Day 3 - Phnom Penh

Today was an opportunity to understand Cambodian recent history a little more. Habitat had arranged a bus and guide to take us firstly to the Royal Palace, then the Killing Fields, S-21 and finally the Russian Markets.
The Palace was built in the late 1800s and is still occupied by the King, who was in residence, indicated by the flying of the Cambodian flag.

We spent an hour or so with our guide, in the Throne Hall, the Silver Pagoda and the gardens. The Throne Hall was built for the coronation of the King in 1919. The thrones are only used for the coronation - at all other times the King uses another seat to meet with visitors and conduct business. There is no current Queen. The building is impressive with vaulted painted ceilings, a throne that sits up high under a huge parasol and a lot of gold and gold leaf. No photos are allowed! The silver pagoda has floor tiles of silver, each one weighs one kilogram - and there are 5000 of them.
The gardens are sculptured, with lots of pots and topiary.

There are a number of large trees, known as either Buddha or cannon ball trees. They have huge fruit (shaped like cannon balls) which are poisonous but the flowers are used to make a tea that assists women going into labour.

The palace had a lot of concrete and was very hot, it was fortunate that we visited early. We all agreed that it would have been a hard day at the work site - no cloud, no rain in sight.

It took about 30 minutes to drive out to the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek. Here the soldiers of the Khmer Rouge killed about 20,000 people; men, women and children between 1975 and 1978. Not all the mass graves have been excavated, it is impossible to identify the people so the graves have been left untouched. There is a memorial stupa which holds 1000s of skulls, identifed by gender and age group. It is a sobering place to visit, clothing, bones and even teeth are clearly visible in the ground. The horrors of the place are unimaginable, death was not quick for the people here - bullets were too expensive.

Prior to being taken to the killing fields the prisoners were held in horrific conditions at a prison known as S-21 or Toul Sleng. Previously a school - it was taken over by the Pol Pot regime as a detention and torture centre. There is room after room of black and white photos of prisoners, with numbers across their chests. There were women, children as well as men held here - some look terrified, others are angry and bewildered, a few are smiling, oblivious as to why they are being photographed. Seven people survived the prison, one is an artist who is available to talk to visitors - he feels duty-bound to pass on his story to the world.

The day ended on a more cheerful note with a visit to the Russian Markets - a rabbit warren of stalls selling all sorts of things - antiques, designer clothes (including knock-offs), motor cycle parts and all manner of souvenirs. One member of the team continued her hunt for men's designer underwear - and succeeded with some Abercrombie and Fitch to add to the Calvin Klein's already packed. The Friends of BCS contributed quite well to the income of the market community - and vowed to return for further investigations.

Day 3 was not an easy day, we were confronted with an awful story that never quite made the international news until well after the fact. The evidence of the genocide was clearly visible in the fragments of clothing, bone and teeth in the paths we walked through the fields. It was uncomfortable for us, but important to know and to understand exactly why Cambodia needs our help to recover from such atrocities.
No one knows exactly how many people were killed during the Pol Pot Regime, it is estimated to be 2 million, mostly the educated professional people and their families.

I was not comfortable taking photos in these places, if you are interested in more detail a 'google' search will bring up plenty of references!