Phnom Penh

26/01/14 to 28/01/14

Long bus journey to Phnom Penh: slight mix up with the tickets meant our tickets were actually for a bus two days hence. Kept schtum though and kept our seats... Unlike the 10 or so people who were sitting on little stools in the aisle. After a trip like that sundowners at the Foreign Correspondents Club rooftop bar were called for. Doubly in fact due to happy hour.

Serious touristing the next day, literally, with a visit to the Killing Fields and S21. Very moving places that leave on in a very sombre mood. Three million out of a population of eight million were killed during the Khmer Rogue regime. Many were starved or literally worked to death, others executed at various sites. A Khmer Rogue motto was "If you're killing the you need to pull up the roots", which is why there was a tree there where babies brains were dashed out. Chilling stuff.

S21 was the unit for "specials", where party members or other noteworthy prisoners would be tortured into making a confession before being killed. 20000 went into it. Seven came out alive.