Phnom Penh

We left Hong Kong Monday and flew to Phnom Penh, Cambodia on Monday morning. Between the quick flight (2 1/2 hours) and the time difference (we gained an hour), we were able to hit the ground running in Cambodia! After checking into our hotel and enjoying the hotel breakfast out by the pool, we walked around the corner from our hotel to the National Museum where we saw a great deal of Khmer art. We walked through the beautiful open-air building observing Cambodian art from its Hindu roots through today's Buddhist art pieces. From there, it was a quick walk to the magnificent Royal Palace. Again, we enjoyed the Buddhist art through the many Palace buildings. After, we traveled by tuk tuk (a small, covered, golf cart-like carriage attached to a motorcycle) to the main Buddhist center on a hill in the middle of town- Wat Phnom. Everything looked beautiful and exotic, and VERY different from anything we've seen thus far in the trip. It's fascinating
to see how a Korean Buddhist temple differs from a Cambodian Buddhist temple. Soon we'll be able to compare Thai temples, as well.

We spent some time yesterday evening walking around near the river (the Tonlé Sap, Mekong, and Bassac rivers meet in Phnom Penh). We found a lovely restaurant with live traditional Cambodian music and dance performances and sat right on the water while we enjoy Craig's birthday dinner.

Day 2 of our visit to Phnom Penh (today, Tuesday, 11 August) started with another yummy breakfast by the pool of our hotel. Then we stepped outside our hotel and found a tuk tuk driver interested in taking us around for the whole day. We started at the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. It's a former high school-turned torturous prison run by the Khmer Rouge in Phnom Penh's not-so-distant history. It was chilling to learn of the history that is barely history (the Khmer Rouge came into power in 1975). From there, we traveled just outside of the city to see Choeung Ek, better known as The Killing Fields. This is where victims where taken to be murdered and tossed into mass graves. Victims' sculls have been turned into a memorial, though bone and clothing of the victims are still around the grounds of the Killing Fields.

The Khmer Rouge atrocities have been compared to the Nazi genocide, though the Khmer Rouge had the reverse intentions (the Nazis attempted to create a 'perfect' Aryan race by eliminating any race that would taint the ideal, while the Khmer Rouge murdered the educated, wealthy, successful citizens who threatened the power of the Khmer Rouge). Besides being gruesome and tragic, it seemed rather short sided of the Khmer Rouge. For instance, after all educated medical professionals had been imprisoned or murdered, who was left to care for the ill? The answer was a group of woman, many of whom were illiterate, who were put in charge of health care. The most disturbing photos we saw in the museums today were those of the actual Khmer Rouge militants. These were young boys who looked no older than sixteen years old looking mean and angry and carrying lethal weapons. It was a grim period in Phnom Pehn's past...

After, we decided to cheer ourselves up with some shopping therapy. And here is where we discovered the REAL outlet shopping. Check the label of our clothes. If you are wearing Calvin Klein, Gap, Banana Republic, North Face, or a number of other brands, your shirt/shoes/bag may have been made in Cambodia. We found clothes with labels from many clothing lines we recognized, but items at the market cost $1-$10. We each bought a shirt, I found a pair of shoes, and Craig bought a bag. It was fun shopping. From there we went to the Central Market, a huge French-built market in the center of town (hence its name) where one could buy anything and everything. From edible bugs to watches to shoes to dishes and flatware to clothes to fish to flowers (real and fake), one could shop (ie bargain) at the Central Market and never have to shop anywhere else.

After we said goodbye to our dear tuk tuk driver near our hotel, we walked through a park to the water and enjoyed a rest. We feel that we really experienced Phnom Penh fully.

Tomorrow we are off to Siem Reap by bus. We are looking forward to exploring Angkor Wat tomorrow and Thursday before we fly to Bangkok on Friday morning.

We hope all is well with you!