Phnom Penh

I got in Phnom Penh last night. The Vietnam/Cambodia border crossing is the most amateurish one I ever saw.

Phnom Penh is about as developed as Saigon. Some things are different though. In Saigon, there are some fast food chains (KFC, Lotteria and Pho 24), but not in PP. In PP, buildings seem more sturdy, but more people live on the streets. Also, although Saigon doesn't have decent convenience stores (such as 7-Eleven), PP does.

Today, I visited all there is to see in Phnom Penh in about three hours. Then, I proceeded to a high school that was converted into an interrogation/torture camp during the Pol Pot regime. Walking in the rooms where such events took place gave me a chill, even though the weather was really hot. In some of the rooms, thousands of victim mugshots taken by the Khmer Rouge are displayed. Half of them are of women and children since when a "traitor" was convicted (without trial) of not being in favor of the regime, he and his whole family were processed and then executed. Looking at all these faces staring at you from the past in the very place where they suffered before being taken to the killing fields was a very moving experience.

During wartime, Asians have historically been a lot more cruel than Westerners. Cambodians are no exception. If you thought the Nazis were bad; there was worst. The last place I visited today was the Phnom Penh killing field. Thousands of people perished there. Many mass graves were unearthed there. One of them was filled with headless bodies. Another one only with women and children. There is a stand where some bones that couldn't be matched with particular bodies are displayed. If you wish, you can touch them. If you have a twisted urge to bring some back home as a souvenir, no one seems to be there to prevent you from doing so.