Jan 15th 2012, Phnom Penh, Olli

Our last evening in the chill-out paradise in Don Khon we spent mostly.. chilling out. So the same way we spent the previous days as well. We also tried to see some Irrawaddy Dolphins, but we failed. On Friday we took another 12-hour bus-trip, our destination being Phnom Penh in Cambodia. We had heard rumours that there might be some well-organised scams near the border. In our bus there was a guy collecting passports so that he could get visas for us in the border. He asked for 29 bucks for that. But we were prepared for that, so we didn't give him anything and got off the bus before the border and walked through the no-mans-land instead. After a long and difficult battle with four different officials in four different buildings we finally got to Cambodia and guess what? In total we ended up paying 28 bucks for our visa. So afterwards you could say, that maybe it wasn't worth the effort this time... Anyhow, after sitting 12 hours in a bus and feeling really tired, we finally were only 15 km from Phnom Penh. But then something weird happened. The bus suddenly turned away from the main road to some strange detour. Also the bus drove really slow, using only the first gear. After driving like that for 10 km it finally stopped and we were told that the bus was broken and we had to change the bus. So we actually almost got to our destination without the bus breaking. Almost. Another funny thing in the bus was that there were 10 Finnish people in the same bus! Our group, Suvi and Kristiina whom we met earlier, one couple and two guys.



Saturday was the museum-day of our trip. We went to Tuol Sleng Museum and Killing Fields of Choeung Ek. Not the most joyful places to visit. I would put them to same categorie as for example Hiroshima Bomb Museum and Concentration Camps in Auswitch. Horrible places with horrible history that really makes you think what the hell is wrong with the human kind? How can there be such cruelty in world?

In Cambodia the most horrible times were from 1975 to 1979 when the Khmer Rouge ruled the country. Its goal was to transfer Cambodia into a giant peasent-dominated agrarian cooperative. For example the whole population of Phnom Penh was forced to move to countryside in only a couple of days and start work basically as slaves up to 15 hours a day eating only two small portions of rice per day. The unrealistic goal was to triple the rice production. During the three years and eight months that the Khmer Rouge ruled in Cambodia it's estimated that even 2-3 million people lost their lives.

First we visited the Tuol Sleng Museum, also known as Security Prison 21 (S-21). The former class rooms of a high school were transformed into torture chambers and prison sells. At some point even 100 prisoners were killed every day. People who got captured were tortured as long as they admitted being guilty in whatever accusations the guards had on them. Also they had to give names of friends and relatives who were ”guilty”. Nowadays the rooms of S-21 are full of photos of the victims (each prisoner was photographed) and information about the torture mechanisms used and the leaders of the Khmer Rouge.

Another depressive place we visited were the killing fields of Choeung Ek, where most of the 17 000 prisoners of S-21 were transported and executed. Prisoners were transported there in trucks and killed with whatever tools were available (bullets cost money). Most of them were beaten to death and buried in mass graves. The place was quite horrible. For example there is a tree, against which the executers used to beat children to death, and other horrible things. I mean really, what the hell is wrong with people?? The next couple of hours after the museums were mostly spent in silence. Everyone was just thinking what we had just seen.



Today we visited Russian Market, where we found lots of cheap clothes. It was a bit like the Silk Market in Beijing, except much smaller and much more peaceful. No-one tried to force you to buy anything and the prices were almost fair. In Silk Market the real price of a product was often 10 % of the price first given, but here the price given was quite good. We also went to Royal Palace, which was quite impressive. After that we have just planned the next week. Tomorrow we will take a bus to Battambang. The plan is to stay there for one night and after that continue to Siem Reap by boat. Suvi and Kristiina are still travelling with us to Battambang, so it's getting more and more clear that there is something fundamentally wrong with these girls...



By the way, Janne and Nikke, in case you are still reading our blog, you do not believe what happened! We played MPJ... with GIRLS! I cannot believe I lived long enough to see this happen. We'll give you the details later, just wanted to let you know what you have been missing...