Cambodia’s dark past

With most of our errands behind us (all done yesterday - buying food, going to the post office, checking out bike shops, and doing internet), Peter and I were able to do some sight-seeing and fun shopping today. We started off by visiting a place called ‘Tuol Sleng,’ which was previously a school but then converted into a prison/detention camp/torture center during the reign of the Khymer Rouge. From 1975 to 1979 the Khymer Rouge were in power in Cambodia and they were responsible for killing at least one million Cambodians. If you’ve seen the movie ‘The Killing Fields’ then you know a little bit about it. Totally messed up what went on here - people murdered for wearing glasses (because the KR thought that meant they were educated), children murdered and thrown into the rice fields as’fertilizer’, and mass killings everywhere. It was a sad sight to see thinking of all the torture that took place here.

After that we went to the Russian market for a drink and as we wandered around the stalls we discovered the clothing area where they sell all the clothes from the factories that are here in Cambodia - piles of stuff from the Gap, J.Crew, Columbia, Anne Taylor, etc, etc - all REAL and SO cheap! $2 for a shirt, $4 for pants - we were out of control!

So tomorrow it’s back on the bikes - should be another 3 days of cycling to Sihounakville and then Thailand awaits!

PS. Here’s a cool link to my thru-hiking friend Missing Link’s site with some photos of Gimpy (me). Copy and paste the link below into your browser to view:

http://www.ctheusa.com/THRUHIKE/wg/wg.html

The torture center at Tuol Sleng, also known as S-21

All of the victims were photographed before being tortured and killed

The site (formerly a school) had classrooms turned into prison cells

Add comment March 3rd, 2002

Good road and great food!

Ah…it feels GREAT to be here - Phnom Phen - a big city with many tourists, and, more importantly, many restaurants! We are so excited about the choice of food here after being stuck with veggies and rice in small towns for the last 5 days.

It was a good ride here - all flat with great road and today we were blessed with some cloud cover so it wasn’t even that hot…a balmy 27C (80F) compared to the sweltering 40C (105F) from the other day. It was so nice to just ride along and chat and know that we were heading to town! We stopped for a carbo break at a corn stall and chowed pretty heavily on fresh cooked corn. Of course it was nowhere as sweet or tasty as the Jersey corn from home but it still tasted great. We had some salt from the pineapple we bought earlier (they often mix salt and fresh chilies to put on the fruit) so we added that to the corn and it was so good! Peter did some damage to the pile - I think he ate about 10 ears!!

So we got to town at about 1pm or so and found our way around looking for a place to stay. The places we looked at weren’t great so we decided to stop for lunch (FOOD!) and had some greek salad and pizza before continuing the search. Eventually we agreed on one place which was clean and quiet and for $4/night I think it was the best deal as well.

We’re hoping to eat more good food tomorrow, get massages, and check out the town a bit. The plan is to spend maybe 2 days here and then continue cycling down to the coast which is another 300 km or so from here.

Miles Biked Today: 52.60 (75 km)

Time: 4 hours 31 minutes

The sugar cane juice machine - pressing the cane by hand

Scenery in Cambodia, on the road to Phnom Penh

Taking a carbo break - fresh corn

Add comment March 1st, 2002