quick bite for lunch and then headed to a couple shops. All of the shops around here were fair trade and focused on a couple main causes.
Almost all of them have some form of craft that they provide training for, or some other sort of skill like cooking. The shops we went to helped women handicapped by land mines or polio, another was focused on rural women - the list goes on and on.
Not only are they good businesses, but the stuff they made is incredible! It's a little more expensive than some of the other countries, but it's worth it because you know it was made with happy hands.
After shop hopping we stopped into the hostel to buy bus tickets for tomorrow. Keeping our usual schedule and not wanting to waste daylight, we scheduled the 7:45am bus. This will give us a little extra time in Siem Reap which is good since we've see most of what we wanted to in Phnom Penh.
We hopped into a tuk tuk and headed up to the Central Market. This place was HUGE! Like the Mall of America of markets. We wandered around, got hassled by the vendors, but also learned to barter a lot. We saved $10 on one thing - brought them down from $18 to $8. I know I'm not actually cool but it made me feel pretty badass.
I find bartering annoying, but I find being taken advantage of more annoying so it's worth it. As long as you're willing to walk away they are always willing to take your offer.
After the market we walked to the rooftop bar called Foreign Correspondence Club. It was a beautiful view on the mighty Mekong River. We played some cribbage, got some skewers for an appetizer, and had some delicious passion fruit drinks. The breeze from the top felt good after walking around in the heavy heat all day.
Our dinner was just down the street at a place called Friends. The tapas were unreal and it was all for another good cause! Their cause was focused on education for children in rural areas. They also bring students in from their villages and train them at their restaurant.
They also had a store right down the street that had cool crafts made by the parents of the students. The crafts were amazing! It's so hard not to spend money on cool things, especially when it's for a good cause (also we won't be over here much longer so why not?).
As we walked back to our hostel we heard a bunch of loud !bangs! and we weren't sure what was going on. No one was scared or acting weird so we knew everything was alright. We ended up talking to a store worker and they told us it was their Independence Day! There wasn't as much going on as what we see in the States (at least what we saw), but it seemed like some people were having a good time.
We got back to the hostel and packed up to prepare for our 6:45 departure tomorrow morning. Luckily we found a place that opens at 6am for breakfast because it's a long bus trip (6-7 hours) and not having a meal would be a serious problem. We were all ready to go and I finally got caught up on the blog and we planned a little bit for Siem Reap.
That's all for today Phnom Penh is a very busy city ad was bigger than I expected. It's crazy how much recent history there is in Camobida that I've never known about. I wish I learned a little bit about it in school or somewhere, but it seems they keep a lot of non-Western genocides and tragedies out of World History classes. It's important stuff to know so we can do something about it.
At any rate, off to Siem Reap tomorrow morning!
"It’s hard to go. It’s scary and lonely…and half the time you’ll be wondering why the hell you’re in Cincinnati or Austin or North Dakota or Mongolia or wherever your melodious little finger-plucking heinie takes you. There will be boondoggles and discombobulated days, freaked-out nights and metaphorical flat tires.
But it will be soul-smashingly beautiful… It will open up your life."
- Cheryl Stayed
Wow, what at day. You guys really know how to get the most out of the day. You know I love the fact that you get up early to make the most of it. True Nuechterlein fashion.
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