“There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign.” – Robert Louis Stevenson

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Photos from Cambodia 1: Phnom Penh

The gorgeous Mekong delta. In Phnom Pehn it merges with 2 other rivers, before disappearing across the border with Vietnam (where I saw it once before). This was the view from the plane as I was landing.
Here's one of the magnificent buildings within the Royal Palace grounds in Phnom Penh. Overall, the complex was quite similar to Thailand's. What beautiful and unique structures!
This is me using my zoom lens! These birds were perched on top of the roof edge!
This is another zoom shot... the roof was so amazing, except the lights ruin it!
Here I am standing inside the national museum. If you think the pose and face are strange, that's because I did it on a timer... the joys of travelling solo!
This is Wat Phnom, which the city is named after. A bit of a monstrosity now, and very poorly taken care of, but important just the same.



This is inside the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. This was a school before Democratic Kampuchea (as the Khmer Rouge were known as), but became a torture and interrogation center. Around 17,000 passed through, and I believe only 12 survived.
One of the displays inside Tuol Sleng. These are pictures of the terminated (like the Nazis they documented it all very well!!). A truly powerful experience. See the men whose hands are tied behind their backs? This was one of many many displays, and some were more gruesome showing torture, etc.
This is the memorial that the new government has built to commemorate and remember all those that died. The inside (all the way to the top) is filled with the skeletons of those found on the site of the killing fields.
Here are some of those skulls, open to the air and so close I could touch them. Such an absolute tragedy. Have started reading about why it wasn't stopped. Western governments have a lot to answer for!
These are the beautiful kites for sale along the street beside Independence Monument. I like to see these as hope for the future after all the tragedy has passed.

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