Cambodia: Phnom Penh (Killing fields, Tuol Sleng museum, Bugs)

Of course, for such a luxurious hotel, there’s a splendid breakfast buffet

There wasn’t any bus available to Siem Reap and ferry was too ex, so we spent the day exploring Phnom Penh.

Phnom Penh(riverside city, capital)
-its infrastructure is undeveloped, and it is a very poor city
-"exqusitie hybrid of Cambodian & French architecture"
-still a rather shabby & run-down place due to long yrs of war & 4 yrs of Khmer Rouge abandonment

Streets of Cambodia

Pretty Cambodian waitress

Tuk-tuk on the road to the Killing fields of Choeung Ek(15km fr PP)

Little kids riding bike. Yes I’ve seen up to 5 people squeezed onto a single bike. The female pillion riders usu sit sideways on the bike with both their legs facing one side.

Killing fields of Choeung Ek…

…where thousands of innocent people were sent from S-21(see below) to be bludgeoned to death

Many kids surrounded us outside the entrance to ask for water

Tuol Sleng museum

This former high school was turned into a prison called Security Prison 21(S-21) by Pol Pot to detain & torture suspected political prisoners

Enough of the depressing stuff.

Cambodian dancers

Independence Monument (from the French)

Cambodia-Vietnam friendship monument: built in the late 1970s by the communist regime which took power after the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia, which overthrew the Khmer Rouge regime.

Nithiya got fascinated by Mannequin Pis-Part 1

There was a carnival on the field in front of the royal palace

where there were many people selling food...

...and families gather on mats to eat

So we decided to join in

Jiamin & I decided to try out the bugs

U have to peel off the legs & hard shell to eat the abdomen and head. The larvae tasted awfully mushy while the cockroaches were surprisingly crunchy & tasteless

Another fantastic meal

Having lived in such high-end accommodation the night b4, we decided to go budget. Poor Derrick & I end up sleeping on the floor in this Riverview Guesthouse