<< Click here for the photos >>
Phnom Penh was out first stop in Cambodia. I feel like a lot of people skip it to go directly to Siem Reap for temple trekking. For me, the history of the country was something I really wanted to see an experience. Specifically, I wanted to see and try to understand what happened under the Khmer Rouge.
In our podcast discussion, Meta talked about the impact that difficult time had on his family. I didn’t get to the specific places we discussed, but I did get to a school that transformed into a prison and the killing fields. The scale and scope of what happened in Cambodia is horrific, but sadly, also similar to what I’ve seen in Rwanda, Germany, and a bunch of other places. I highly recommend a visit if you can. They were killing men for almost any reason, but also women and children. It makes no sense. The conditions in the prison we visited were so bad they put barbed wire to cover the balconies to prevent suicides.
One thing that stood out to me was the school children visiting the Killing Fields site we visited. In the US, we are actively trying to hide our history and lie about it to kids in many many states. However, like other places we have been, Cambodia is actively teaching about it to make sure it never happens again. I respect the hell out of that.
In addition to the harder photos, we also saw some sites around the city and visited a circus with a purpose. I’ve included all of those photos in here too.
