Second Day in Phnom Penh

Baitong Hotel waterfall into pool

One of the first things I did when I got to Cambodia was looked up a good place to do money exchange. I saw some in airport but couldn’t see the rate for USD so I figured they must get a lot of visitors from other countries instead. Then I started reading reviews and these exchange places are exchange money TO the US dollar. I’m sure glad I bought new 20’s and a bunch on 1’s and 5’s. Walking around yesterday I did actually find a place that exchanged my USD to Cambodian Riels but it does seem like every place takes either dollars or riels.

Choeung Ek information

Today I decided to visit the Killing Fields and the Genocide Museum. It was super sad. I knew pretty much nothing about it, but there was a great guide who told us a lot as he took us around the Killing Fields. There was civil war in Cambodia for 5 years (1970-1975), and when the Khmer Rouge won, people were just glad it was over then found out the winners were evil. They forced everyone into the country to “return to agrarian culture” and work in labor camps with no one owning anything (communism). Then they said they wanted doctors, lawyers, teachers to come back to the city to help rebuild, but they tricked them and imprisoned them and their family instead, along with Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, other foreigners, people of other religions, and anyone they could find from the opposing political party

Choeung Ek Memorial

Skulls of victims in the memorial

They were starved (fed porridge with barely any rice in it) and hosed down through a window once or twice a month. Tortured people, most died from the conditions, many were sent to the killing fields where they usually didn’t even waste bullets but killed them with instruments like hoes or metal rods, one tree in particular was used to smash babies heads against. Sickening. It was all in secret far out in the countryside without people knowing. They would play loud music to drown out the sounds. People thought friends had gone back to the city. My guide said his uncle was taken and is in one of the mass graves perhaps here or in one of the other killing fields in Cambodia. There is a large memorial at this killing field filled with the over 5000 skulls they unearthed from mass graves here.

They built walkways so people would not step on the mass graves

Choeung Ek Statue

Choeung Ek Truck Stop

The leader, Pol Pot, was paranoid in addition to being a ruthless tyrant and he killed many of his own party and soldiers, which helped weaken the army. Finally, after 3 years and 8 months (January 1979), the opposing army with help from Vietnam ousted the Khmer Rouge in just 2 weeks and took back most of Cambodia. But over 1.3 million people were executed and an estimated million more died of starvation and mistreatment. This is in a country of 8 million before Khmer Rouge took over. For many years people were afraid the Khmer Rouge would take over again (Pol Pot was still trying to regain support in the mid-90’s) so there was tremendous fear against getting educated for a long time.

Tuol Sleng S21 memorial with names of the 18,000 who died

Survivior of S21 and daughter

The killing fields were awful, but I think even worse was seeing all the pictures (they measured and photographed each prisoner) of the victims from the S21 prison (a high school they converted) in the genocide museum. Pictures of the girls and boys are especially haunting. Only 12 prisoners survived. At the end of the museum exhibits, one of the five children who survived had a table where I gladly bought his book for $10 and met his daughter who is going to college. He and his brother are the only two of the children still in Cambodia. The others were adopted in Germany and they don’t know what happened to them. Then after passing by the memorial, I saw another table with one of the seven adult survivors, a mechanic who made himself useful to survive. I also bought his book. 20 yards further down was another adult survivor, one of the painters they used so they spared him though he lost his family. I had enough books to bring home so I just donated $5 instead.

Another survivor of S21

photo from BBC

Here are a couple articles about them:
https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-33096971
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-pacific-10602689

Tires being transported

How much can you haul with a motorbike

Motorbikes can haul a lot

Monks in a tuk tuk

traffic cambodia

Roosters in cages

Anyone want to buy a tuk tuk

scooter store

Clothing store on wheels

Wat Phnom started by the lady Phnom

The rest of the day was more cheerful. I took a tuk tuk to Wat Phnom. Legend says that is the 1300’s Lady Pehn found 4 Buddha statues in a tree in the Mekong River. She got her neighbors to help her build a small hill and pagoda to put the statues in. Over the centuries, this hill and pagoda were expanded on to become what it is today. Entrance to the area is free for locals and tourists pay $1 so a modest fee. There are stairs leading up to the Wat and I saw a monk on the stairs posing for a picture for a friend. I walked up a side path where I saw a cat in full hunter mode creep up on some birds, but they flew away leaving him unsuccessful. He left the roosters and chick alone so he must know they are off limits.

Wat Phnom for whom the city is named

He is so cute...I really hope he has no fleas!

The Wat had dozens of small buddha statues everywhere. Which were the original four? With some help from a couple men working there I was able to figure out they were “up” and “behind” the large buddha statue in a box with four sides, with one in each side. I then walked down another path down the hill and saw a cat above me resting on a railing. Below her on my pathway were two adorable kittens! One of them came right up to me to get petted. It was so cute! And stayed with me even with the other kittens ran off. Eventually I sat down and it worked its way onto my lap and as I picked it up to hold it for awhile I fervently hoped it didn’t have fleas. If I wasn’t in another country, I’d have my new adventure kitty. It didn’t even bat an eye when dogs walked nearby. At the bottom of the hill, I was again impressed by children’s ability to make games out of anything. Two boys were using their shoes to try to knock over a bottle of water guarded by a girl.

Cute kittens at Wat Phnom

Kitten totally surrenders to being petted

Stuffed egg peeled

I was getting hungry so I tried to find the food vendor from yesterday, but no luck. I did find someone selling stuffed eggs and I couldn’t resist getting one. It was quite good! Along the way I also saw some people playing badminton on the side of the street and in the park. I picked up my laundry at Yeaksa Modern Laundry (the only one I found with no negative reviews about stains appearing that weren’t there) and got my laundry back smelling great. It was only $1/kg so crazy cheap.

Stuffed egg inside

Stuffed Egg booth

YeaksaModern Laundry

my clean very scented laundry

Cute girl with her mom

Playing badminton on street using sign as net

Great Spring Rolls

For dinner I went to the Night Market, and got a shrimp spring roll (75 cents). As I walked around the booths, a wonderful smell hit me and I instantly stopped and looked around. A guy had just gotten some beef with rice so I ordered the beef with noodles ($3) and sat down on one of the little picnic mats. They also had fresh seafood (as in still moving) so perhaps I will try when I come back from Angkor Wat. The spring roll was delicious so I ended up getting another one. The beef and noodles was also great! I got another sugar cane drink for $1 and started the 2 mile walk back to my hotel along the waterfront.

Seafood still alive

Night Market food stalls

Beef with noodles

Puppies possibly for sale

Statue of King Father Norodom Sihanouk

Along waterfront were again people out enjoying the evening with their families. I saw a couple dogs rough housing and playing with a water bottle, but when I went to take video of them, they noticed me and immediate froze. Then they guiltily dropped the bottle and shuffled off as if to say “We’re not doing anything here, we are totally innocent.” A minute later one of them was following me hopeful of some food. They also have a couple long strips of parks that run several blocks. Along these areas, kids were bicycling, rollerblading, and skateboarding. Groups of people were doing synchronized dancing at a couple areas. One large area had three pickup soccer games (on cement). I love that they have these park spaces available for their citizens!

green space parks at night

three soccer pickup games at the park

Ladies playing badminton in park