The limping tour - Blogabond

Today we got our walking (make that limping - my foot was still huge!) tour of Phnom Penh, starting off at the Royal Palace. Our guide was a fount of information but honestly, it was so insanely hot (especially since we were all covered up as per the palace rules) it was difficult to keep track of which king ruled when and so on. Alannah and I escaped to the slightly cooler throne hall, but sadly we didn't spot any royalty. As we followed our tour guide back to the exit we spotted an interesting looking staircase leading up to an unexpected little temple surrounded by trees and buddha statues.

Royal Palace

We moved on to Wat Phnom, the city's best known temple. We noticed cages full of birds outside, and discovered you could pay a dollar to release two birds (one for you and one for your partner) for good luck re: marriage/babies. Being single, our main priority as we handed over our cash was just to help our birds fly away to freedom, though I wouldn't be surprised if the same birds keep ending up being caught over and over again!

My bird ready for release

Releasing birds at Wat Phnom

Mural inside Wat Phnom

We then visited Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum (also known as S-21, an old school converted into a prison by the Khmer Rouge). It's where political prisoners were interrogated and tortured (and often killed) before being sent to the Killing Fields. It was a pretty moving experience seeing the converted classroom/prison cells (some apparently still with blood stains on the floor tiles) and the mug shots of all the victims - many of them children. Only 7 prisoners are known to have survived, and one of them was actually selling and signing his autobiography outside the prison.

S-21 prison (Tuol Sleng)

They left the blackboard

Not surprisingly we then headed on to the Killing Fields, where we walked along a path scattered with the clothes and fragments of bones of the buried victims, washed up each year during the rainy season. Apparently bones were placed along the footpaths so that new arrivals to the camp would have to walk over them. The memorial, filled with the bones of those found in the mass graves, was eerie but fitting.

Victims' clothes are still washed up

Killing fields memorial

For our final dinner in Phnom Penh we found ourselves accidentally back at the restaurant we ate at on the first night, and our bookseller friends soon found us - by this point, they didn't even bother to try to sell us anything, they were just happy to have a banter and tell us about their lives.

written by

lucy3119 on August 13, 2011 from Phnom Penh, Cambodia

from the travel blog: Cambodia 2011

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