Cambodia

[fred.n]

Heading to Thailand next month, and we're gonna head over the Cambodian border for a week to see what's there??

Any suggestions on places to visit/stay

We're thinking of staying in Phnon Penh, doing the sights??
Also heading out to Angkor Wat, and checking out Siem Reap for a few days.

Any suggestions would be welcome

Thanks

[Geebung]

I was in Phnom Penh for a couple of days for work and I managed to see a few things...

(1) Killing Fields - where the first mass graves were found. I did not get overwhelmed by this perhaps because I already knew of its existence...the buildings that were on site were demolished a long time ago so you don't get the same feeling that you do in Tuol Sleng. There is an enormous stupa at this site with many layers of skulls. I took a guided tour, but it was not necessary. There are signs describing everything that you see.

(2) Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum - Pol Pot's secret prison - run by S21, the equivalent of the SS I guess. What is amazing is that this place could be secret...the amount of torture that went on must have been known by the locals...then again Phnom Penh was pretty much a ghost town during the Pol Pot regime...a very disturbing place to visit but worth persisting with (even if it does make you feel powerless, depressed and angry). The gallery of pictures of the victims is particularly moving...the faces of these people tells you they knew what was about to happen to them - except for the children, whose faces are the hardest to look at, I had tears in my eyes...the look of abject fear in some and of pure innocence in the youngest - these monsters really did kill children and babies (just like the germans) - and for WHAT? there does not seem to be an explanation other than a quota. And in common with some SS the instigators of this horror are hiding behind the Nuremburg defence or that they did not know it was going on.

http://www.tuolsleng.com/

(3) Royal Palace - big complex but I must admit once I had seen one gilded hall that was enough...same goes for the stupas. I saw this after the prison and the killing fields so I guess I was in the wrong frame of mind.

(4) A legacy of the Pol Pot years as well as the Vietnamese war are land mines and unexploded remnants of war (bombs dropped etc). I visited the office of the Cambodian Mine Action Centre (CMAC)...they have a display of the legacy of conflict.

http://www.camnet.com.kh/cmac/

[watson]

If you need to take a leak out of town, always do it in front of the tree.....never behind the tree.

[daninjt]

In Phnom Penh, check out the FCC - Foreign Correspondents Club. It is a famous bar where all the war correspondents hung out during the Vietnam war. It over looks the river, which flows one way in the dry season and reverses in the wet season.

A drive out over the Japanese Bridge to see all the houses and restaurants over the water.

Also check out the Russian and Central markets - the Russian markets are for all the souvenier types stuff, central for open air butchers, etc.

As already mentioned Toul Sleng.

The jewel is Angkor Wat. You could spend many days there. The ruins are spread out over a large area. They are incredible, decaying quickly but still incredible. You need a good guide to tell you the details and protect you from all the vendors and other people who will harass you all day.

Hace a good trip

Dan

[High Country]

When at the FCC Club, go to the market across the road and try the roasted bush spiders, the glazed crickets or the hard boiled eggs (just before the chick hatches). Just a little further down is the floating casino, worth a vist. Its an old ship, but don't expect it to be like our Casino's. The beer is warm and the red wine is chilled and kids runnnig around your feet! Plenty of good, well priced French styled restaurants in Phnom Penh. Finally, watch yourself crossing the road, traffic comes from the opposite direction always catching out visitors.

:2tsup: