pnom penh

kid graffiti ----------------------------------colonial house in pnom penh


national museum ---------------------------------S21 jail cell numbers


S 21 jail cells (for prisoners being tortured) --s21 courtyard

Court sejour a pnom penh et c'est bien dommage. en effet, la ville me plait. les anciennes batisses coloniales avec balcon et vue sur le mekong donnent pas mal de charme. La pauvrete est omnipresente et les invalides de guerre sont a chaque coin de rue. On sent vraiment que la guerre a laisse des traces sur les gens qui malgre tout survivent comme ils peuvent.
Le musee du S21 (ancienne ecole primaire transformee en centre de detention et de torture par les khmers rouges) retracant les exterminations du regime de Pol pot est tout simplement bouleversant. Ca me touche d'autant plus que les gens de ma generation ont vecu cette guerre.
Le reste du sejour se passe a boire qq coups avec Cedric, un pote de hanoi, au FCC et au Elsewhere.

thinking back to border crossings, it has always involved a long-ass bus trip at times airconditioned and way too many food stops at designated food stalls. but arriving in phnom phen was well worth it; a surprisingly large city (i had imagined something the size of vientiane!) located alongside tonle river, with loads of cool french style cafes, restaurants and bars, notably "the fcc" and "elsewhere".

together with cedric - our newly acquainted almost viet frenchman - we explored the hoods of p.phen, disuading him from eating fried spiders and bugs of ALL sizes.

alas, our visit was not all rosey as we visited the tuol sleng museum, also known as s-21 (security prison 21). it used to be a high school until the khmer rouge came in and got all nasty. what is sick is that the moment one enters into one of the numerous classrooms where victims were torutured, one actually gets a chill down the spine. it is one extremely weird sensation and one leaves feeling quite depressed, looking at the middle-aged people in the street in a different light. how did they manage to survive and be so kind?