As you're all extremely clever and worldly people I don't need to go into detail with you the recent instances of Cambodia appearing in the news. The most noteworthy is that regarding Comrade Duch, the ex-Khmer Rouge member in charge of S-21 (the school-turned-torture-prison from 1975-79 at Tuol Sleng in Phnom Penh) who is currently on trial for crimes against humanity. It's only taken 30 years for the UN to put the trial in place, and he's probably the only KR member that will ever face trial, but I supose it's better than nothing. Tuol Sleng itself is particularly grim, with the cells left almost exactly as they were found (minus the bodies) when the Vietnamese liberated the city in January 1979, and a photograph of said scene now hanging on each cell wall. The sticker above was from the tuk-tuk we took out to the Killing Fields of Choeng Ek, where all those tortured at S-21 were taken to before being battered to death and buried where they fell. Pretty dark. A commemorative stupa stands at the centre, filled with the skulls of the victims. If you ever visit Phnom Penh, it's probably best not to do Tuol Sleng and Choeng Ek in the same day, unless you want to end up feeling particularly low.
The rest of Cambodia however was a lot more upbeat. Elephants and dolphins, palaces and hill-tribe villages, very bad roads and stuck-in-the-mud buses - it was probably the most varied country in the region, and for me one of the most enjoyable so far.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=243641&id=606200496&l=fe42ad6bdf
And the Temples of Angkor will require another entry here on another day.
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