Tuesday 16 July 2013

Phnom Penh and Battambang

Phnom Penh is. like any capital city, noisy,busy and smelly.We stayed in a bit of a flashpacker hostel which had it's own bar and swimming pool. This was great for a refreshing dip and the dollar beer was very welcome!

Cambodia has been a country full of horrors and has suffered terribly from the rise of Pol pot and the Khmer rouge in the 1970s. Although I knew that there had been a massacre in Cambodia I didn't realise that at least 1 in 4 of the population were killed.

In Phnom Penh there is a Khmer Rouge prison (before the revolution it had been used as a school)which housed many of the Khmer rouge themselves (no one was safe) before they met their deaths. When the liberating Vietnamese entered the prison only 7 of the 20,000 inhabitants had survived. The prison is famous as it contains detailed records of the men,women and children held there and their crimes against the Khmer rouge. This was also where a few foreigners met their end as well.





On the outskirts of the city is one of hundreds of killing Fields where people were killed then dumped in mass graves. This one was mainly for the Khmer rouge and their families. Most citizens had been forced out of the capital and forced to work on farms with little food and no healthcare. Education was abolished and it was dangerous for you if you could read. If you were found out to have been a doctor, lawyer, teacher or other professional they would torture you and kill you. Others were for normal civilians who may have been educated, worn glasses or had been well off. The killing field we visited has become a monument to all those that died. You can see the dips in the soil where the mass graves were. Also as it was still recent there are bits of clothing and bone from the victims which have risen up from the ground. They collect them regularly but there is still so much constantly coming to earth. For me the worst sight was a tree which they used to kill babies and young children by bashing their heads against it.

In the centre was a pagoda full of skulls of the victims to remember them. What struck us was the brutality of the deaths of the victims. They were killed by being hacked at with farming tools etc, very horrific.

The next day we decided to visit a wildlife park with beetle nut tours.It was a great day and we learnt loads of facts about the animals. The animals have all been rescued and are unable to go back into the wild due to injury or as they were born in captivity and held as pets. We got to get really close to the animals and fed the deer, the otters ( Adam was in seventh heaven as they are his favorite animals) and the elephant. We also watched the elephant having a bath which was very funny. The gibbons were my favourite especially as one loved having her back scratched!!She also had a gorgeous baby who I gave a stroke to.
We had a delicious lunch which the guy who showed us round wife had cooked!It was a great day and I highly recommend it if you ever go.The next day we headed to Battambang






Battambang is Cambodia's second city and slightly less touristy than Siam Reap. It was a very relaxed place and great to wonder around. We spent one day pottering around the town visiting charity cafes and the river. The second day we had a full day tour with a tuk Tuk driver named Tong. He was a fountain of knowledge and we learn loads about Battambang and Cambodia in general.
Our first stop was the bamboo trains which make Battambang famous. They are literally a bamboo sheet with a motor on the back that runs on rails. It was really fun, slightly scary and very bumpy!



Our next stop was a temple on top of a hill (we had to climb a looooot of steps) it was a great view and a fun temple to explore. We then headed to a village that has 2 massive trees full of fruit bats!!The bats were absolutely huge!



We then headed to another big hill which had on the top a temple and a killing cave. To get up we went on the back of a motorcycle which was really scary! The cave was estimated to have been the last destination for about 10,000 people.



Our last stop was at the bottom of the hill to watch thousands of bats leave to go hunting. It was pretty spectacular.


 We both had an amazing time in Cambodia and spoke with some interesting people. I am glad that we were able to learn about the tragedy that took place there. I also hope that the democracy and human rights there are able to improve. There is only really 1 political party (as they have all the money) and this is headed by  ex Khmer rouge. There is very little freedom of press ( an outspoken journalist was recently killed) and people have little access to the internet. The country is still incredibly poor, many children have aids,there are many landmine victims and sadly the sex industry and human trafficking are prevalent. Last year over 60,000 children died as they didn't have access to clean water.


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