welcome to cambodia

welcome to cambodia...a big smile from the friendly people here greet us as we take the border crossing from vietnam from the village chau doc to cambodia by boat. children waving at us, running towards the river screaming a big ''hello'' from the top of their lungs. we have arrived in cambodia. in phnom penh, the capital of cambodia, we found a wonderful city with amazing colonial architecture and calm traffic - in comparison with the buzzing motos of vietnam. we hung out enjoying city life and visiting the markets and the very impressing tuang seng museum.
the horrible history of the khmer rouge..is still so present walking the halls of the tunag seng prison, where thousands of people were murdered, tortured and kept small cells in in the most unhuman ways. in 1975 the high school was taken over by the pol pot regime and turned into a prison known as security prison 21, which became the largest centre of detention and torture in the country. between 1975 and 1978 more than 17000 people were taken to the killing fields. the questions in are head - '' why''. taking in phnom penh, the khmer rouge implented one of the most radical and brutal restructurings of society ever attempted, its goal a pure revolution to a peasant-dominated agrarian cooperative. it was a regime, with lots of no's; no love, no education, no human rights, no liberty, no courts, no justice, no social gatherings, no jokes, no laughter....and no life! this is a part of history that is probably to present that we have never heard about it in our school history books, but so horrific that it puts tears in your eyes seeing all the faces on black and white photos on the walls, of those who had died. an experience that makes you look at the people here in a different way, looking into the eyes of woman and man that have seen so much inhumanity, cruelty and blood- one can't imagine what they have seen...and they still smile the most wonderful smile.

we have also discovered the unique cuisine of the cambodians; crispy spiders and grass hoppers. how about that for a snack with your beer..heres a little impression from spider-ville and no this is not a halloween joke.