A city coming into its own. It will take time but spectacular food, bar scene, and restaurants will make this place a great destination for years to come……
THE KILLING FIELDS AND TUOL SLENG PRISON- THE GENOCIDE
Of course one of the saddest moments in the great history of this country was the reign of Pol Pot aka Brother Number One. This is of course a spillover from the Vietnam war. His idea of Marxist Communism compared with ideas of the French Revolution Reign of Terror was one of the most dreadful events in history. Think about if in the United States, 1 in 4 people were killed for being educated, speaking a foreign language or being the head of a religion. Trying to create a pure Communist system is one thing, but what happened here is another thing. Kids killed in front of their parents and vice versa. The world would be in uproar, but this happened in the mid to late seventies here. Walking through the Killing Fields and also Tuol Sleng prison, you get the filling of being transported back to this time. Both places hit me very hard as I had to cancel the rest of my days activities to be alone. I have been to concentration camps, Srebrenica in Bosnia, and various other places, but this one was different. I will leave out the gory details of the stories I heard, but they were horrible. I did get to meet one of the 7 survivors of the Tuol Sleng prison camp through a translator and he had a certain sadness in his eyes…….This should be a place everyone should visit once in their life to get a feel for something hat happened just 40 years ago…..
On a brighter side, cooking classes are always fun wherever you are at, especially when you know you are starting to excel at making random dishes….The Feel Good Cafe. Is where you can book this cooking class with an instructor Nara (nara@feelgoodcoffeeshope.com), who really takes his time and knows his dishes. Very good experience at this class!!!
A great place to stay- THE SAM BOUTIQUE HOTEL
A quiet and relaxing place to stay with peaceful ambience.
This small boutique hotel is close but not too close to the city center (about a 5 minute tuk tuk ride). The rooms are very spacious and are cleaned perfectly each day. The minibar is stocked with whatever you need and there is liquor bottles and snacks in the room. They refresh two water bottles every day and any toiletries you may need.
The place boasts a nice little pool and garden area where guests can chill out and relax and happy hour specials for drinks are always on the cards every day. You can order food to eat from a local restaurant which they will deliver to you!
The staff is always so cordial and friendly and always willing to give a helping hand in anything you do like organizing day trips and tuk tuk drivers for the whole city and countryside. A good Tuk Tuk Driver that works for the Hotel is named Prum Vaney, and his email is vannyprum04@gmail.com. He organizes just about anything you want to do for a low price!!!!
This has been the most relaxing four days of my trip!!!!