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We boarded our "VIP" bus (notice the quotation marks because it was anything but) and made our way to Phnom Penh, Cambodia's capital. This city proved to be a pretty hard place to stomach and a real culture shock.
The first thing we did when we arrived was to vistit the Toul Sleng Geocide Museum, also known as S-21. This was a high school converted into an interrogation facility by Pol Pot during the Khmer Rouge regime of 1975-1979. All the barbed wire and cells have been left as they were found and the site has been turned into a museum. In the museum are photos of the 14 dead bodies of the people found when the prison was discovered. Also on show is evidence of the tortue equipment used and mugshots of the thousands of people that passed through the site before being executed. It was a deeply harrowing place to be and the fact that it used to be a high school made it all the worse.
The next day we took a short tuk-tuk ride out of town to Choeung Ek Memorial, better known as The Killing Fields. Here we saw the evidence of the mass grave that once held over 17000 bodies, more evidence of the brutal madness of the Khmer Rouge regime. The memorial also consisted of a stupa that contained over 8000 skulls of people exhumed from the site. After this we chilled for a bit, had a few drinks in the Foreign Correspondents Club and went for something to eat.
All in all Cambodia was a great country and so much different to anywhere I have ever been to. However, the proof of the troubled history, terrible poverty and constant reminders of the large sex tourism throughout the country sometimes made it an uncomfortable experience.
Next stop: Vietnam
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