Day 5 - Phnom Penh

View of Phnom Penh from the river
The ship cruised overnight and arrived at Phnom Penh, the capital city of Cambodia in the morning.

We were greeted by a vista of a modern high-rise city with quite a range of architectural styles, across the still muddy Mekong river.

After breakfast in the restaurant we boarded buses for an excursion the visit the Killing Field and Genocide Museum (S21) in the city.

 Our new  guide, Sey

We were introduced to Sey, our Cambodian guide who  explained the history of Cambodia and went to some details about the period under under Pol Pot. He explained how when Pol Pot took power, he use the authority of the King to gain support of the population, but then kept the king under house arrest in the palace. He announced to the population in the cities that the they would be bombed by the Americans, resulting  in a mass exodus to the countryside where the population became unwilling participants in his agrarian reform. 

The intellectuals and professional were offered positions back at Phnom Penh, however they were taken to prisons and often tortured to extract confessions of collusion with foreign powers before they were executed in the killing fields. Often, the entire family of a detainee were also killed to reduce any future opposition, resistance or revenge. Numbers vary, but the consensus seems to be about 2.5 million people were killed which was all meticulously documented (see further below).

Sign at the entrance -
see text reprinted below
Sey’s parents were a part of in an arranged marriage program. Usually around 100 men and 100 women would be lined up, their numbers called out, and their corresponding  number, would then become their lifetime partner. Apparently, after liberation, there was a high number of divorces, although Sey’s parents stayed together.

During the regime, everything belonged to the state: land, machinery, produce, vehicles, etc. Food was provided by the government, however, generally not enough to sustain the population. Following liberation, land and property was essentially doled out on a first come first served basis, so many families never regained their original property.

Even after losing, the Khmer Rouge was still a powerful force within Cambodia, and peace was only achieved by offering amnesty to most of those involved except for the top 5 leaders who were imprisoned. 

Cambodia, for many years, still remained a poor country, and it was only when enough international assistance had been provided and the economy began to recover that poverty and the high level of banditry  due to  the lack of police and infrastructure also decreased.

We learned all of this, on our way to visit the largest killing field on the outskirts of Phnom Penh.  Visiting Phnom Penh’s Killing Field was a sombre and sobering experience especially when you realise it is only one of a large number of them spread across the country.

The following text displayed on the sign at the entrance sums up the horror visited on almost one third of the population:

The Most Tragic Event

In the past 20th century, on the Cambodian soil the clique of Pol Pot Criminals has committed a heinous and genocidal act. They massacred the population with atrocity on a large scale which the world had never met.


With a tremendous Memorial Stupa of the Choeung Ek Genocidal Center, we imagine that grievous voice of the victims who were beaten to death by the killers with canes, bamboo stumps or head of hoes, and were stabbed with knives or swords. We seem to be looking at the horrifying scenes and the panic stricken faces of the people who were dying of starvation, forced labor or torture without mercy upon the skinny body and they died without giving the last word to their kith and kin. How bitter were they when seeing their beloved children, wives, husbands, brothers or sisters were seized and tightly bound and taken to the mass graves while they were waiting for their turn to come and share the same tragic lot?

This clique of Criminals wanted to transform Cambodian people into a group who knew and understood nothing and always bent their heads to carry out the orders of ANKAR (KAMPUCHEA Communist Party) blindly. They educated and transformed the young people and adolescents whose hearts are pure, gentle and modest into odious executioners who dared to kill the innocents and even their own parents, relatives or friends.

This clique of Pol Pot Criminals burnt the market place; abolished monetary system; eliminated national culture; destroyed schools, hospitals, pagodas, and priceless monuments such as Prasat Angkor which is a source of pure national pride. They did whatever to get rid of the Khmer character and transform Cambodian soil into a mountain of bones and a sea of blood and tears which were deprived of cultural infrastructure, civilzation and national identity became a desert of great destruction that overturned the Cambodian and drove it back on the Stone Age.



Memorial Stupa
Not just a memorial - a repository
Detail showing the rows of skulls
collected from the killing fields

There were many "killing fields" spread throughout the country where the murders of anyone perceived as an enemy or threat - especially educated people in the professions or business.

I will let the photos and signs provide a description of the events that took place here.

Truck Stop
The dark and gloomy detention
The executioners' working office
Chemical substances storage room

One of the many mass grave sites
The killing tool storage room
Sey explaining the events

We departed  the Phnom Penh Killing Field by bus to visit the Genocide Museum and travelled into the city . Cambodia has been reportedly riddled with corruption since the fall of Pol Pot, with building development poorly planned, managed or controlled.

Phnom Penh is a curious mixture of high-rise buildings, commercial, hotels and apartments undispersed between farms and domestic houses in an apparently completely random manner. There was, and still is, quite a lot of investment from China in Cambodia, and particularly Phnom Penh. There may have been some degree of planning, but it's not really evident.

I will leave you with some "out of the window" scenes of Phnom Penh.


Full driveway service
Tuk-Tuks rule
Entrance to the Genocide Museum

Tual Sleng Genocide Museum 
Amateur tour guide
We arrived at the Genocide Museum with a number of other tour buses so it was quite busy. I was co-opted to be a temporary guide to assist our travel group negotiate the crowded entrance. 

If the Killing Field was a shock, the museum was even more so. The inhumanity and systematic torture of prisoners held in the complex was overwhelming. 

Genocide Museum (S 21) which was a former school converted into a prison and torture centre where people were detained before being executed. 

Apparently, the high level of documentation was part of a process of confirming that each person who was killed was acting as a foreign agent or insurgent. Also, as part of the regimes deception, detainees were told that if they confessed they would be released which created a false atmosphere of safety before they were taken out to be executed, usually by hand with farm implements which was quieter than shooting them with bullets - loud happy music was played so as not to alert the other prisoners. Most of the Khmer Rouge who carried out this work were young indoctrinated recruits who were also used in executions of any  high-ranking Khmer members whom the highly paranoid Pol Pot  suspected of treachery. This was a processing facility to extract information and especially signed confessions of dissident activity to justify the execution of the prisoners and confiscation of their assets by the Pol Pot regime. Everything was documented and every inmate photographed. No-one ever left except to go to the killing fields.

The latest estimate of the number of victims who died at S21 is 18,063. Of the victims, 12 (8 adults. 4 children) are known to have survived - only those still in custody when the Vietnamese military invaded in 1978 and toppled the Khmer Rouge regime. Again I will let the photos tell the story.

Seven of the eight survivors
Survivor Bou Meng signing  photos
Interrogation room
Samples of the portraits of prisoners
Sample photos of some who died during interrogation
Rules for inmates who were being interrogated

Discipline of the security
  1. You must answer according to my questions. Don't turn them away.
  2. Don't try to hide the facts by making excuses about this or that. You are strictly prohibited to contradict me.
  3. Don't pretend to be ignorant for you are a chap who dares to thwart the revolution.
  4. You must answer my questions immediately without wasting time to reflect.
  5. Don't go on about your minor mistakes or infringements of the moral code or on the essence of the revolution.
  6. While getting lashes or electrification you must absolutely not scream or cry out.
  7. Do nothing, sit still and wait for my orders. If there is no order, keep quiet, an when I tell you to do something, you must to it right away without protesting
  8. Don't make a pretext about Kampuchea Krom in order to hide your secrets or your betrayals.
  9. If you don't scrupulously follow all of the above rules, you shall get many lashes or electric shocks.
    - For every infringement, 10 lashes or five shocks

We returned to the ship for another delicious lunch, and then travelled back into Phnom Penh to visit the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda which is situated at the Western bank of the confluence of the Tonle Sap River and the Mekong River. The Royal Palace of Cambodia is a complex of buildings which serves as the official royal residence of the King of Cambodia. 

The Cambodian monarchs have occupied it since it was built in the 1860s, with a period of absence when the country came into turmoil during and after the reign of the Khmer Rouge.

The palace was constructed by King Norodom between 1866 and 1870; this original palace was largely demolished and rebuilt between 1912 and 1932.

The monarchy is still respected in Cambodia, and prince Norodom Sihamoni was forced to return from his abode in Europe to take up the position of king when his father Sihanouk died. 

It is a huge complex and a good example of Khmer architecture featuring its layout of the defensive wall (kampeng), throne hall (preah thineang), Temple of the Emerald Buddha (Wat Preah Keo Morakot), stupas (chedei), towering spires (prang prasat) and mural paintings.

Most interesting were some huge plants in the garden bearing large (inedible) fruit the size of a human head. It is known in Khmer as Raing Phnomn (Shorea siamensis) and is most often seen near Buddhist pagodas and shrines. According to legend one of Buddha's incarnations was born under an S. siamensis tree and therefore it has a strong symbolic connection to Cambodia's Buddhist culture. The leaves of the tree are used in traditional Cambodian medicine as a tea used during childbirth.

Again I will let the photos speak for themselves.



The palace is quite popular and and contains a mixture of both Buddhist and Hindu motives. Both religions coexisted in Cambodia due to the influence of India and China over the centuries. It was around 30° in the afternoon and quite humid, but overall it was bearable. We followed Sey around, admiring the exteriors and interiors, but for me the highlight was a 400 metre long mural of the Ramayana.

In the evening, before dinner, we were treated to some Cambodian traditional dance on the ship by young performers - very good. 


The meals overall have been excellent, two choices of soup, entree, main and dessert for lunch and dinner. Also alcohol is included free with meals. Dinner that’s night was all Cambodian food which is similar to Thai food - but different. You may have noticed that I have resisted very strongly the temptation to put up photographs of food.

Here is a selection of Cambodian style small dishes provided for a light dinner that evening.





During the cruise, there are no formal seating arrangements and it's generally first in has the choice of seating. 

We generally sit with another couple, avoiding large groups of friends or  tour groups.

 This can vary from very pleasant and enjoyable to somewhat challenging as some couples have their own personal dynamic.

On this cruise we teamed up with two single ladies, both academics, Cary and Susan, with whom we got on quite well. 

So this evening after dinner, the four of us decided  to go into Phnom Penh together to have a look at the night life.

We hired one of the local tuk-tuks (in Cambodia they are all four-seater carriages pulled by small motor scooters) and had a pleasant ride around the city centre, visiting some of the sites we'd seen during the day but which looked completely different at night.

It was a pleasant evening and enjoyable just to travel through the city in local transport. Virtually everyone we saw were Cambodians, also out enjoying the evening.


We stopped a couple of times two look at some of the features, but probably the most interesting thing we saw was a mobile food cart selling  "real" Cambodian street food. Not the sanitised dishes we see in restaurants.  

There were frogs,  grasshoppers, bush cockroaches and various other insects, but the most bizarre item was deep-fried black tarantulas. 

In order to take a photo, I gave our driver US$1 to buy a something, and he bought a spider, which he brought back to our vehicle to taste. We tried the legs, which tasted essentially like burnt sticks and he ate the rest, declaring it to be delicious.