Day 2: Alex is sleepy and is going to bed

We woke on our first morning to the crowing of roosters, tooting of tuk tuks and the awful stench of sewerage whilst outside people were already busily going about their days. We headed back to the restaurant for breakfast where Heidi and Caz masterfully ordered us omelettes and coffee, the breakfast of champions. Each omelette seemed to be different to the next and the coffee was dark and sweet but it was the breakfast we needed to kick-start the day. After we had scrubbed up and packed our bags for the day the veterans went off to forage for the essential snacks and supplies and spent the day at the local supermarket.

The newbies on the other hand went off to learn more about Cambodia, its people and its bloody history. The way to travel is by tuk tuk and nothing quite grounds you in a place than driving through the streets and experiencing what day to day life is like. The driver artfully darted between the traffic, the roads a chaotic orchestra of horns, engines and voices and the air a thick soup of exhaust fumes and aromas from the food stalls. The buildings were a patchwork assemblage of buildings, some new and clean surround by tall walls, others in a state where you couldn’t tell if they were going up or being taken down. Hidden in between them all were various secret places, houses and shops in alleyways, on the roadside and under bridges. Around us thousands of stories were unfolding amongst our own and it quickly became apparent, we weren’t in Kansas anymore. Eventually, we arrived at our first stop, the Killing Fields. For those of you dear readers who don’t know about the Khmer Rouge and its maniacal leader Pol Pot you could do worse than quickly googling it. The Choeung Ek Genocidal Centre that acts as a memorial site for just one of the many mass graves of the violent regime stands in a stark contrast to the streets outside. Once inside the walls of the centre the entire atmosphere changed from an energetic hustle to a solemn serenity. Birds sang cheerfully and the unassuming areas potted with depressions played host to entire families of chickens but the audio tour revealed the gruesome details behind the beauty. Flitting around the flowering plants and trees that circle the graves were hundreds of butterflies and one couldn’t help but think that perhaps they were the spirits of the victims who had found some peace. At the end of the tour we went to the memorial stupa toward the entrance of the centre to pay our respects. The stupa, a magnificent white structure towering in the centre, holds human remains from some of the victims that were murdered at the site. Walking in silence around row upon row upon row of skulls and bones is almost an ethereal experience, as if the things that were done to the people who those bone belong to were too horrific to have really happened. But they did. This was reaffirmed when we reached our second stop for the day, the infamous Toul Sleng Prison, known also as S21, which was a school converted to hold and process the victims of the Khmer Rouge regime. This place of learning was transformed into a place of suffering though now it is a place of memory and healing.  It is here we discovered the brutal torture and treatment that many people endured before being sent to their deaths at the killing fields. Seeing the classrooms converted to prison cells/torture chambers, bars over the windows and the many photos of victims some taken immediately after being violently tortured was difficult to say the least. Even though visiting such places is an emotionally challenging and sobering experience it is important history to know and provides context to the plight of many modern Cambodians. However, regardless of how informative and eye opening the experience had been, we were glad to head back to the hotel and meet up with the others.

The afternoon saw us all heading to the eagerly anticipated Russian markets. There we navigated a humid warren of market stalls sporting clothes, shoes, fabrics and many other miscellaneous wares as well as completely authentic brand name merchandise. It was just as well we had arrived close to closing time as otherwise we may have spent all of our own personal money. Needless to say, with a bit of mercantile skill the team acquired some great bargains, though upon closer inspection Alex discovered his newly purchased pair of boots were not quite right. No wonder they were so cheap! With our haul of goodies we pressed on to the Café Yejj to meet Socheat and Satya and their kids Theresa and Cynthia to enjoy a dinner together. Delicious meals and friendly conversations rounded the day off nicely and before long we were back at the hotel calling it a night.