Phnom Penh and the Killing Fields

Another early start as we were collected to get to our bus at 6:40. The bus stop was teeming with buses and people and it was a mad rush to get on the bus. Two German girls hadn't got tickets but thankfully for them there was spare seats.

It was six hours in total with a stop halfway at Kampong Cham. The bus trip down was really interesting as we skirted to the north of Tonle Sap lake and the scenery was fascinating and we passed all kinds of Khmer houses from brick and fancy to wood and basic. A lot had water catchers - a wooden frame with plastic sheeting over it to catch rain water. Most houses had a small hollow at the front which was used for a variety of purposes including growing rice or other crops, small ponds or rubbish dumps.

We arrived in Phnom Penh about 12:30ish across the Japanese friendship bridge and into the city. We passed by the American Embassy which looked like a fortress!

We got a tuk-tuk to our hotel which was down a small street near to the Independence Monument. The room was the usual but it did have free laundry (which was very welcome!!)

We had a small stroll around: we passed the Independent monument, headed up a back street then looped past the National Museum, the Royal Palace, the Silver Pagoda and then along the river (which is lined with flagpoles flying flags of lots of nations although they got the Union Jack wrong) and the back towards our hotel past the Cambodia-Vietnam friendship memorial.

The following day we had a lie-in then headed out via a tuk-tuk to the Silver Pagoda and Royal Palace. You can only view a small part of the Royal Palace - basically the throne room and a few buildings close by. We did get a little confused by the map and wandered round the throne room thinking it was the Silver Pagoda. Once we realised our mistake, the guide book started to make sense!!

The throne room was lavishly decorated as expected and the throne itself was magnificent. There was only a few areas you could walk though.

The Silver Pagoda was even more impressive. It gets its name from the 5,000 1kg silver tiles that cover its floor. Unlike the throne room, we were free to walk around as much as we liked (shoes off of course). They had many historic artefacts arranged around the place in glass cases including small statues of Buddha, traditional Khmer costumes and assorted pots and pottery. The central item was a Jade Buddha seated on a magnificent dais of gold. There were several other impressive Buddha statues at its base.

We wandered around a few of the other buildings which were essentially mini museums before heading out to the national museum. This was just around the corner from the Royal Palace and was a beautiful red traditional Khmer building. It mainly housed statues recovered from various temples around Cambodia, mainly to prevent them being stolen, including the Leper King from Angkor Thom. Most were Hindu statues - primarily Vishnu and Shiva although Ganesa (the Elephant-headed god) made the odd appearance.

We had lunch at a little cafe overlooking the river and were pestered mercilessly by street kids. The first kid went past selling books and after we said no to him, Dave remembered that he wanted to buy the same guide book of Angkor Wat that I had so we bought one from the next kid. The first one came back and sulked petulantly while standing right next to Dave for our lunch until Dave gave him a few dollars to go away.

Our next stop was Tol Slueng or S-21 as it is better known, the concentration camp for the Khmer Rouge. It was an eerie place with barbed wire running along the wall. There were several landmine victims at the entrance so I gave them a few thousand riels.

Of the amputees in Cambodia, not as many as you would think are landmine victims anymore but often victims of snake bites and traffic accidents where they can't afford the medication so amputation is the cheapest option. It seems just as sad though.

S-21 has four buildings (A through D). It used to be a school so they are all old classrooms. IN Building A we could only visit the first floor and they were set out as they were when the camp was in use and in each room there was a bed frame and assorted items found there. On the wall was a picture of how the room (and the inmate) was found. A dead body in all cases. Of the 22,000 inmates to pass through S-21, 7 survived.

Building B displayed the photos of some of the inmates. The Khmer Rouge were meticulous in keeping records including a photo, whatever confessions they extracted under torture and date of execution. This has allowed a fairly full record of what happened there to be discovered. Most of the inmates would have been intelligent: doctors, lawyers, teachers and their families. All to ensure no resistance against the Khmer Rouge.

The second and third floors of Building B housed art work of the atrocities painted by one of the survivors (which were graphic and very harrowing)). Some of the torture equipment used were also displayed along with stories of inmates told by surviving family members.

Building C was left in its original state so you could see how the inmates lived including barbed wire across the balconies to prevent prisoners from committing suicide. The cells were fairly primitive - they basically made up brick enclosures within the classrooms to act as cells, which were about 2m wide and 4m deep with wooden doors. Prisoners were always chained so there was no hope of escape anyway.

On the way round all these buildings we passed several climbing frames - relics of when the building was a school - that were turned into torture apparatus.

Building D showed many of the same exhibits as B and C but the third floor had a small cinema and we were just in time to see the afternoon showing.

The film explained some of the history of the Khmer Rouge from Lon Nol's overthrow of the monarchy in 1970 to the communists capture of Phnom Penh in 1975 when they forced all Cambodians to work in the fields leaving the capital a ghost town.

The film also tracked the stories of a married couple who were to eventually both die at S-21 and the letters they left each other combined with heart-breaking testimony from their grandmother (they were first cousins).

We were both fairly downbeat when we left the place and it was a fairly quiet tuk-tuk back to the hotel. Thankfully we had good plans for the evening.

My little sister's friend Sally was living in Phnom Penh working as a volunteer and we'd arranged by e-mail to catch up with her for dinner. The place she suggested was called Friends and was an NGO aimed at helping street kids and teaches them cooking and how to run a restaurant. Despite Sally's claim that any moto driver would know the place we had to guide ours (it was in the Lonely Planet!!). The place was fantastically decorated with bright colours. Each waiter was a student paired with a teacher.

Sally arrived with her friend Liz, another volunteer. The menu was tapas so we each selected a few dishes. It was very impressive and very tasty!! Definitely recommend it to anyone in Phnom Penh.

It was very interesting to hear all the stories of volunteering in Cambodia. Made Dave and I feel very selfish!! Sally is working as a physio (her trade) helping to teach Cambodian physios and Liz is teaching English in an orphanage. Both seemed to be really enjoying it.

The following day was to be another heart-wrenching day. Our morning was spent traveling out to the Killing Fields. This was where all the S-21 inmates were brought to be executed. We paid $5 for a guide to take us round and he was excellent. He was also very frank about everything and this really surprised us. As most of the Khmer Rouge killers were very young, a lot of them are still walking round right now in their mid 40s. Their isn't any bitterness towards them, more of a compassionate understanding.

The main landmark of the Killing Fields is a monument built to honour the dead and this is also where they keep all the skulls on display. It's very chilling to see them all there.

Surrounding the monument are small shallow pits where they discovered all the bodies found so far (just short of 9,000 of the 22,000) and each pit has a marking post telling how many bodies were found in each pit. It's also very disturbing to see on the pathways bits of cloth slowly being uncovered which are the clothing of the victim. Our guide told us that occasionally more bones are found this way too.

We headed back into Phnom Penh and met Sally for lunch at the Foreign Correspondents Club which had a little fence around it meaning we didn't suffer the same problems as the previous day!!

After lunch we headed out to Sally's project at Kien Kleang, which is a rehab centre and also produces prosthetics. We took a tuk-tuk out there and headed across the Japanese friendship bridge and the road to Siem Reap. The rehab centre is right on the outskirts of Phnom Penh.

Sally gave us a little tour round the prosthetics area and it was really interesting to see all the processes. It's really well organised and everything is done by Cambodians, and overseen by Cambodians. We saw a lot of braces being made - to correct leg deformities, as well as the prosthetic limbs. They are made of a mixture of plaster, plastic and metal. We got to see a false foot and it was interesting to see that they made it with a mixture of plastics (of varying weight) to accurately reflect the balance of a foot.

We also had a quick tour round the wheelchair area - very quick as there was a lot of soldering going on. Basically we wandered round the finished area. They seemed to be pretty well made too.

It was time for the afternoon clinic sessions and we headed to a small room at the end of the centre. It had one small table loaded with toys (most of which Sally had brought herself), a few mats on the floor, a small laptop and a fan. Not quite a physio room back in the UK.

The first patient was already there working with Houeng. She was a girl of about 2 with Cerebal Palsy. We had a further two patients - a girl of about 4 and a boy of about 3. The second girl also has Cerebal Palsy and the boy had learning difficulties. It was interesting to watch the physios at work and Dave and I have concluded that playing with toys and kids doesn't really qualify!! Sally's role seemed to be bossing people about, a role she seemed to really enjoy!!

Each child was accompanied by at least one parent and it was good to see that they really got involved. Given how little money they make there must be an awful temptation with kids who have disabilities as health care isn't free.

Her three physios: Houeng, Tokyo and Sarun, had a patient each and Sally moved between them. It was interesting to see how they varied: one physio in particular just sat their writing notes while the parent played with the child. They did lots of exercises to improve motor skills and there were a few tears here and there when exercises hurt.

We were there for about four hours in total and it was fascinating to get a view of Cambodian life that most travellers wouldn't get.

We headed back into the city via moto as there were no tuk-tuks out there. Sally and Dave got on one, leading the way and I got on another. Sally looked very comfortable on the back whereas Dave looked scared. I got by far the better of the deal as their moto driver was a little "crazy" whereas mine seemed fairly sane.

Our destination was a small cafe close to the Independence Memorial for a few drinks to chill out after the hot day. We then met up later with Sally, Liz and a few of the other friends at the Lazy Gecko (we managed to confuse our tuk-tuk driver by calling it the Lucky Gecko - so he kept trying to take us to the Lucky Guesthouse). We arrived there to find a dark alley and were worried we were about to get mugged before spotting the bar on the side of the road. The fact that they were digging up the road didn't help!!

We had dinner and then joined in the Pub Quiz. We did pretty well although Sally got the number of bones wrong in the backbone (sorry Sally!!) and Dave is still bitter about the question over John Candy's last film. All academic anyway as we finished third but a good few points behind the winner.

I have to say a big thank you to Sally for her hospitality and giving us a chance to see some really cool stuff. Also to her volunteer friends for making us welcome.

Our stay in Phnom Penh finished off with a little complication. We found some flight times to Hanoi and decided, the following morning, that in the style of the Amazing Race we would turn up to the airport and get our tickets that way. Mental note to add to the long list of stuff 'not to do next time'. Phnom Penh airport doesn't do that sort of thing!!

So, back into a taxi and back into Phnom Penh to the Vietnam Airlines HQ. Tickets no problem (last two seats on the flight). Power cut. No credit card facilities. Back into taxi to bank. My credit card maxed out. Dave cashes some travellers cheques. Back to Vietnam Airlines. Pick up tickets. Back to Airport. Wait an hour before they'll let us check in so watch the Wedding Crashers on Dave's Ipod and then it's off and away to Vietnam!!!