Royal Palace Phnom Penh

The Royal Palace has beautiful grounds and buildings but very few of them are open to the public. This is the original Throne Room.


A garment worn by the former queen.

and the former King.

There were several spirit houses in one of the main courtyards.


ANd beautiful orchids.


One of the former kings.

Isn't this a neat way to get on your elephant?
Another royal conveyance.

The silver pagoda is open...no photos allowed, with silver tiles in the floor, their version of an Emerald Buddha, and a gold buddha covered with diamonds which is one of the most beautiful I have ever seen. The country got a new king in 2004 when his father abdicated. He grew up in Europe and is a bachelor although he has 12 half brothers. Kings are elected by a council not by heredity.

Wandering around Phnom Penh

I hired a tuk tuk driver by the afternoon on one of my days there. Phnom Penh was a surprisingly expensive city. I spotted this beautiful temple near my hotel and had to stop and take a look. Earlier in the day there had been some sort of event there as I spotted crowds leaving carrying lotus flowers.
Some interesting statues in front of one of the buildings.
The main alter. The green pyramids are lotus flowers.
Offerings.
I think some of these are lama tombs.

These towers were from the morning celebration.
The temple entrance.
My tuk tuk driver patiently waiting for me.
The victory monument. It is painted an ugly brown color.

Genoside Museum Phnom Penh

The Tuol Sleng Genoside Museum is a museum in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. The site is a former high school which was used as the notorious Security Prison 21 by the Khmer Rouge regine from its rise to power in 1975 to its fall in 1979. Tuol Sleng in Khmer means "Hill of the Poisonous Trees or Strychnine Hill". From 1975 to 1979, an estimated 17,000 people were imprisoned at Tuol Sleng (some estimates suggest a number as high as 20,000, though the real number is unknown). The prisoners were selected from all around the country, and usually were former Khmer Rouge members and soldiers, accused of betraying the party or revolution. Those arrested included some of the highest ranking communist politicians such as Khoy Thoun, Vorn Vet and Hu Nim. Although the official reason for their arrest was "espionage," these men may have been viewed by Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot as potential leaders of a coup against him. Prisoners' families were often brought en masse to be interrogated and later murdered at the Choeung Ek extermination centre.
This is a photo of the graves of the last victims. Even though the vast majority of the victims were Cambodian, foreigners were also imprisoned, including Vietnamese, Loatians,Indians, Pakastanis, Britons,Americans,New Zealanders and Australians.
Most non-Cambodians had been evacuated or expelled from the country and those who remained were seen as a security risk. A number of Western prisoners passed through S-21 between April 1976 and December 1978. Mostly these were picked up at sea by Khmer Rouge patrol boats. They included four Americans, three French, two Australians, a Briton and a New Zealander. . One of the last prisoners to die was American Michael Scott Deeds, who was captured with his friend Chris de Lance while sailing from Singapore to Hawaii.
Photos of some of the victims. There were rooms and rooms full of photos.
In the larger rooms prisoners were shackled together with these ankle irons.
Some of the school rooms were partitioned into small individual cells.

Some torture instruments.
Water torture equipment.

And skulls of some of the victims. There are several "killing fields" full of bodies in the area around the city as well.





Photos of some of the "reeducation" camps. Many people never returned from these camps.