We finally arrived at the Plantation hotel. As soon as we came into the lobby, a member of staff came and gave us passion fruit punch.
We went swimming while mum and dad had a drink. Afterwards, we had a six course Christmas eve dinner. One of the courses was foie gras, which is the liver of a goose that has been force-fed corn.
Also, I had sparkling wine! It felt weird having a fancy dinner on Christmas eve instead of Christmas day.
Our beds had mosquito nets around them. It looked like the beds that princesses sleep on!
Next day…
Merry Christmas! We woke up and saw we had presents. Aoife was really excited that Santa had found her.
Riona, Aoife and I went for a swim before going to the Russian market. It was hot and sticky in there, it was very close together inside so I got claustrophobic. Oh.... and it stunk! Apart from that, it was a great experience! Riona bought LOADS of things. For example, she had six pairs of shoes when we started the holiday, and now she has eight! Travelling light?
We came back to our hotel and started talking to a family from San Francisco. We had dinner with them. The parents were called April and Chris. Afterwards, we went swimming with their daughter Serena and her cousin Daniel. We were in the pool until 11:30PM! Every girl's perfect Christmas day - shopping then swimming.
Next day...
We went to S-21 with the family from San Francisco. S-21 was a 're-education' centre that was part of the khmer rouge regime. Re-education to the Khmer rouge meant torture for what innocent people 'did wrong'. Doing wrong meaning you were educated, from the city and a threat to orders.
Before I went to S-21 I thought torture was like abuse, but what the Khmer rouge did was beyond comprehension.
Here's what these mass killers did: slap people with plugged in electric wire; hang people upside down until they went unconscious then dip them in ammonia to wake them up; disembowel them whilst alive, pull their nails off; drown people by forcing their head into a barrel, and once people had wounds they'd hit them with bamboo. These killing machines would do much more....
While we were in S-21, I saw the beds that people would be tortured on, pictures of people when they got there and when they died, and two extraordinary people who survived one of the worst cases of genocide EVER. If you were wondering, genocide is basically mass killing.
It was a horrible feeling standing in a room where people were beaten to death slowly - sometimes over months.
Imagine growing up and knowing that your parents were either beaten to death, sent to a killing field or had died of either starvation or exhaustion.
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| Chum Mey |
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| Bou Meng |
Two of the survivors from S21 who were in the prison when we visited. Until this day they retain their dignity and are calm and relaxed despite what happened to them.
What does khmer rouge mean? Khmer means Cambodian and rouge means red in French, which stands for communism. Communism in simple terms means that everyone has to be equal and be treated equally.
The leader of the Khmer rouge was Pol Pot short for Political Potential. His real name is Saloth Sar. Kratie was the first province to be captured by the Khmer rouge. People died from starvation, exhaustion and killings.
Next, we went to the Choeung Ek killing fields. This is where the Khmer rouge would bring their victims from S-21 to kill them.
While we were there, we saw a tree called ' The killing tree '.
This is where the Khmer rouge would grab babies by their legs and smash them against the tree, before throwing their bodies into a mass grave.
Sometimes, they'd kill the babies in front of their mothers or the babies might still be alive when they were thrown in the pit. They would then pour a chemical into the pit to kill off the smell and also to kill off anyone else who wasn't fully dead.
Every year, we give a minute of silence to soldiers who lost their lives fighting, but who does that for the 2 - 3 million innocent people that lost their lives in the Khmer rouge reign?
Riona, Aoife, Serena, Daniel and I went back to the hotel while our parents went out to have a drink. We went swimming again, it was really fun!
We went out to a charity restaurant called Friends. It's like Makphet in Vientiane and Jamie Oliver's in the uk. I had a really nice bowl of pasta. Serena heard music in the background and started dancing! The waiters thought she was crazy! We found out that Serena and her family will be in Siem Reap for new years eve and so will we!
Next day…
Today Aoife and I spent nearly all day in the pool. The only time I got out was to have lunch at the pool side bar, which was chicken Caesar salad. It was really tasty!
Afterwards, we went out to a rooftop bar called Amanjaya to watch the sun set over the city. We then went to a restaurant called the Titanic. I had a Chicken Caesar salad (again!) with chocolate milkshake.
Today we left Phnom Penh to go to Battambang.
On the way we stopped at a small village and a silver craft shop where Dad bought everyone a bangle for Xmas. I bought my bangle for $20, but at home it would cost £200!!
We went to the old capital of Cambodia called Oudong. There is a HUGE temple there that was built to cover the old Chinese buddha .The Chinese Buddha wasn't built towards the east and every monumental Buddha has to be built facing that way.
Toilets.....! Every toilet is different. In many toilets so far there was no automatic flush. Instead, you had to use a bucket inside the rest room which you dunk into a well they have made inside the toilet. You then pour this down the basin to flush.
We walked on and came up to some temples where an old Cambodian woman was selling bracelets. If you bought one she'd bless you, so Riona, Aoife and I bought one each.
Aoife wondered why there was a load of birds in a cage. We asked our guide and he said you can buy them. He said if you give the bird freedom they will give you something back. Aoife and I bought one each. We stood in the shade of the huge temple. The ground was so hot you couldn't bear the heat (we all had to take our shoes off as a mark of respect). We lifted our hands up and let the birds go and we watched them fly off, (hopefully not to get caught again).
Our last stop was to a floating village where a lot of Vietnamese people live. We took a boat all the way through the village and lots of people waved at us. We went out into the bay and saw ten year old boys on their own boat doing front flips off the back.
