Lady Penh

Phnom Penh, Cambodia: 16/06/2010 to 20/06/2010

For Astrid's birthday we visited our friend Vanessa in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. She is there as a volunteer for VSO working with the Cambodian Human Rights Organisation. She was working with indigenious tribes when we arrived, but V arranged for us to be picked up from the airport. We had our first couple of days to ourselves and we explored PP until V got back. We had an amazing time and we've tried to capture some of our impressions from Cambodia here. Phnom Penh is located in the south-central region of Cambodia and at the confluence of four rivers: the Tonlé Sap, Mekong, and Bassac rivers.
FYI the masks are for the dust when on the back of a Tuk Tuk on the streets of PP :). The other picture is V's favorite sugar cane stall (comes in plastic bags with ice).

Our first real Cambodia experience was Astrid's birthday meal in the local restaurant next to V's place:


Day 1: Strolling through the streets of PP we ticked off the city's sites one by one:
Independence Monument (Vimean Ekareach): To commemorate the independence from foreign rule inaugurated in 1962. It was designed by renowned Cambodian architect Vann Molyvann.










Central Market (Phsar Thmey): Is a unique artdeco building, which some argue is the largest dome structure world wide. Prior to 1935 the area was a swamp.











Wat Phnom: The only hill in town, also featuring the only Elephant in town. Legend has it that in 1372 Lady Penh fished a floating Koki tree out of the river. Inside the tree were four Buddha status. She built a hill (phnom) and a small temple (wat) at what is now Wat Phnom. Later, the surrounding area became known after the hill (Phnom) and its creator (Penh), hence the city name Phnom Penh.












Royal Palace & Silver Pagoda: They were built in the 1866 under the French Protectorate and King Norodom (with French technology and Cambodian designs), and have survived the traumas of the 20th century amazingly intact. The Silver Pagoda has a silver tiled floor and a collection of priceless historical objects which were buried and hidden during the Khmer rule.


























Day 2: Confronting Cambodia's history

Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum (S-21 Prison): A school converted into Cambodia's most important prison in 1975. More than 14,000 to 17,000 people were systematically tortured to extract confessions here before being killed at the Killing Fields; only 7 prisoners made it out alive.


























The Killing Fields of Choeung Ek (About 15km south of PP): A former Chinese cemetery, this is where the Khmer Rouge killed many thousands of their victims during their four-year reign of terror. Today the site is marked by a Buddhist stupa packed full of human skull. There are also pits in the area where mass graves were unearthed, with ominous scraps of clothing still to be found here and there. Overall there were around 20,000 killing fields all over Cambodia during the Khmer Regime.


Street life view from Tuk Tuk coming back from the killing fields into PP.


Platzregen / Downpour: Apparently the rainy season was about six weeks late, but that day it started with an amazing downpour. The sounds of the rain drops hitting various surfaces was incredible and it seems that the people of PP really appreciated the rain :)



Day 3 & 4: Russian Market impressions and other pics from PP. We urbaneered by following the recommendation of a stranger and went for a swim in the Raffles Hotel Royale, it was very refreshing. We hope our postcards arrived. The national dish is Fishamok and we tried it together with the Cambodiam BBQ. Cambodia is a country with a violent history and now a corrupt government. It has been really interesting to visit and makes one appreciate all the things we have even more.