Today we took an ox powered wagon up to a village, visited a silversmith’s
workshop, went to a genocide museum and an amazing night market.
On Our first excursion we took an ox pulled wagon out to a
village to meet a family that runs a lot of the businesses in the area. They
even own the ox’s that pulled us up there. Aside from the ox cart business they
own 2 houses and 5 cattle, which seems to mean that they’re pretty successful.
From the village we took a buss to a silversmith’s shop in a small rural business
district. This business seemed to be family run too. Everything looked beautiful but
it was very hard to distinguish which of the pieces were silver and which were
silver plated.
After lunch we headed out to the Killing Fields and the
Genoside museum back at Phnom Phen. The Choeung Ek Killing Fields is where the victims
and political prisoners of the Khmer Rouge were executed. Mass graves have been
excavated and about 9 thousand bodies were found. The center piece of the site
is a Buddhist Stupa, a memorial built by the Municipality of Phnom Penh where
the skulls of the victims can be seen behind acrylic glass. The Tuol Sleng Genocide
Museum was a secondary school that was converted into Security Prison 21 (S-21)
by the Khmer Rouge. It is unknown how many people were held at this detention
center but the facility can accommodate 1,500 prisoners at one time. The prison
was captured by the Vietnamese army and reopened as a museum by People's
Republic of Kampuchea.
If you’re only going to read one thing about my time here in Cambodia this next paragraph should be it!
The highlight of my day was the night market down the street
from our dock. It was a little after my bed time but we decided to go to the
local night market after dinner and it was an absolute blast. The market itself
wasn’t that big but the aisles were narrow and packed corner to corner with merchandise.
Half of the market was a food court that was set up like a food truck event. The
food looked amazing! There was a giant stage in the middle of the market where
people performed karaoke. Now this wasn’t your typical karaoke at your local
dive bar but a full professional grade production with lights and equipment to
match. I was impressed. This isn’t just a night market but a social event that
both locals and tourist go to! They take karaoke seriously around here.
Today was a rollercoaster that I was more than happy to be
on
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