After a few very relaxing days around Kampot, we go back to Phnom Penh to spend the last days with Chris and Isabelle before they fly back to France.
As we did on the way in, we take a private car to go back to Phnom Penh.
Phnom Penh, an active capital
The capital of Cambodia was nicknamed the “Perl of Southeast Asia” in the colonial times. To put forward the existing Khmer architectural beauties (Royal Palace or Silver Pagoda for example), the French built large avenues in the city, boarded with luxurious buildings.
But the civil war did a lot of harm. The religious buildings suffered the most, and were almost all destroyed by the Red Khmers. Thanks to foreign investments the city was able to move on from the nightmare. We can see today plenty of new constructions a little bit everywhere.
The heavy traffic almost reminds us of Bangkok.
We arrive around noon in Phnom Penh, where we stay at the same hotel we spent the night just before our stay in Kampot, because it is ideally located and it has the AC! Which is vital because temperatures in Phnom Penh are higher than in Kampot and can easily reach 110 degrees.
Visit of the Royal Palace and the Silver Pagoda
As Isabelle, Chris and Matt decide to go visit the Royal Palace and the Silver Pagoda, Maider , who suffers from a headache because of the heat, stays behind in the cool environment of the hotel room.
Contrary to the royal palace in Bangkok, this one also serves as residence to the King. Which explains why we can’t go inside the palace itself. Pictures of the inside not being allowed here are the only pictures Isabelle was able to take during the visit.
The palace dates from the 20th century and its architecture was inspired by traditional Khmer architecture. The palace counts several different buildings like the house of the Throne, the Napoleon III building in renovation since 2012 or even a little elevated platform for the King to hop off of his elephant (why not?).
The Silver Pagoda is separated from the Royal Palace by a narrow street. This isn’t the oldest pagoda in the city, but definitely the most luxurious one. This huge pagoda is also home to a great emerald Buddha.
Chris, Isabelle and Matt enjoyed the visit of the Royal Palace and the Silver Pagoda, and for Matt’s parents it was the first time visiting a Buddhist temple (the ones in Angkor being ruins).
We meet up all together for diner around our hotel and discover the agitated life after sunset. Indeed, during the afternoon the city is calm, with the heat most people are taking a nap. But once the sun sets it seems that the city wakes up again, the streets become agitated and crowded again.
The next morning Matt and Maider need to go to the Vietnamese embassy for their visa. Having no idea how long it will take we decide to go our separate ways for the day.
Day trip on the Silk Island
Chris and Isabelle go visit the island of Koh Dach, also known as the Silk Island. They took a tuk-tuk and then a ferry to get to the island. From the village there they rented bicycles to ride around the island. People come here to escape the hustle and bustle of the city, to spend a day relaxing with the local villagers. Here, under most of the houses, people are weaving. Sometimes alone, but often times the entire family is involved.
Chris and Isabelle met a women who showed them her home and how she and her family worked textile.
Vietnam Visa application
In the meantime Matt and Maider go to the Vietnam embassy early morning. There aren’t many people so completing the application process goes super quickly and we simply have to come back in two days to pick-up our passports with the Visa.
Grueling visit of Tuol Sleng
We leave our passports behind and go to visit Tuol Sleng, a museum going over the genocide that happened under Red Khmer rule. This is a former school, turned prison and torture center by the Red Khmer, called S-21. It was important for us to visit this site with a heavy history. Between 1975 and 1979, Cambodia lived through a nightmare that we couldn’t ignore. This place carries a very heavy past and we were surprised by the silence that reigned among the visitors.
Almost untouched since it was abandoned in a hurry in 1979, this former high school, built in 1962 by the French, was transformed into one of the most terrifying prisons of Cambodia between April 1975 to January 1979. Baptized S-21 by Pol Pot’s men, this isn’t the only place where the Red Khmers committed their horrible crimes, but being inside the city of Phnom Penh it became emblematic and was transformed into a national museum for people to remember the victims. It is estimated that over 20,000 people were tortured in S-21 before being killed. There are only 7 survivors.
The Red Khmers made Tuol Sleng the center for exterminating the intellectuals (doctors, engineers, scholars, politicians …) and the enemies of the regime. They were arrested for any motive (the simple fact of wearing glasses would mean you were an intellectual, sufficient proof to get arrested) and the kids were usually arrested with the parents. Pol Pot believing that to avoid weed to spread you had to kill the weed but also its roots. The guards of the prison were ordered to torture for a confession without killing the subject.
Duch, the head of the prison, was captured alive and brought to trial, where he was sentenced to life in prison.
We spent 3 hours visiting the prison with an audio guide.
In the first courtyard, we find 14 white tombstones, representing the 14 dead bodies found when the prison was taken over in 1979. These 14 people were buried here so we can always remember them.
Right next to the courtyard, the classrooms of building A were used as interrogation rooms (an elegant word for torture).
In each room, nothing but a bed frame and the picture on the wall of the bodies left behind when the Red Khmer abandoned the place.
Walking around these rooms is really tough. It is hard to imagine how much these people have suffered here, and even harder to imagine that these photos are real.
Building B regroups an endless number of photos of the prisoners who were tortured here.
The Red Khmer took pictures of each of the prisoners when they arrived. At the end of the war, many Cambodians came here to go through pictures to try to find lost relatives.
Building C is where the prisoners were held when they were not being tortured. There are individual cells, but also huge group cells.
Here the barbwire was to prevent the prisoners from committing suicide by jumping from the 2nd or 3rd floor.
The last building, building D, that was also used for the imprisonment of people awaiting torture, has since been transformed into a gallery with paintings depicting the different kind of tortures that took place here. These were all painted by one of the 7 survivors.
Finally the second courtyard houses a memorial with the names of the 12,000 victims that are confirmed to have passed through Tuol Seng. We spent a moment sitting, commemorating these lost souls and thinking about this terrible past.
We decided to talk in length about this visit because we didn’t really know that much about this very dark and very recent part of Cambodia’s history. It was important for us to share this history with you. The same way it is now taught in Cambodian schools, so that hopefully the past doesn’t repeat itself.
Quick side-note to touch on the only story that made us laugh during the tour. A young guy from New Zealand was captured and tortured by the Red Khmers in this prison, and in his confession we can read that his CIA handler (the Red Khmer were obsessed with the fact that the CIA could be spying on them) was the famous Colonel Sanders from KFC. Crazy to think that this person was able to keep a sense of humor even under torture.
Central market of Phnom Penh
We leave this place that particularly moved us, and go visit the central market.
This huge and emblematic yellow hall is an important trade center in town. This market was built in 1937 by French architects in the Art Deco style. At the time it was one of the largest markets in Asia. Today it remains as one of the biggest indoor markets of the continent.
There are over 2,000 stands where you can find about anything : clothes, textile, electronics, jewelry, flowers etc.
Remains of a colonial past
We then walk around the city center and stop to admire some of the colonial buildings where we can see a clear colonial architectural influence.
Like the Raffles Hotel Le Royal, the most prestigious hotel in the city.
The Library, built in 1924, that the Red Khmers completely abandoned. We walked in and were amazed to see medical books and encyclopedia dating from the 1950s.
Finally we stop by the main post office, a big yellow building typical of the colonial architecture.
Here are other photos of our little walk around the capital.
We follow the pedestrian walkway along the Mekong to get back to our hotel, where we meet up with Chris and Isabelle.
We then go spend the night on a rooftop tasting local craft beer.
The view on the city from here is really pretty.
Khmer cooking class
The next day we have a cooking class to learn how to cook a couple of traditional Khmer dishes. As it was the case with the class we took in Thailand, we start with the visit of a local market. Here there are absolutely no tourists in sight.
Our teacher, Kina, shows us several ingredients used in Khmer cuisine and makes us taste fruits that we aren’t accustomed to. She also takes the opportunity to buy what is missing for our class. On the menu for us : green mango salad, a amok and mango sticky rice for desert.
We are just 6 for the class, with a couple from Alaska.
We put on our aprons and start by making the curry paste for the Amok. This will take a while. We didn’t realize all the work that goes into making the curry paste.
We then continue with the green mango salad. The reason it is called green mango salad is because we use a mango that isn’t ripe.
Finally we end with the mango sticky rice, this time with a ripe mango. Kina shows us a very particular way of cutting the mango.
This rice on the other hand is simply cooked using some coconut milk.
We then all sit down to enjoy our delicious dishes.
We are all proud of our work and glad to see that everything tastes super good.
Kina then sent us an email with all the recipes so we can try to make these dishes again at home. The Amok is definitely one of our favorite Cambodian dish.
Afternoon at the pool
Because it is still very very hot outside, we decide to go spend the afternoon at the swimming pool. Of course we chose the ONLY rainy day to do so. But luckily it was only a small shower. It didn’t prevent us from fully enjoying the swimming pool. It even made a few people leave so we had the pool entirely to ourselves at one point.
Cambodia national museum
For our last day in Phnom Penh all together, we go to visit the National Museum.
In this beautiful red building, built by the French in the 1920s in the respect of Khmer traditional architecture, are exposed some of the most important pieces of Khmer art. We did the visit with an English speaking guide who explained a lot about the different sculptures and their link to the different religions present in Cambodia in the pre-angkorian and angkorian times : Hinduism and Buddhism. The pictures inside are unfortunately forbidden, but we were able to take pictures of the very pretty interior courtyard.
Maider and Matt spent the afternoon doing nothing, while Chris and Isabelle went for a final walk around town. We met them at the end of their walk in a micro brewery to taste some local craft beers before wandering one last time along the river.
We have to say our goodbyes now, since tomorrow morning we catch a very early bus to go to the paradise-like island of Koh Rong and Chris and Isabelle have their flight back to France.
We spent an incredible 3 weeks with them. It felt great to reunite and share a little bit of our experience around the world with them. Soon it will be Maider’s parents turn to join us to visit Vietnam.
In the meantime we will spend some time relaxing at the beach for a few days !