Cambodia - Kratie to Phnom Penh - Day 225 (19,418 miles)

At our first fuel stop in Cambodia the lady serving us was wearing pyjamas, turns out this is quite the usual workwear of many women. Cheap, comfy and makes getting ready for work a bit quicker!

While staying in a nice little riverside town called Kratie we followed the river to a village called Kampi and took a boat trip out on the river to look at the Irrawaddy dolphins. The photo above was our best shot unfortunately! These are a rather shy breed and look quite different to other dolphins, their heads are more like a Dugong or Manatee.

At the town of Kompong Cham we stopped to admire (and try out) this bamboo bridge, it looks pretty rickety and moves and creaks a lot but can take the weight of well loaded trucks ok. It's currently the end of the dry season so the river is low but the bridge is usually washed away in the rainy season and rebuilt every year. John tries a couple of the local delicacies, fried spider and....... frog. We'd seen plenty of elephants working or giving tourist rides in rural areas but this one seemed to be out for the day in the middle of Phnom Penh, sightseeing perhaps.

During the period when the Khmer Rouge held power in Cambodia (1975 to 1979) this central Phnom Penh school above became the Security office 21 and is now called the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. On the 17th April 1975 Pol Pot's soldiers entered Phnom Penh and told all residents that the US were going to bomb the city and they had to leave. The whole city was emptied and the only inhabitants for 4 years were the Khmer Rouge soldiers, officials and prisoners at S21.

Our guide Luan explained how prisoners (to begin with these were the educated members of society but later also anyone considered to be a traitor or lazy) were imprisoned for approx 3 months during which time they were tortured and made to sign confessions. Within 6 months they would be murdered and buried at the Choueng Ek killing fields a few Km outside of the city. The same was happening in many other prisons throughout the country.

Luan lost family members as did many people we have met. In total around 25% of the population were either murdered or starved to death during this period which equates to around 1.5 million people.

We've read some accounts written by survivors of this period whilst in Cambodia and although there is still a huge amount of poverty it is humbling how hard most people you meet work just to get by and how much they want the chance to improve their lives.

General prisoners were kept in cells that measured 1.8 metres by 0.7 metres, basically a cupboard. The larger cell above was for Khmer Rouge officials some of whom were also accused as traitors and tortured then murdered.

These photo's were incredibly sad, many faces looked resigned to their fate.

This is the monument to the murdered at the Choeung Ek Genocide Centre, one of the many killing fields in Cambodia.

Some of the exhumed bones are in the memorial and others have been given a Buddhist funeral.

The area was cleared of all large bones but teeth, fragments of bone and clothing are washed to the surface every rainy season.

For us visiting these places and finding out what these people went through a little over 40 years ago was worthwhile, other people we have met felt it was too harrowing and they knew enough and that's understandable.

The rest of our time in Phnom Penh was spent visiting the Royal Palace, museums and enjoying the city.

These are water lily seed heads, a healthy snack in it's own handy container. We spent several enjoyable evenings with (from the front) John and Kelly who you've met in previous blogs and Merijn and Els who are on the road for a year riding from Amsterdam to Australia. At the back are Lisa and Simon hardened world motorcycle travellers, they're Brits who have been on the road for 8 years (with no plans to go home yet).

Bye for now

xxxxxx