Phnom Penh was an interesting city, not particularly pretty or dignified, but we liked it's crumbly parts much more than the conventional suburbs in which our hostel was located.
Knowing almost nothing about the Khmer Rouge or the genocide that occurred in Cambodia in the 1970's, we felt it was important to educate ourselves, and the first place on the list was Tuol Sleng Prison - the Auschwitz of SE Asia.
The thing Dani and I found most perverse was that before it was a prison, the facility was a high school. The torturers even used some of the play equipment to tie people up and beat them. The classrooms were subdivided into cells and walls, knocked through to more closely resemble a prison.
The size of the cell was ridiculous, and even the dimunitive Cambodian people would have found it difficult to lay down.
Many people go straight to the Killing Fields after visiting Tuol Sleng, where 20,000 prisoners were executed, but Dani and I had lingered longer than most, and were thoroughly depressed. We decided something sweet might cheer us up, and saw a man pressing sugar cane.
It was quite sweet, as to be expected, but I was surprised at the texture - almost like a pear in terms of its slight grittiness, and seperating in a similar way too.
We explored the riverfront, and I was delighted to see monks walking in their saffron robes. I never have much luck photographing monks, as they seem superhuman in their ability to sense someone with a camera, but they must have been really engrossed in their conversation, as they did not notice me at all.
We also sat by the river and watched in awe as a group of a dozen Cambodian men played with a rattan ball. They were amazingly adept at keeping it off the ground, and a few of the guys had the amazing ability to do a kick behind their back. We stood mesmerised until it started to get dark.
