Read this blog: The one where we visit a genocide site Thursday 28th March 2024 It is quite unsettling to be repeatedly accosted on the street by smiling tuk tuk drivers asking enthusiastically “Killing Fields? Killing Fields?” as though you will be in for a real treat. Although we were ambivalent about visiting, we felt we could not ignore such a defining part of Cambodian history and arranged a tuk tuk to transport us to and from the Choeung Ek Genocidal Centre. It is difficult to know what to say about something so terrible but the Cambodians themselves are very open about the genocide. Tourists are encouraged to visit the site with the aim of ensuring that it can never happen again. The Choeung Ek Genocidal Centre and the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum [formerly known as the S-21 prison housed in two former schools] are the only two sites so far which have been turned into museums detailing the crimes of the Khmer Rouge regime under Pol Pot. There are however several smaller local memorials including the former M-13 prison. Choeung Ek lies about 11 miles south of Phnom Penh city centre and is a former orchard and Chinese cemetery. […]
Daily Archives: 07/04/2024
Read this blog: The one where Matilda looks older and loses her sense of humour Wednesday 27th March 2024 At the start of the cruise along the Mekong we had to surrender our passports [which made us both a bit anxious] to allow the cruise company to undertake the paperwork for our entry visas into Cambodia. On the morning we docked in Phnom Penh, all passengers had to present themselves on the Sun Deck at 07:00. Here our passports were returned to us complete with a tourist entry visa and an exit visa form. We then had to walk several paces across the Sun Deck to present them to the border guards for approval. The immigration official that Robert saw compared him to his passport photo and pronounced him, or perhaps Robert’s photo, to be “handsome”. By contrast, when Matilda presented her passport to the second border guard, he spent some time looking from the photo to Matilda and back again. He then consulted a colleague who looked at both Matilda and the photo and nodded but commented, “You were much younger then.” Sadly it’s true, the current photo has little or no grey hair and she will need to […]