Debbie Downer

So Danielle and I have made it to Cambodia! Two days in Phnom Penh and now relaxing by the beach in Kip. Minor downer is that I lost my debit card in Laos...luckily Mascoma and my mother are super helpful so assuming the Cambodian mail service doesn't totally suck I should be all set in a few days. Other major downer was our genocide day in Phnom Penh. Started off light with a school that was turned into a prison in Phnom Penh and then hit up some lovely Killing Fields. Pretty intense day but it had to be done. Our first stop, S-21 as it was known has been turned into a museum that is quite large and quite exhausting both emotionally and physically. Its where they kept, tortured and interrogated prisoners until they were all eventually sent to be killed. It seems they left the prison quickly when the Vietnamese invaded as they found 14 bodies beaten and dead in their cells. There graves are now in the center of 3 buildings. The museum had some interesting information besides leaving most of the rooms as they were found. In particular every prisoner was photographed as the entered the prison and many after being killed or tortured. Made for some very upsetting viewing. The museum could definitely do with considerable more money and more information regarding the prison and the Khmere Rouge regime. The Killing Fields were absolutely horrible but came with an incredibily informative and well done audio guide. It included many personal accounts as well as a confession of guilt and sorrow from the head of S-21 prison. Not only is there a stupa with 17 shelves of skulls and bones but as you walk you will still come across pieces of bone, teeth and scraps of clothing. Needless to say it was an extremely exhausting and sad day but something that we definitely needed to see. I think one of the saddest things I saw as I was leaving S-21 was a boy about 12 sitting between his parents sobbing. I can only imagine that it was his first contact with that kind of evil and it must have been a huge shock.

On a more lighter note we spent the day swimming in beautifully warm water and getting nice and sunburned on the beach. For dinner we went to an area that specializes in crab. We had grilled crab and watched them picked them out of the traps right in front of us! It was delicious. Tomorrow we will spend the day on an island about 7 km from here. From there it is on to some more beaches and then Ankor Watt!