Hello!
We have been in Cambodia's capital city, Phnom Penh for the last four days. We are getting ready to take a boat to Vietnam tomorrow. The plan is to spend a few days in the Mekong Delta before heading to Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon).
Cambodia has had a sad political history and has rebounded since the genocide that devastated the country in the early to mid 1970's. We went to The Tuol Sleng (S-21) Genocide Museum where we learned more about the sad history of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. Tuol Sleng was a school that was converted into a prison where 20,000 people over a 3-4 year span were held, starved and tortured prior to being moved to killing fields where they were executed. Out of 20,000 there were 7 survivors. During the genocide 2.5 million Cambodians were exterminated, primarily people living in Phnom Penh (city dwellers) and professionals. We also visited the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek 15km outside of Phnom Penh. There were hundreds of such places throughout Cambodia, and in total 19,000 mass graves. These fields have been converted into a memorial site. There is a stupa on the site that is literally a tower of the skulls that were excavated from graves found on the site. A very powerful memorial.
We've spent the rest of the time doing more sight seeing and hanging out at some really cool local markets.
Again I have had to visit a medical clinic. I've had the lower half of me cured and now it seems I have a problem in my upper half! I have bronchitis and am back on antibiotics. Interestingly, the same medication I was prescribed in Nepal ($4 for the pills) was $33 here. That aside, I am on the mend and feeling a lot better despite a nagging cough.
Next update will be from Vietnam. Hope all is well at home. I've been really wishing for a glass of rum and eggnog, and some Christmas cheer. Have a glass for us...well, for me at least, Chris hates eggnog -- you can just have the rum for him.
xoxo
Paula
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