Sarah and I returned to Phnom Penh on Wednesday via private taxi. The cost for the trip was pretty reasonable, and was advertised as much faster than the bus – after the day-long bus trip up to Siem Reap, we were eager to pay a bit more for a faster ride back south to Phnom Penh. Though our driver broke basically all traffic laws that exist in the United States, he got us from our hotel in Battambang to our hotel in Phnom Penh in under four hours.
We spent the afternoon relaxing by the pool and later, after the temperature had cooled a bit, we walked around to find a bar with a view to watch the sunset. Fortunately, there are tons to choose from along the Mekong River and we settled in to watch the sky fade to black.
Dusk in Phnom Penh.
After sunset we walked a bit further to Hummus House for some Middle Eastern food. The hummus was (seriously) the best we’ve ever had. The rest of the things we ordered were good too, but the hummus was amazing. Stuffed with chickpeas, we got a tuk tuk to take us home and went to bed.
We had another clear, but hot, day on Thursday to explore the city. However, I didn’t do much of that. My right eye has been bothering me for a couple weeks – well, not my eye, more so my eyelid – and I finally decided something had to be done about it. The skin above my right eye had become red, swollen and itchy…and Sarah had had enough of it! So I relaxed at the hotel in the morning and saw a doctor in the afternoon while Sarah explored some more of the city’s sights. She had a good time walking around and I had a productive meeting with the doctor (he says I got bitten by a beetle and the bite got infected…I’m not so sure about the beetle part but the antibiotics should help regardless). We met up for a late lunch around 4pm at Cadillac Bar & Grill before meandering back to our hotel.
A view of the Independence Monument, celebrating independence from France in 1953.
All hail the king. This was displayed right across from The Royal Palace, home to King Norodom Sihamoni.
Entrance to The Royal Palace. I didn't go inside because it was closed (and even if it were not, tickets were nearly $20 an we've seen quite a few temples in Southeast Asia).
Outside of Wat Botum.
We are heading to Bangkok this evening, but our flight doesn’t leave until 5pm – so we decided to take a tuk tuk to the Choeung Ek Genocide Center (aka the Killing Fields) for a few hours to learn more about the horrible Khmer Rouge period in Cambodia. This site was only one of over 300 similar “killing fields” throughout the country but given its proximity to Phnom Penh it now serves as the primary monument to all who were slain during Pol Pot’s four-year reign. The admission includes an audio tour, which gave us a good mix of history and personal stories about the site. It was a very somber visit – about 2 million people were killed during this time, or about a quarter of Cambodia’s entire population – but we’re glad we took the time to see it.
The grounds of the Choeung Ek Genocide Center mostly contain marked mass graves where bodies were dumped. In what I'm sure was a particularly grizzly scene, 166 headless bodies were found here after the fall of the Khmer Rouge.
Bones and tattered clothes were scattered everywhere. Here a jawbone was placed on one of the exhibits.
Other times we could just see bones in the ground. There were signs that literally said “Please don’t step on bones.” Not all of the graves were excavated here and new bones are often found after heavy rains disturb the soil.
Tragically this is where many children were killed. The soldiers usually killed their victims by beating them in order to save bullets. So hard to imagine this happened only 40 years ago.
A commemorative stupa built to house the remains of the bodies in the graves that were exhumed here and to pay tribute to all the victims of the genocide.
Skills inside the stupa.
Like I said, it was a depressing couple of hours but very informative.
After a quick lunch, we took the tuk tuk back to our hotel, grabbed our bags and headed to the airport. It is a quick flight to Bangkok and our time there is short – we fly to Krabi for some R&R on the beach on Saturday morning.