We left the touristy town of Siem Reap that was surrounded by country side and ancient ruins and headed to Phnom Pehn, the capital of Cambodia. Like any capital city, Phnom Pehn was busy, bustling, and crowded. Our tour of the city began by visiting the royal Palace and Silver Pagoda. The entire complex was stunning and my favorite part of the city. Later that evening, we took a sunset cruise out to the Tonle Sap and Mekong Rivers. The sunset was beautiful and we enjoyed our first glimpse into life on the Mekong.
The next day, we toured the Genocide Museum which you can see at the end of the slide show. A former school, this building had been converted into a prison where the Khmer Rouge could torture their prisoners. The exhibits were very hard to walk through. One room had walls of "mug shot" style photos of a couple hundred of the 2 million that were killed while another room showed horrific paintings of torture. I didn't include any photos of the exhibits, just the building itself. Towards the end of their civil war, the Khmer Rouge gained control. The Khmer Rouge forced the people from the cities into the rural areas to become farmers. Their attempt at agricultural reform ironically lead to a famine. The most horrific part of the Khmer Rough was how they selected their victims. They would gather people and tell them they were rebuilding Cambodia and wanted the educated to be the new leaders. The educated were asked to step forward and once identified were later executed. It is easier to control the un-educated than educated. Combined with the genocide of the educated and other deaths under the Khmer Rouge during the 1970's, nearly 2 million people lost their lives, almost 1/3 of the population.
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