I last wrote from Mui Ne in Vietnam. From there I travelled to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City has never really stuck) but only spent two nights there. Just enough time to get a taste of that crazy city, and to see the famed Cu Chi tunnels used by the Viet Cong in the Vietnam War. Although I had a really good time in Vietnam, I'm not completely enamoured with the place. Maybe its that shape of the country that makes it feel like a tourist conveyor belt. That combined with the excessive number of American tourists.
I can't put my finger on why, but Cambodia immediately feels better. The people just seem friendlier. I've only been here 2 days but I already feel like I'm going to enjoy my time here. But thats not to say today has been fun by any stretch of the imagination. I have had the most heart wrenching day in my life. The things that happened in this country are too appalling to think about.
I shrugged off yet another hangover this morning and made my way to the S-21 genocide museum. This former high school was used as a detention and torture centre during the rule of the Khymer Rouge between 1975 and 1978. During that time 20,000 people were held there. 7 survived. I sobered up quickly.
The Khymer Rouge, under Pol Pot, instituted a fast tracked and brutal Communist regime that saw the entire population of Phnom Penh relocated to rural villages to work on communal farms. No two family members were kept together. Even young children were split from their families. All intellectuals (doctors, teachers etc.) were executed. During the 3 and a half years under Pol Pot 2 million people died. And this is a small country.
The S-21 museum really grabbed me through the photos and testimonials of the prisoners and the handful of survivors. The things that people are capable of doing to each other are beyond conception. But that was only the start. After the museum I headed out to the Killing Fields at Choeung Ek. This is where people from all over the region, including S-21, were brought to be executed. A metal bar was used to smash in the back of the neck, the people weren't even worth a bullet. The memorial at Choeung Ek contains all the skulls of the victims found in the mass unmarked graves. To see the skulls of the people I'd seen in the photos half an hour before absolutely gutted me.
The faces of some of the victims of S-21.
A snippet from one of the many stories behind S-21. 
I can't say anything here.Sadly, one of the stops popular with tourists is at one of the shooting ranges. Here you can pay to fire off an AK47 or M16, or even blow up some chickens with a grenade. But to even contemplate firing guns after what I'd seen wasn't possible. I wonder if people stop to think that the gun they're firing wasn't made to shoot at paper targets. It was built to shoot people. Living, breathing, loving, people.
On to happier things though. I had lunch today at a restaurant called Friends and I think I've found the sort of project I'd really like to get involved in some day soon back in South Africa. This gorgeous little Tapas restaurant trains street children in the restaurant, as chefs and in other service fields, before they go off to work in hotels and restaurants around the country. It looks like such a nice way to make a difference. And the food was great too.
Getting smiles back at Friends. Just one of the lovely spots in what is a very friendly, beautiful city today.Tomorrow I head to the coast at Sihanoukville. I hope the weather improves so I can hit the beach.
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