Day 2 of our honeymoon and we were up at 7.00, showered and breakfasted before being picked up by our guide, Rith and taken on a tour of the Royal Palace. The architecture was breathtakingly beautiful and the throne room was incredibly oppulent; not really what I was expecting at all. We visited the Silver Pagoda, called so because the floor is made of silver! We were then driven to Cheong Ek, home of one of the many Killing Fields in Cambodia - the closest one to Phnom Penh. It was a similar feeling to when I visited Bergen Belsen, one of eerie disquiet. The picture above of the tall, white building is called a 'Supra' and is a burial place for the dead; here inside, lie some of the skulls and bones of the 20,000 victims, killed at Cheong Ek, having first been detained and tortured at a prison in Phnom Penh called S-21. We visited this prison next and I was more moved by this than the actual Killing Fields. Photographs were on display of many of the detainees, along with an artist's impressions of the tortues that occurred. I was left quite shaken by it all. Dean and I met one of only 7 survivors from Prison S-21. He has only just been able to return to the place, after the trial of 'Duch', the Khmer Rouge commandant of the Prison. Mr Chum Mey has spent the last few months as a chief witness of the War Trial of Duch. This trial was recently on the news and Duch has been found guilty and will be sentanced in July this year.
We were then taken to a lovely little restaurant in the heart of Phnom Penh and sampled some local cuisine - all meat and vegetables were recognisable!! After lunch we visited the National Museum and saw artefacts dating back to the fifth century.
The city is like a sauna and upon returning to our hotel a cold shower was in order and time for a relax in the cool airconditioning of our hotel. We leave for Seam Reaph tomorrow to explore the temples of Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom. xx
Hello fellow bloggets! You are supposed to be honeymooning not blogging! .... enjoying your posts, keep em coming xx
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