Cambodia Part I: Phnom Penh

Wow, what a difference a couple of hours can make.

When I left Thailand the Songkran water festival was still raging. A few hours later I arrived in Phnom Penh. Cambodia is also celebrating its New Year but upon arrival I never would have guessed. The city looked pretty deserted. All the shops were closed and other than a small gathering of people at the park near our guesthouse, I never would have guessed it was New Year's. The celebration was nothing like Thailand, which turned out to be a good thing. After three days of getting soaked every time I set foot out of our hotel, I was ready to dry out.

The spiritual rituals for the New Year are similar to Thailand. The people go to the temples to pay respect to their ancestors and also to wash the Buddha statues with holy water. In Thailand and Cambodia water is supposed to symbolize the washing away of all the evil things from the previous year. Cambodia apparently has not caught on to the awesomeness of a 3 day water fight in the streets.

I have to admit that I know nothing about Cambodia and its history. Its not something I ever learned about in history class. I decided that while in Phnom Penh I had to go see the "Killing Fields" in order to better understand the country.

The killing fields of Choeng Ek is the place were thousands of prisoners of the Khmer Rouge were taken and executed. There was a lot of information about what happened at these fields and we were able to walk around and see the mass graves that were discovered. Pretty intense stuff.

After that we went to the Tuol Seing Musuem, also known as the S-21 prison. S-21, which used to be a high school, was converted into a prison and torture chamber for those who disagreed with Pol-Pot, one of the leaders of the Rouge.  On display at the museum were some pretty haunting photographs of all of the victims of the prison. You could also walk through and see the cells and chambers where they held the prisoners.

Even though it was a pretty depressing day I am so glad that I went to those places. Going to the museum really shaped my outlook on Cambodia and the people. Although Phnom Penh is still very much a developing city, they have come a long way in a very short amount of time. It was not that long ago that the city (and the entire country) was in ruins.