So off we trot to the capital of Cambodia, Phomn Penn, as we arrive we look around and it really doesn't seem like a typical capital of a country, it's very dated and the streets look old and dirty! As we find out more about Cambodia we realise that this is due to years of a terrible civil war that this country is still getting over!
From 1974 - 1979 a man named Pol Pot became the leader of Cambodia, him and his regime (The Khmer Rouge). He wanted all city people and people with any education to become 2nd class citizens and the people who lived in the villages with little knowledge and education to rule the country. To do this he brainwashed young people from the villages and trained them to torture and kill the 'city people'. He killed doctors, teachers and lawyers aswell as many others. He killed anyone who wore glasses or had smooth hands as he thought they must have been intelligent and a risk to him. He made them work under terrible conditions and then killed them and their families. It is unsure of the exact amount of people he killed but it is around 3million innocent people including babies women and children! Whilst in phnom Penn we visited the killing fields which is where the Khmer Rouge soldiers would take the innocent people to be killed! It was very sad listening to the stories of the war, in the killing fields is a monument and inside is all the skulls which were found in the fields there were 17000 skulls in a tall glass cage staring at you which was very earie! In the graves you can still see bones and teeth which surface when it rains! We also went to S21 which was a torture prison during the war. Here we saw terrible pictures of what went on and the poor victims of the war. This give us a good understanding of what the Cambodian people went through and why it has took the country so long to recover!
Now Cambodia is on the way to being a 20th century country!
So after all the culture and history we decide to see a different side of Cambodia,, hello sihnoukville!