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Walker's Travels in Scandinavia 2017 and others
Not quite as humid this morning according to the weather app, however the 27 degC feels like 32. No cycling again today, probably due to the mayhem and chaos that is traffic here in Phnom Penh. We met in the lobby at 8am and were bused to the Royal Palace where the most interesting building was the Silver Pagoda. The floor of the pagoda is tiled with 5329 silver tiles, most of which were covers with carpet but you could see them on the sides and hear that they were metal when you walked in them. The Pagoda also housed the Emerald Buddha and the Gold Buddha made with 90kg of gold and 2086 diamonds, the biggest of which is 25 carats. But, being the lost interesting with all that bling, no photos were allowed, so we only have one of the outside. Next stop was the National Museum. We were left to make our own way around and we took the opportunity to take a comfort break and a slow wander as although there was plenty to see it was not particularly interesting. Before getting back on the bus we had mornos of fresh fruit, etc. Next up was the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. Instead of giving us our own audio guide, our guide gave us a most unintelligible brief and then let us loose. Mr Google will be consulted tonight sometime! The complex was once a school and was transformed into a prison by Pol Pots and given the name S.21 (Security Office 21) and was the biggest in Kampuchea. There are four buildings, all of them used for torturing the prisoners. Building C was used primarily as a prison with varying degrees of cells. Barbed wire was placed around the corridors to prevent the desperate prisoners from committing suicide by jumping off the building. This place has a very similar feeling to Dachau in Munich. Lunch was had at the Sna Dai Cafe which was across the road from the Choeung Ek Genocide Centre, AKA "The Killing Fields". We were able to order our own meals again and we all enjoyed them. It was then across the road to the place the prisoners from S21 were taken to be killed and buried. Instead of gasing them like in Germany, they were shot, had their throats cut, or smacked in the head with something really hard. Mass graves were used to bury them. A very sad and solemn place. It was the back to the hotel for a brief about tomorrow's ride. We are splitting into two groups and the original group of eight will be become a smaller group of five. The Germans leave us to to with the other group and they take a shorter route to HCM City. And Danilo (Swiss) left us in Siem Reap. There was time for some pers admin before meeting for pre-dinner drinks prior to dinner at 7pm. We all agreed that dinner should be at the same place as last night - Pasta Mania - so off we went. The "owner" was very surprised and most pleased to see us that he gave us the two for one deal again despite it not being Friday night! We all came away feeling very satisfied. Time for sleep and not much else.
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