The beauties and horrors of Phnom Penh

We saw the aftermath of a bus crash on the way from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh, which was a bit of a shock and a reminder of our mortality, but thankfully we made it to the capital in one piece. Arriving in the city, we headed straight to the lakeside area, as we’d been told it had heaps more atmosphere than the riverside. The little backpacker district on the shore of Boeng Kaki is based on a narrow dusty alleyway. The choice guesthouses have decks built out over the lake and ours was tops, well the deck was, our room had NO ventilation and so turned into a smelly sauna. The deck was a huge area with hammocks, a pool table, a television that played endless DVDs (this got a bit annoying), good meals and great views, especially at sunset (see picture). Phnom Penh has a pretty seedy reputation, and got off to a good start for us when one of the guest house staff offered us pot almost before we put our bags down, but apart from that, what we saw of the city was relatively tame. We checked out the National Museum and Royal Palace, the highlight of which was the Silver Pagoda, which is inside the palace grounds and gets its name from its floor, which is tiled with silver tiles. Probably the most memorable part of our stay in Phnom Penh was our visit to the Tuol Sleng (S21) Museum and the Killing Fields. Neither of these were places that we really wanted to visit, but we felt they were important to see. The museum is a former school, which was used as a prison and interrogation centre during the Pol Pot/Khmer Rouge regime of 1975 to 1978. During this regime a huge percentage (estimated 2 million) of Cambodians were executed or died of starvation or illness related to the Khmer Rouge reign. Tuol Sleng, which was code named S21, was one of the Khmer Rouge’s principal prisons. Of the more than 4000 people interred there, less than a dozen survived. The museum portrays the location’s history in a simple yet gut-wrenching way. There were mug shots of the men, women, children and babies who were imprisoned there (if a man or woman was imprisoned often their whole family would be taken). Other exhibits included photos of the last prisoners, who were found dead when the Vietnamese invaded in 1978, cells left in their original state and torture devices. The killing fields are a short drive out of Phnom Penh. It is the area where the S21 prisoners were taken to be executed. Between 1975 and 1978 about 17,000 men, women and children, including a couple of Australians, were executed there. Like the museum is a very grim reminder of the horrors humans can be capable of. On our way back to our guest house our motorbike driver (with the two of us and the driver on one bike we felt very much like locals), wanting to make an extra dollar, asked if we wanted to go to a shooting range, where you can shoot almost any gun (and, rumour has it, rocket launcher) you'd like. The ranges are one of Phnom Penh's main tourist attractions, but even if we had wanted to go to one before, after a day of learning about the regime that bludgeoned people to death because bullets were too expensive, you can imagine that shooting a gun was the last thing we wanted to do.