The capital of Cambodia is full of remnants of French colonial history,
including the wide boulevards leading
into the city, as the one in the picture to the left. However, these are
dwarfed by the splendour of the Royal Palace, right across from our hotel, which provides an immense contrast
to the poverty of the country at large,
an example being the slum we rode past on the way out.
Another contrast is provided by the genocide museum, Tuol Sleng S21. Situated on the premises of a former high school, S21 was the Khmer Rouge's main interrogation and torture centre for political prisoners, many of whose only "crime" was wearing spectacles or having family links to Vietnam. Apart from some cells they also have long galleries of mugshots of (almost all) of the tens of thousands of former inmates—only seven of whom survived the Pol Pot regime. The visit is very instructive, although terribly depressing and upsetting. Especially so when Phea Rak, our guide, then also tells his personal story, where he and his family had to leave town when Pol Pot came to power, then got separated and eventually both his parents were killed.
Otherwise, we think there is not all that much specifically to visit. So
we just walk around the inner area of the town and take the
cyclo to a couple of the
markets. At the Russian market
we find many shops with brand name items, such as Gap, Polo, North Face, Birkenstock,
etc., all very cheap. Some items are imitations, but some are definitely
genuine—after all these labels manufacture in this part of the world.
The cyclo is not only a good way to get around the city leisurely, it is also a good form of small business, as it as it requires very little investment to set up, unlike the "motos" (mopeds). However, it seems that the cyclos are starting to lose out to the much faster motos.
We also visit the training facility of Mith Samlanh (Friends), one of the organisations we are raising funds for, and have lunch in their excellent restaurant (where their students are the chefs and waiters). In the afternoon, the girls visit Krousar Thmey, another children charity for which Symbiosis is raising funds.
Gernot, in the meantime, tries to find a photo shop to down-load a first set
of our digital photos. In the process he also finds out that you don't need
to go to a pub or near women to get propositioned. Being a single white
male can do it anywhere: Riding back to the hotel on a moto, the driver
tries to sell "Cambodian/Vietnamese/Lao lady, very small", and Gernot
wonders whether these proposals amount to paedophilia, but is not
interested in finding out. Back at the hotel, Gernot sits with a beer on
the veranda looking out across the park towards the Royal Palace,
tidying up the camera memory and writing the journal. Soon enough he is
being asked "boom-boom?" He declines politely and
gets his shoes polished instead.
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