Phnom Penh

The internet and electricity are back working again over here in san nensei area of the teacher's room, so I can start writing a bit about my trip.

Phnom Penh - Day One

The trip started off in Phnom Penh, on the first day I took it slowly - after a leisurely sleep in I decided to wander over to Wat Phnom which was just behind the hotel where we were staying. It was interesting but nothing too impressive. I went to the National Museum after that, the most interesting and best thing about the museum was the building itself rather than any of the exhibits.

In the museum gardens.

The National Museum

Phnom Penh - Day Two

In the morning I went to the Royal Palace, which includes the Silver Pagoda. This is the most important Buddhist temple in the city and is the official temple of the King of Cambodia. It's called the silver pagoda because the temple floor is made of silver tiles. The Silver Pagoda

In the afternoon we had an altogether different experience as went to the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum and the Killing Fields. What can I say? It was awful, upsetting and incredibly tough to listen to the guide (at times I couldn't). I think it was really important that we saw these things at the start of the trip though as I then understood a little about what the Khmer people have gone through which makes the country and it's people even more amazing.

I'm not going to write anything else about it, you can read here;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuol_Sleng_Genocide_Museum

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Killing_Fields