Hello again everyone and greetings from Cambodia. I want preface this blog with:


Please don't feel like you have to read this if you don't want to. I get it. Sometimes crap other people write is boring. When I get back home, there won't be a quiz, I promise. Also, if you just want to look at pictures, I am going to try to post as many as possible on Facebook so you can just check them out there if that's all you're in it for. Okay, now that that's out of the way....


I made it to Phnom Penh, Cambodia! Hooray! The flight was boring and uneventful.


Phnom Penh Day 1


I started this morning jet lagged but ready to get up, shower, eat breakfast, and go. My plan was to leave the guesthouse by 7:30am and set out on foot to Tuol Sleng/S-21 (it's a museum - more on that in a second). I had it mapped out and google maps told me that it should only take about 30 minutes to walk there. Great. Now...here's the thing. Most folks hire a tuk tuk (kind of like a motorbike with a carriage on the back) or a taxi to go out to Tuol Sleng. Really, I couldn't understand why. I mean, it wasn't that far. How hard could it be to get there? About 40 minutes in I realized that I had made a horrible error. What has seemed like a no brainer at the time was definitely, definitely not. Traffic was insane. Crossing the street was horrifying. None of the streets were marked. There were no sidewalks. Also, I'm apparently a moron. I would stop and ask for directions and then become even more turned around. One nice Cambodian lady told me to go west. Now when I'm at home, go west is a perfectly reasonable direction to give me. In Cambodia, I have absolutely no clue which way west is. None. Telling me to go west does not help me. Could you just point for me nice lady? Thanks. An hour and a half later I arrived at my destination, tired, hot, sweaty, confused, and cursing myself for thinking that walking was a good idea.

So...Toul Sleng or S-21 is the genocide museum here in Phnom Penh. I know, I know, it sounds pretty depression and maybe not where one would start on their vacation. But as someone who is fascinated by history, I couldn't not go. It's part of who these people are as a nation, it's part of what defines them. And, I think, you go in part to show respect for what happened to them in the past.

Briefly, Toul Sleng started as a high school but was converted by Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge into a prison where 20,000 people where imprisoned and tortured before being taken out to the countryside to be killed.   There were only 12 confirmed survivors. If you want more information about the Cambodia genocide which lasted from 1975-1979 in which an estimated 3 million people died, feel free to google or Wikipedia.


Toul Sleng has been converted to a museum and memorial site and you can tour the grounds and buildings. It's so peaceful there that it's hard to comprehend the senseless violence and inhumane acts that took place there. After visiting the museum, I caught a $3 tuk tuk back home. Took maybe 10 minutes. No way I was attempting the walk back. Lesson learned.


Or maybe not. In the afternoon, I decided to head out and see the National Museum and the Royal Palace. These places were much closer to my guesthouse...or they would have been if I had not gone in completely the wrong direction. Sigh. Anyway, once I finally got there I spent a few hours wandering around and trying my best to stay out of the blazing sun.


And tomorrow I am traveling by tuk tuk only. Until then good people!

P.S. There are lots of photos if you scroll to the bottom of this entry. Just click on them to make them full size. Same photos will be (hopefully) on Facebook so you can look there too.