Wednesday, February 01, 2006
27th January
We caught a tuk tuk to the Russian markets this morning and bought a few T shirts.
Tried to get into the Museum but they close between 11am and 2pm so headed back to hotel.
On the way came across a fire in a building. It was absolute bedlam, people everywhere evacuating their shops etc. Caught a bit of it on film. All the buildings are like terraces so are attached. There were people in the building next door throwing water down onto the fire. We heard they had to be rescued by ladder.
At 1pm we set of for Tol Sleng prison museum. It was a school that the Khmere Rouge turned into a torture centre during Pol Pots reign. Thousands of people were tortured to death, the rest were tortured and taken to the killing fields to be murdered. There were rooms and rooms of photos of those who had been killed.
After that we went to the Killing Fields where they have built a monument that is full of skulls, odd bones and clothing from those murdered. We saw the holes in the ground that were the mass graves a couple of the graves have not been disturbed. The dirt paths have peices of clothing and bone comming up where the rain has washed away the soil.
It was a very sobering expirience and our guide 1/2 of whose family had been killed during the war was very good at explaining everything to us. Very eye opening to know that officials and soldiers of the Pol Pot reign were given an amnesty and are now working in government etc with no punishment whatso ever to enable the country to get on rather than causing another civil war.
That night we went out to dinner at another resteraunt run by a charity. The meals were done in a tapas style so we were able to taste a few different styles. Lovely
During dinner we had 2 black outs and the generator had to kick in. We went back to our hotel as the bar was only lit by candles.
