Cambodia

CAMBODIA (day in Phnom Penh – excerpt from diary)
January 19, 1999 – Tuesday

I am leaving my hotel in a car with my guide at 8 o’clock. At 8:10 we are at the Tuol Sieng Museum. Admission US$2. In 1975 a high school was changed into a prison and an interrogation center known under the name of Security Prison 21. Perhaps 17,000 people were interrogated and tortured here. Those who died during torture were buried in a common grave on the grounds. Those who survived were killed outside Phnom Penh. The museum shows photos of the tortured. Khmer Rouge was very meticulous. Each prisoner was identified and a picture taken. Images on the paintings show the torture. It is shocking, but who was sent here, was killed. Only few individuals, which they had no time to kill, were alive when Vietnamese conquered the city in 1979.

The museum exhibits a large map showing how Phnom Penh was depopulated after the arrival of Khmer Rouge in 1975. Besides that the people of the east Cambodia were moved to the west of the country and visa versa. Thus nobody had roots in place where he now lived. At that time people were housed in camps, men and women separately. They worked in the fields up to 15 hours a day. They were given rice soup with only a little rice twice a day. Many Cambodians died due to malnutrition.

The most infamous leading Khmer Rouge person was Pol Pot. My guide explained the meaning of his name: “pol” means “political” and “pot” is from “potential.”

ITINERARY:
Flight from Los Angeles via Osaka and Bangkok to Phnom Penh CAMBODIA: 3 days – Sightseeing of Phnom Penh including the Khmer Rouge torture chambers Tuol Sieng, flight to Siem Reap with sightseeing of Angkor Thom and of the famous Angkor Wat and then smaller places Prasat Kravan and Ta Prohm, flight to VIETNAM:  9 days – with sightseeing tours everywhere visiting Ho Chi Ming City /Saigon, including Vietcong tunnels outside the city, flight to Danang and Hoi An, by car to Hue where also boat ride on the Parfume River, flight to Hanoi, here also Thang Long Water Puppet Theatre and Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, by car to Halong Bay, a boat ride on the bay, by car to Hai Phong and back to Hanoi, flight to LAOS:  5 days – Vientiane, flight to Luang Prabang, sightseeing of the town with many places to see, boat ride on the Mekong River, flight back to Vientiane,  sightseeing the city and its surroundings, flight from Vientiane via Bangkok and Osaka to Los Angeles

Travel office:  TBI Tours  (through Carlson Wagonlit Travel in Carlsbad)
Who took part: I traveled alone with local guides