Phnom Penh

We stayed in a great hostel in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. We payed six dollars to stay in a big, air-conditioned dorm, where we met some fun Brits. The hostel had a really cool area to hang out, a bar, a restaurant, and a pool.

While in Phnom Penh, we visited Tuol Seng, the school that was transformed into a prison during the Khmer Rouge regime to detain, interrogate, torture, and kill those suspected of being enemies to the regime. The school, in the middle of the city, is now a genocide museum.

After visiting the museum, we headed a bit out of the city to visit the Killing Fields, where we witnessed previous detaining and executing areas, skulls and bones of victims, and mass graves. The most heart-wrenching part of the visit was walking by the Killing Tree, where infants were grabbed by their feet and smashed against the tree, heads first.

The next day was a more uplifting one. We traveled to a Buddhist monastery, where we made an offering to the monks, prayed with incense, and were finally blessed by the monks. We left soaked from the blessing, and content.

With the temperature inching toward the fifty degree mark, we lounged by the pool in our hostel a lot, enjoying our books, when we weren't going out on our excursions.

Photos:

1. Praying area in Wat Phnom
2. Detention and torture room at S-21
3. Mass grave at the Killing Fields
4. Killing Tree at the Killing Fields
5. Hostel