From Siem Reap I just joined the family on their way to Phnom Penh. Tristan had headed home the day before, and Verber's leg was so infected that the doctor told him he should go home and get treatment in the US, so he was leaving the following morning. After the 6 hour bus ride we arrived at Phnom Penh and crashed at Guesthouse number 9 on the lakefront, which was really cool and set on stilts out over the lake with a great porch to watch the sunset and chill out on.
Had dinner at the Lazy Gecko, the food was stellar, and the proceeds go for the rehabilitation of some or other elephant. I had thought the proceeds went to the local orphanage so I was a bit disappointed about that, but I guess elephants are a worthy cause as well.
Guesthouse Number 9 at sunset
Many of the skulls bear witness to the Khmer Rouge's method of executing with pickaxes to save the cost of bullets
After the killing fields we went to Tuol Sleng or s-21 security prison. This was the main torture and detainment center in Phnom Penh from which only 7 of the roughly 17,000 detainees who passed through during the height of the Khmer Rouge survived. The center was originally a high school before Pol Pot set the clock back to 0 in Cambodia renaming the country the Republic of Kampuchea, and still looks relatively innocent from the outside, albeit the heaps of barbed wire.
Tuol Sleng from the outside. The classrooms inside were used as mass detainment rooms, which the halls downstairs were bricked off into individual cells for solitary confinement and interrogation.
Street kids climbing a wall in a garbage dump near the Cambodia Thai border
After dinner we went on a drinking odyssey through Phnom Penh, first going to a club out on a boat in the river, I think called Platoon, which was cool but pretty empty. I ended up getting in an hour-long argument with two Swedish guys about the fact that all Americans are not stupid. Seriously, some people fail to realize they have idiots in their own country as well, probably at almost as high percentage, but since we have more people, we also have more idiots, which means more idiots traveling, but the ratio is probably almost the same in your country. Anyway, our education system sucks, so you cant really blame disadvantaged people themselves for not knowing anything.
Dave trying to get rid of Jill's hickups - looked pretty intense, but it worked immediately
On the ride back to the main area there wasn’t enough room so Dave ended up riding on the handlebars of the drivers motorcycle, I'm sure highly safe. The tuk tuk had speakers so we were driving along jamming out the sides to apple bottom jeans, which seems to be enjoying a resurgence of popularity in SE Asia. After we got back to the lakeside we went to an awesome bar whose name had something to do with frog - lazy frog maybe..., which was REALLY cool. It was just a tiny room a few stories up but it was all open air and you could look down on the street below. I think it must have been the after hours place to go since when we got there at about 2 it was pretty empty and by 5 it was packed.
The next morning we went to the Killing fields first, which was the main execution grounds in Phnom Penh for the Khmer Rouge. When they were excavated in the 80s over 9000 skulls were found here, which are now encased in a stupa that bears memorial to the horrors of the place. The place looks un-sinister until you begin to read the explanatory plaques and see bitts of clothing poking out of the ground everywhere, and the bits of jaw bones people have found even now and placed on the other stupas scattered around the grounds.
The next morning we went to the Killing fields first, which was the main execution grounds in Phnom Penh for the Khmer Rouge. When they were excavated in the 80s over 9000 skulls were found here, which are now encased in a stupa that bears memorial to the horrors of the place. The place looks un-sinister until you begin to read the explanatory plaques and see bitts of clothing poking out of the ground everywhere, and the bits of jaw bones people have found even now and placed on the other stupas scattered around the grounds.
Main Stupa housing the 9,000 skulls which were found in the excavation of the site
One of the many execution pits scattered over the grounds.
over 9,000 Skulls which were found here during excavation
over 9,000 Skulls which were found here during excavation 
Many of the skulls bear witness to the Khmer Rouge's method of executing with pickaxes to save the cost of bulletsAfter the killing fields we went to Tuol Sleng or s-21 security prison. This was the main torture and detainment center in Phnom Penh from which only 7 of the roughly 17,000 detainees who passed through during the height of the Khmer Rouge survived. The center was originally a high school before Pol Pot set the clock back to 0 in Cambodia renaming the country the Republic of Kampuchea, and still looks relatively innocent from the outside, albeit the heaps of barbed wire.
Tuol Sleng from the outside. The classrooms inside were used as mass detainment rooms, which the halls downstairs were bricked off into individual cells for solitary confinement and interrogation.
For me the most disturbing aspect was the recentness (I'm pretty sure that is not a word) of this nasty piece of history, only 30 years. Walking on the street the majority of people you see have direct experience with the Khmer Rouge; they have lost parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles. The old people have lost children, husbands, and wives. For a people to still be as friendly and outwardly happy when this is in their immediate past is a testimony to the strength of the human spirit.
Street kids climbing a wall in a garbage dump near the Cambodia Thai border
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