Once again, and hopefully the last for a good while, we are up at the crack of dawn. The only good thing one can say is that the sky looks lovely.
Today is our only day in Campuchia on this cruise, indeed it is our first day ever, so we are making the lengthy journey to the capital, Phnom Penh.
It takes three hours with just a short Happy Room stop, before we arrive at our first place. This is the hill which gives the city its name.
Next we move on to the incredible palace complex where there are numerous ceremonial buildings to view. The current king is in residence, but we don’t get to meet him, or even get close to his private quarters. We can’t take photos of the solid gold Buddha encrusted in diamonds in the Silver Hall, nor the throne room.
We enjoy a traditional Cambodian lunch of sausage, soup, fish and bananas before moving on.
The Genocide Museum is the site of a prison, which had previously been a school. For almost four years between 1975 and 1979 the Khmer Rouge under dictator Pol Pot ruled the country with an iron fist. In this prison alone 17,000 people were incarcerated, tortured and / or taken to the killing fields should they survive the torture. Of those only 13 survived the horror and only two remain alive now, one who is here selling his book.
This prison is one of hundreds just like it – in total in those four years 2 million citizens were murdered by the regime. Once again this is a difficult visit, but like Saigon two days ago, and Hiroshima earlier this year, it is history we need to know and understand.
Our guide is just fifty years old, so he only vaguely remembers the time, but his family tree is devastated by the deaths of over twenty relatives.
Finally we stop at the market for a quick look around. The pressure to buy is much less here, but the sights are plentiful, as are the smells.
Our return journey is long but uneventful, although the rain is torrential for part of the journey. The bus is a proper party rig, compete with a 12 channel mixing deck and many gaudy lights, fortunately we don’t get to experience these.
As we’re back so late we forgo canapés but not aperitifs, and within an hour we’re dressed and sat in Pinnacle Grill.
Tonight Mark tries a new sea bass dish, I go back to basics with beef fillet (mignon as our cousins call it) both are excellent.
