This morning we woke up early again to squeeze every drop from the day. We had met a really cute little tuk-tuk driver last evening on a walk who was so persistent and so charming (he was wearing ray-bans!) that we asked him if he’d come to pick us up for the next morning. He was waiting for us at 6:30!

We went downtown to the Russian Market (I still don’t really know what’s so Russian about it) where I was pretty disgusted by some very strong smells. Steamy heat and unrefrigerated meat don’t make the best pair. Whew!!

Eoin and I had been a bit over-eager and forgot that though we were up early, businesses don’t usually open until 8 or so. So we were turned away at the Royal Palace and the Museum. We delayed a bit and then tried the Genocide Museum.

Not so long ago (the 70s), the Khmer Rouge (Cambodian Communists) killed about 1.5 million Cambodian people (basically anyone who opposed them) in a genocidal 4 year regime. Thousands of people were tortured and put in prison for minor “faults.” One of these prisons, called “Tuol Sleng”(translates to: “poisonous mound of the guilty”) or S-21 still exists and has been turned into a museum. The building was originally a school, so it has a lot of rooms that were converted into cells. Some of these cells have not changed much at all from the end of the regime; they even have the beds in which the prisoners lay shackled along with the shackles themselves (so scary looking!) and each room has a black and white photograph of what the rooms looked like when the prisoners were found there. It’s horrific and ghostly. I’ve never been to a place where such things ACTUALLY happened. It’s the weirdest feeling - very, very haunting. Adding to the atmosphere of dread and sorrow are scratches on the walls, blood stains, and the fact that the buildings haven’t really been touched (in terms of updates) since the regime.

We made sure to take a lot of breaks today since it was so very hot and we didn’t really have a strict itinerary to follow. We basically “chillaxed” for most of the day after our busy morning. In between chill-sessions we took a look at the Royal Palace. Once again, I did something wrong and didn’t remember my sleeves, so I had to buy a crummy x-large t-shirt to cover up my disrespectful shoulders. We walked around for a while and then it hit me - the whole place looks like a compound of Chinese restaurants! I think it’s because all the buildings are made of concrete. The Thai palace looks a lot more legit.

Off to Bangkok again tomorrow and then on to Chiang Mai…