Phnom Penh

We spent just a few days in the capital of Cambodia. What was striking to us was the lack of many towering buildings, most structures were no taller than 3 or four stories. Walking through the streets was an adventure in itself weaving around stalls, people, whizzing motorbikes and garbage.

One of the major sights to see in Phnom Penh is the Toul Sleng Genocide Museum. It is in the heart of the city and was a high school before it was converted into a "security" center by the Khmer Rouge to torture prisoners in the 70's. The prison was left much in the same condition as when it was found by liberating troops. Within, many photographs and captions illustrate the horrors that the Khmer Rouge inflicted on its own people.

In 1975, Khmer Rouge troops evacuated Phnom Penh by declaring that the US was going to bomb the city. City folk packed their things in a hurry and rushed out into the country side goaded by the gun-toting Khmer Rouge. Overnight, the country became a forced agrarian society whose major export was rice. Those with education were persecuted and tortured and the increasingly paranoid Khmer Rouge began to "reeducate" its own workers in security prisons. Curiously, many of the leaders of the Khmer Rouge, Pol Pot included, were intellectuals who had studied at universities abroad.

The Genocide museum was an eye-opening experience to say the least. Rooms where bodies were found were eerily preserved, with a rusted bedframe, shackles, and a bucket all that was left in a room once used for teaching. It was shocking to us that a country could bounce back from such a grisly time so quickly. Everyone over 30 was directly affected or a part of what happened.

Barbed wire to keep prisoners from jumping out of the building to commit suicide

At the waterfront stands the royal palace and the national museum. In the evenings, the park in front of the palace is filled with locals enjoying the cool river breeze and relaxing with family and friends.

In the courtyard of the National Museum

One thing that we stumbled across while in Cambodia was a program called Child Safe. It is put on by a NGO named Friends and does great work in helping the street children of Cambodia. They provide schools and job training to help the children learn skills that will lead to success in the future. The opportunities and education that Child Safe provides keeps children off the streets and out of the way of the heavy negative influences that a life of poverty in the city can have.