We had a sensational buffet breakfast at the hotel and the guide picked us up at 7:45 am. First there was a brief stop at the Independence Monument then we went on to the Royal Palace. The Royal Palace is an extensive place but the two most dramatic edifices are the the Throne Hall and the Silver Pagoda.
The Throne Hall is not open to the public because the beloved leader Norodom Sihanouk died in October and the country is still officially in mourning. We were able to see the Silver Pagoda and the rest of the Royal Palace. The Silver Pagoda is called that because the entire floor is covered with about 5,000 silver tiles weighing about a pound each. The area where the tourists are allowed to walk is covered with rugs. Photographs are not allowed but I surreptitiously took a few.
We next went to the National Museum where there are about 5,000 artifacts from the pre-Ankgor, Ankgor and post Angkor eras. It’s not a huge museum and much of the statues and artifacts are based on the Buddhist a Hindu religions.
The afternoon was much more sobering. We first went to the Genocide Museum S21 which was a high school that the Khmer Rouge converted into a facility for interrogation, torture, imprisonment and sometimes execution. When Pol Pot “liberated” Cambodia at first the people were very celebratory. The mood quickly changed when the Khmer Rouge started evacuating the cities. He had a vision of creating a classless, agrarian society. First the Khmer Rouge killed their enemies. Then they killed intellectuals and other that were suspected of even minor transgressions. Then paranoia set in and they started killing each other. Overall, about 2 million were killed, about a 1/3rd of the population. It was not pretty seeing the museum. There were photographs of victims, barbed wire, small cells, tool of torture and other representations of what went on.
After that we drove out to the Killing Fields which is on the outskirts of Phnom Penh. At the site is a tower where the remains of about 9,000 people that were exhumed from mass graves have been organized and displayed in the memorial stupa. People from S21 were trucked out here to be executed and buried. The bodies were spared with DDT before burial to keep down the smell and to kill anyone who might still be alive. It’s hard to fathom the inhumanity.
We got back to the hotel and Marie crashed and slept through the night. The lecturer and me had dinner in the hotel.
The Independence Monument.
Proof we are still alive with the Silver Pagoda in the background.
The silver floor.
S21, a high school converted to a tool of Genocide by the Khmer Rouge.
The stupa at the Killing Fields.
What is inside the stupa.