Palace Buildings
Typical Street scenes
Toul Sleng Museum
March 19
We flew to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. There we were treated to the Royal palace with its multi-ton solid gold Buddha encrusted with diamonds and emeralds, which resides in the Silver Pagoda. In utter contrast to these dazzling works of art we visited the Toul Sleng museum, a site of extreme poverty and cruelty. Here the city high school turned into a prison of torture and death, displayed the sadistic work of teenage Pol Pot guards. The communist Khmer Rouge entered this city in 1976 to “liberate” Cambodia. During the next few years they murdered two million intellectual, professional and whiter skinned class of individuals: men, women, children and babies. This occurred in the prison and in nearby killing fields. American help was to bomb Khmer Rouge hiding in the countryside, which ended up helping no one. The result was a country without water, electricity and food when the Vietnamese entered Cambodia to quell this genocide. We flew back to the Seven Seas Voyager to recover our senses.
No comments:
Post a Comment