This year my birthday coincided with Easter, which it does periodically. It also was New Years Eve in the Thai, Cambodian, Lao calender. Hope everyone had a good one. I spent Easter morning touring Toul Sleng Prison, the infamous Camp 21 in downtown Phnom Penh, where over twenty thousand people were interrogated and murdered by the Kmher Rouge. Quite a sombering place. I don't want to resort to trivial observations about the significance of the place, so I won't make any further comment.
I enjoyed Phnom Penh, it is a beautiful city filled with old French Colonial buildings. The people are friendly, even more friendly than Thai people are. They celebrated New Year's on Sunday and Monday. It was a much more restrained and interesting celebration than the Thai version, which has turned into a huge water fight every year.
Today I took the bus to Seim Reap. I almost died of heat stroke. OK, that is an exageration, but it was a very unpleasant six hours. Tomorrow I will head out to Angkor Wat. Although with the heat, I doubt if I can spend more than a few hours out there.
Can't post any pictures now, but I will when I get a chance.
Your feelings about camp 21 were likely similar to mine at Dachau. It was a very sobering place.
ReplyDeleteAs you know, I am totally jealous of you going to Ankor Wat. I vividly remember when Jackie Kennedy went there with the usual uproar attendant.
And I would have gone except for an unfortunate series of explosions in Manilla.
Angkor Wat was pretty impressive. The town of Siem Reap was not, however. I checked out Secrets of Elephants, but it was too far from the center of town for me. I got a place where I could walk pretty much everywhere.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to your pics.
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