Monday 31st March 2008

Nikki woke up really early this morning - I think it was because our room creeped her out. I have to admit, it wasn't very nice! We got ourselves ready, went to a small café for some breakfast and then set ourselves the task of finding another guest house. It didn't take us long - in fact it was right across the way from Number 10, and is called the Grand View Guest House. The room is really clean, and even though we have to climb about 76 flights of stairs - it's better than last nights. We had a bit of a lazy morning, just wandering about - trying to take in our surroundings, when we decided that we'd go and see some of the sights in Phnom Penh. We stopped a tuk-tuk driver and he said he'd charter us around for the day - and take us to the Tuol Sleng Museum (S-21) and Choeung Ek Killing Fields... so off we went. On our way around the city, the clear thing to us was that there is an obvious divide in class and wealth. Some people are walking round barefoot or in tattered clothes and then someone would drive past them in a Lexus... crazy!

When i'd spoke with Arno earlier about Cambodia, he said that if we visit the museum and Killing Fields to be prepared - they're not very nice places. I can tell you, he wasn't joking. The museum especially was possibly the most horrific place I have ever been. It used to be a school and then in about 1975 the Khmer Rouge took it over and turned it into the S-21 Prison. It is estimated that around 20,000 innocent Cambodians were taken into the prison, where they were interrogated and tortured before being transported to the Killing Fields... only 7 people came out alive! There are pictures on the walls that show these poor people, many photographs of victims and also paintings of how they killed. What makes it even worse is that most of the Khmer Rouge soldiers were aged between 14-20 years old!

We felt that we owed the museum our full attention , so we paid for a guide who was excellent. She was a Cambodian woman who explained everything really clearly. When we got towards the end of the tour she told us that her family (including Mum, Dad, brothers, sisters and Aunties & Uncles) were all taken by the Khmer Rouge - and she's never seen them again. We felt so sorry for her. How she faces coming to work every day is beyond me!? At 3pm there was a film being shown, but before we could watch it we had to take a break, so we went into a small café opposite and had a drink with our tuk-tuk driver. When we'd caught our breath, we went back in. It didn't get any easier and Nikki ended up leaving in tears.

Our next stop was the Choeung Ek Killing Fields, which is where the prisoners were executed and was then the site of their mass graves. These weren't a very nice place either - but at least we could hear the birds singing there. Right in the middle of the field is a remembrance monument, which you can enter... and it contains about 8000 of the skulls that were found! As you walk around the fields you can still see bones and bits of clothing in the floor. It's unbelievable.

We came back to the lakeside this evening and didn't really know what to do with ourselves - we were feeling quite down after the things we had seen. We sat in the bar of our place, which was showing the film The Killing Fields (apparently they show it every night) and then we decided to get some food, so we went for another curry. Typically, after the day we'd had, the food was rubbish... d'oh!

We've had too many curries lately - we're gonna save ourselves until we get back to Paprika now!