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After Kep I went to Phnom Penh to celebrate NYE in the capital of Cambodia. On my arrival on the 30th I wandered a bit throughout the city and met up with Keone. He was meeting up with two girls he met in Siem Reap and we had a nice dinner and a few drinks. The day after, I saw an advertisement at the hostel that they would host a BBQ with free shots. Great way to start of the last party of the year, so we signed in and went there. The food was good and they had a beer pong table so that was pretty cool. It was a shame that the place closed at 23:30 so we went to a different bar. That was kind of a disappointment, probably because I was expecting a similar party as NYE at home with friends and family. I went to bed at like 02:30 and was a bit bummed out.
After one more day of waiting, I finally picked up Daan from the airport. It was not only a blessing to have him beside me for the next 2,5 weeks but now I was also able to start with the sightseeing activities I planned for Daan and me. I awaited Daan at the arrival hall and he was standing out quite visible, understatement, from the rest of the passengers. The clown of the family was wearing a bright orange Unox winter cap. When we got back at the hostel, Daan took a shower after giving me some presents from the Netherlands. My mom & dad sent along a chunk of good cheese and some coated peanuts (borrelnootjes) and Ryanne sent me the travellers version of Kolonisten van Catan, chopsticks and a most awesome letter (the most important gift ofcourse:)).
When Daan was done with showering, I showed him the plan of where we would go today. We visited the Royal Palace, Silver Pagoda, National Museum and the local market along side passing through some less impressive statues and monuments. The most important part for me was that Daan would have a good time. I have seen museums, I have seen palaces and I have seen (many) temples and Buddha statues. The biggest satisfaction for me on this day was being with Daan and watching him enjoy our trip to the fullest. The palace was quite nice but not much compared to the one in Bangkok. Same goes for the Silver Pagoda and the museum was not very different from the one in Siem Reap or Bangkok. When we got back, we had a few drinks at the hostel and didn't go to bed very late since it was a tiring day.
The next day was going to be a depressive one. Cambodia has been terrorised by the Khmer Rouge, a political party that wanted to repopulise Cambodia. They wanted to establish communism in the country and killed off 3 million people out of the 8 million people living in Cambodia at the time (late 70's; 1975-1979). Imagine that from every 3 people you know, 1 would be murdered. These black pages in the history books of Cambodia are displayed in two important sites; the Tuol Sleng Genocidal Museum (S21) and the Killing Fields (Choeung Ek).
We started at the Genocidal Museum. This was once a school but the Khmer Rouge did not allow any form of education or religious worshipping. The school was turned into a prison where Cambodians were held captive and tortured in inhumane conditions. The pictures that I will upload can be disturbing to some. The museum displayed some of the beds with the shackles that were put around the legs of the prisoners. There were pictures on the wall from when the army took over and found dead prisoners in pools of blood. There were areas with mugshots (pasfoto's voor boeven) from the people that were held and killed in here. In another area, we could see the tools that the Khmer Rouge used to interrogate and torture.
It was depressing to read testimonials from diaries about how they were treated and what happened to them. 7 people survived the prison only because they were lucky enough that the Khmer needed some of their skills (painting, repairing an engine). One building was kept in the original state. Bloodstains on the floor, cells measuring 1 by 2 meters and barbed wire around the open areas of the balcony were there to be seen.
We continued to go to the Killing Fields, the place were the prisoners were executed. At night, people would be transported from the prison to the Killing Fields to be butchered. The prisoners were told that they would move to a better place to keep them calm and quiet during transport. They were shackled in a long chain, always blindfolded and their hands tied behind there back. They were led towards the edge of a mass grave where they were clubbed to death with an axe, hammer and other similar equipment. They did not use bullits because that was too expensive. After the beating, they would slit their throats to be sure they were dead.
The Killing Fields was full of holes which were the graves of countless people. They dug up a lot of the holes. There was a grave with 450 dead bodies in it, a grave with beheaded (headless) bodies and a grave with only naked women and children in it. Next to latter grave stood a tree nicknamed the killing tree. Babies were hit with the head against the tree by executioners who were slinging them at it while holding there feets until they were dead and thrown into the grave. When they first found the place, there were traces of brains and hair sticking on the tree. A bit further was the magic tree. This tree had speakers in it to blast national music from to prevent the screams and shouts from the prisoners who were tortured and killed to reach beyond the complex.
In the center of the complex, there was a big stupa (tower) displaying over 9000 skulls from the people that were butchered at the Killing Fields. The skulls were cracked and most of them missed all their teeth except for the molars (kiezen). This is probably because the teeth were pulled during the torturing as well. Luckily, the Killing Fields had a great audio guide in Dutch so we were able to understand perfectly what montrious and horrible acts were executed during the Khmer Rouge period.
We ended with a more happy activity and that was the same BBQ I had on NYE and some games of beer pong. The day after we left to Kampot for the countryside and beachlife in Cambodia.
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