Phnom Penh, Cambodia 11-20/21-2015

December 08, 2015

Phnom Penh, Cambodia 11-20/21-2015

It's a long day on a "public bus" (actually more like a nice Greyhound type of bus - it had Wi-Fi even) heading to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Crossing the Vietnam/Cambodia border is a long and hot process, particularly going through Vietnamese customs - a very long line, which moved very slowly - we were in line at least an hour perhaps 90 minutes, and no air conditioning (see photo); Cambodian customs was much quicker and easier. We arrived in Phnom Penh later than planned, so we take an evening tour of the city and then dinner - it's very nice at night though. We learn that the Phnom Penh is named after lady Penh. The correct pronunciation of Phnom is "Pnum", not "Pnom" as we westerners commonly say it. "Plum" means mountain, "Pnom" means cake.

The very tragic and disturbing story of the "Killing Fields" is our main agenda item on day one..We tour one of the killing field sites and a prison in Phnom Penh. 3 million out of a total population of 8 million died during the Pol Pot regime, from 1975 to 1979 with a little over half of those murdered, and the remainder dying from disease and starvation. The Vietnamese invaded the country in 1979 and deposed Pol Pot, but he lived in exile for the rest of his life, and a Pol Pot official became prime minister and is still prime minister today (Life is most certainly not fair or just much of the time) (so much for the alleged democracy - more on that in my summary post). Donna took it real hard (these folks (any one with an education, if you wore glasses, etc.) weren't just murdered, they were tortured, and killed in very horrific ways, women and young children included. Not easy for the tender hearted soul that she is.

On a more fun note, spiders were on the menu (our young Australian friend Mitch led the way) for a few of us (with more insects to come in a day or so), and we ended our time in Phnom Penh with a wonderful and relaxing cruise on the Mekong River.