Limping Marathon Runner

Barely 4 hours of sleep, I sprang out of bed because for the next five days, it will be really exciting!

At the airport, EndlessTrail was already there. We checked in the JetStar Asia with Donkey. Hmm... time was running short and it certainly did not help with a hanging PC!! A budget airline with its boarding pass just like a piece of receipt. Just interesting and not complaining. Donkey requested for a near exit seats with more leg room. Great!! We got the last row of the plane where we could not even recline our seats. Well done. Heck! I still went ahead to sleep anyway!

Going through immigration was a breeze. Mr. Ben Wee (our guide) was already waiting for us at the airport, just outside arrival hall, upon our arrival at Phnom Penh Airport. All of us hopped onto his car and started making our way to the guesthouse. After a quick check-in (dumping our packs in our rooms), we took a quick bite at the restaurant below. I had Chicken Noodle Soup. Since Mr. Ben Wee had to send someone off to airport, we took a Motorcycle Taxi to visit the Royal Palace which is along and in front of the Tonle Sap River. Walking around the Royal Palace, I was figuring out why a French looking building is inside the premises. The French influence, a common mix in most places in Cambodia (during the French rule). Looking around for the Silver Pagoda, I pointed out to EndlessTrail that the flooring is made of silver tiles. All of a sudden, we went, "Ahhhhh....". There were some paintings all the way down the hallway on walls. After some walking here and there, someone came over and said, "No go. Close." Oh??! They have opening time from 8-11am and 2-5pm. Lunch break for the guards? Part of the Royal Palace is out of bounds to public. Hence, we left the compound and waiting outside where we saw Mr. Ben Wee who is already waiting for us across the street. Donkey saw a little girl selling "Lonely Planet: Cambodia" and asked for the price. "USD$18". Wow..... She slashed down to USD$8 when we boarded the car.

Next ... we stopped for a few minutes at the Independence Monument before driving to the next place to visit. The start of a sad but educational journey for the rest of the day. Arriving at the Tuol Sleng Museum a.k.a. Genocide Museum, my mood dipped lower as my heart sank. Tuol Sleng was a Tuol Svay Prey High School. In 1975, it was taken over by Pol Pot's security forces(Khmer Rouge) and was turned into a prison known as Security 21 (S-21). S-21 was Angkar's place for interrogating end exterminating anti-Angkar elements. 'Angkar' meant 'The Organization'. A lot more details and facts can be found by searching online about Khmer Rouge and its atrocities.


Walking around the few blocks (each block around 3-4 storeys high) of classrooms, I refused to take pictures in some of them because I think it is really depressing. One of the blocks had classrooms as interrogation rooms. Tools to immobilize prisoners and pictures of victims could be seen in the classrooms. No words can describe the feeling when you see the pictures. You just have to see it yourself. Another block containing mug shots of prisoners and victims where some of them are being photographed even with a bruised eye (obviously beaten up). A guide was explaining to a group of tourists when I was there and he was battling to keep the tears from falling. Fitness corners in the school were not spared and used as sadistic intruments to torture prisoners. The next block of classrooms has concertina and barbed wires covering all levels. This was used to prevent prisoners from killing themselves by jumping off the building to commit suicide. This block of classrooms were divided into concrete and wooden cells for individual on different levels. The last level is classrooms that held prisoners together. Another block of classrooms had display of photographs and articles that made the impression deeper. We walked in silence on our way back to the car. Again, no words can describe that helpless feeling. Not for the weak or faint hearted. It is really depressing to see brutal acts like these, especially on your own people.

Lunch (kinda lost appetite) was with a slow start, after what we saw. But still ... we had to eat something. Killing fields (another heart wrenching site) is next and will be some distance away without any restaurant around the area.

Afterall, who can actually eat?!

To the Killing Fields, it was a short drive on some dirt track. We came to the site that was once a longan orchard. Some of the structures that held the victims and storage to hold tools of torture are long gone. One can easily conjure the image in his mind. The screams and cries of those held here, awaiting for death.
Imagine. Between 1975 to 1978, 17,000 people (men, women, children and infants, including nine Westerners) were detained and tortured at S-21 before taken to extermination camp here, at the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek.

Walking around the site, we saw dug up graves that are now pits and some covered with rain water. Signs from some remains suggest that they were bounded and blindfolded when they were killed. There is also a tree for the executioners to swing the babies at. How dark can humans be?

A Memorial Stupa has been erected in 1988, housing more than 8000 skulls. We left with a heavy heart. Glad to see that all these are over for the Cambodians. Yet what they have been through will never be forgotten.


Moving back to the central area again, we went to see Wat Phnom, which happens to be near our guesthouse. According to legend, Wat Phnom is rumoured to have given its name to this city(Phnom Penh, today) when it was discovered by a woman named Penh. Wat Phnom is rather small and we covered the place quicker than we thought. Donkey requested to Mr. Ben Wee that we need to go to a supermarket. He drove us to a shopping mall because he probably thought that we wanted to shop. Apart from looking like our People's Park Center, the shopping mall did have a gem in some corner afterall!! We bought dri-fit tees for my cycling and some to distribute. It was getting dark and Mr. Ben Wee recommended a local restaurant that serves relatively good food. Angkor Beer, their local branding, is rather light. Dinner was okay and I ordered glutinous rice with durian for dessert. How about that?! So much for the first day, we went back to our rooms in the guesthouse to shower and sleep. What?!! You mean we have cable T.V.?!