Phnom Phen, Cambodia

One girl's story posted in the Tuol Sleng Museum
Traffic in Phnom Phen
Monument created at the Killing Fields, inside were shelves of skulls recovered from the fields.
The cells inside Tuol Sleng Museum
Another cell in the museum.

OK so island life isn't always paradise, I was working on my masterpiece of all blog postings last night and the power went out in the middle of it making me lose all the material I had wrote! So here I am again....
I see I have a few more followers signed up, thanks (except for my family?!), some anonymous ones as well which have me wondering.....and thanks to those of you who have emailed me and told me, it does motivate me more if I know people are reading it.
So I will try to remember what I had written last night after a day of lying on the beach and my create juices were flowing and I was full of wit....now I am just going on another late night at the amusing Reggae bar, 2 cups of coffee and the eager thoughts of getting to the beach once I'm done here!

After another karaoke fun filled bus ride, I arrived mid day into Phnom Phen which is the capital of Cambodia and has alot of history from the Khmer Rouge reign including some of the Killing Fields. Cambodia is lush and green and mostly flat land with some hills and bushes in the north and south. Phomn Phen is a very busy, noisy, action packed, dirty city which is very dangerous for walking and crossing roads. I did venture out dodging traffic and went and did a bit of shopping and got some trendy, new glasses for $48!
That night at my Guesthouse I watched the movie -The Killing Fields, I had heard of it but hadn't seen it and thought it would be good to get some insight before my tour the next day. It was actually very well done and interesting about a western journalist and his Cambodia photographer friend and trying to escape out of Cambodia once the Khmer Rouge took over.
The next day off I went with my friendly English speaking tuk tuk driver, we made it about 2 blocks when we got a flat tire....luckily there are moto repair guys on every street corner so 1/2 hour later we were good to go, thank goodness it didn't happen on the highway!
First stop was the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, it was a high school the Khmer Rouge turned into a prison before taking the people to the Killing Fields. It showed a movie first and then you got to tour the 4 buildings which took about 2 hours. It was full of peoples stories and pictures and gave you a really good understanding of what happened and how the Khmer Rouge tricked people including the Europeans whom they invited over for 'tours' and donate but only showing them what they wanted them to see. From the stories, they were very manipulative and tricked so many people into believing they wanted to help people and make a better world for them including soldiers they recruited, only for them to find out quite quickly that wasn't so.
Next stop was the Killing Fields, I had mixed feelings about seeing this and hardly took any pictures and a couple I did I have decided not to post on here. It's hard to explain, I think it was worth going to see to understand and it was well set up and done with guides who blatenatley explained what was done and where. They seemed so matter of fact about it all. I understand that they are trying to just move on from what happened and not dwell on it, even though alot of the area and buildings were destroyed by families of people who were killed there after the Khmer Rouge lost control of the country. It was very emotional and after I left and reflected about it all on my way back to town it certainly gave me much more of an appreciation for the Cambodian people and the horrors they have been through and how they are working hard at trying to go on with life. Of course some are doing better than others you can see but for the most part, people just want peace and happiness now.
Last stop of my tour which was a nice change of pace was shopping at the Russian market. I decided to get a bite of local food and found 'the best ice coffee shop' in Phnom Phen and took my snack of backed rice cakes there to eat and enjoy my coffee. Now I am not sure why but Asian people don't think anything of touching food, your food, thier food whatever. As I was waiting for my rice cakes to cool and for my coffee the guy who ran the shop sat beside me and decided to check out my food my proceeding to poke his fingers into each little rice cake! You think I would be a little more relaxed about these kinds of actions by now but I immediatley yelled well kind of laughing in disbelief- 'Don't touch my food!' So he quickly apoligized and went off to make my ice coffee.....when I was done I thought I'd just have a 'look' at the shopping and found myself buying a hammock! One thing I just had to have and somehow find a spot in my overstuffed bag for it! Now I have somewhere to sleep when I come home just need a place to hang it! :)
Ended the day with a tour up and down the busy riverfront which was mostly blocked off with huge billboards as if they were doing riverfront construction. Ended up at a restaurant called- Friends which hires street kids to work there and get their lives straightened out. Great food, expensive but for a good cause and a couple of nice, young german guys I sat with treated me! Almost like a double date and the best part was they walked me home to my Guesthouse with no expectations as they were on their way to the bars to find some Asian girls! I feel so safe here, its great! haha