Phnom Penh is the capital of Cambodia. As a city itself, it has nothing particularly spectacular.
Life here is a mix between calm and chaotic traffic. In the afternoon, when the sun and heat begin to go down, it seems that the city gets alive again.
In this city we discovered that our blog has many fans, and everyone wanted a picture with us ...
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In Phnom Penh we also learned a little bit of Cambodia's history.
The unknown pain of Cambodia
Few people know the recent history of Cambodia and the genocide their population suffered. At least, we didn't know much before getting there.
In the 70's of last century, the Khmer Rouge, terrorize the country and killed arround two million people.
- Toul Sleng S-21
It was a former school, but it was converted by the Khmer Rouge into a prison and torture center. Nowadays it's a museum and we really recommend you this visit if you are in this town.
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- Choeung EK
Also known as The Killing Fields. Here were killed and buried in mass graves hundreds of thousands of people, many of them coming from Toul Sleng prison.
Choeung Ek is the most famous of more than 300 camps scattered throughout Cambodia. If you want to read more about the "Democratic Kampuchea" regime led by Pol Pot, here you have some links.
Choeung Ek is the most famous of more than 300 camps scattered throughout Cambodia. If you want to read more about the "Democratic Kampuchea" regime led by Pol Pot, here you have some links.
- www.eccc.gov.kh/en (Court judging the Khmer Rouge)
- www.yale.edu/cgp (Cambodian Genocide Program at the University of Yale)
- www.cambodiatribunal.org (Cambodia Tribunal Monitor)
This visit and Toul Sleng need to be taken with time to think and process all the information. A good audio guide explains you in The Killing Fields what happened and how they lived at this time. It's a part of recent history that surely do not leave anyone indifferent.
We think you should take a whole day to wisit this two sites, in order to understand the thinks that happened in this period of time, from the recent history of Cambodia.
We took a tuk-tuk for 14 US dollar, shared between 4 people, to go to booth places, wait for us, and return us to the hotel.
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