After crossing the border yesterday afternoon, we cruised through the night so that we would be at Phnom Penh first thing in the morning. I was awake early this morning so decided to go to the forward observation deck to watch the sail in. I was surprised at how modern the city looked, it’s certainly not the metropolis I had been expecting.
Following breakfast we had to visit the lounge for a face to face check with the Cambodian immigration. Once that was completed we set off for the mornings tour to the Killing Field and S21 prison.
Today we have new Cambodian guides onboard, they will see us through the rest of the cruise and then on to Siam Reap at the end of the trip.
The drive to the Killing Field took around an hour, if I am honest it’s not something I felt comfortable going to see but to get a sense of how Cambodia has flourished since those dark days it is important to know what happened and pay our respects to those who were brutally murdered. Both venues reveal a very chilling history and it was an emotional and sobering experience. I didn’t take too many photos this morning, I felt it wasn’t really the appropriate place to do so, all I have are basically just some images of the memorials within each venue.
As fortune would have it, we were able to meet two survivors of the S21 prison. It’s a very humbling experience being as only 14 people survived from over 12,000 people who passed through its doors.
Does dark tourism get much darker than this? It was then back to the boat for some lunch and an opportunity to put our feet up for a bit.
The afternoon’s tour started at 2:45 and took us to something more uplifting than this morning. It was a 3 hour tour of the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda. Very picturesque setting and the tour was very informative. It was also very humid and sticky but at least it didn’t rain.
It was nice to get back onboard and have a shower in readiness for tonight’s proceedings. More about that tomorrow.
We will be staying at Phnom Penh for the next two nights so it will be nice to be able to get off and do something again for ourselves, it’s nice having stuff laid on but it can also be very time restricting and tiring.
We don’t feel as much in control as we would do on an ocean cruise which gives you much more freedom to do as you please.
We did the same trip a few years ago, it is/was a very tough day, they showed us the tree in the killing filds wher they slaughtered the children, it made me weep.
Yes, it’s difficult to imagine what could drive someone to do what was done. A very tough morning indeed.