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It was time to leave the Las Vegas of Cambodia for the capital of Phnom Penh. The six hour bus ride took us through the beautiful countryside surrounded by wooden house on stilts with fields full of Ox's and people busy at work. Once we had arrived we headed to the popular backpacker haunt on the lakeside, made up of old wooden guesthouses sat on the lake it was a sight not to forget! You have a choice of dirty or dirtier guesthouses, the '24hour' receptions act as 24hour drug kiosks for whatever takes your fancy probably to help you forget how disgusting your room is! After checking out a couple of recommended guesthouses from the lonely planet (Lakeside GH) which were even worse than the rest (Lonely Planet really slipped up here!) we settled in our $5 per night #10 Happy House! One night was truely enough and so we moved into the center of Phnom Penh the next morning!
Phnom Penh has a history which will send chivers down your spine, back in 1975-1978 2million people were savagely executed as the Khmer Rouge came into power. The Khmer Rouge were extreme and communist focused, believing everyone should be equal they killed anyone with any money, education and even people who wore glasses. We visited the 'Killing Fields' 14Km from the city where mass graves lay of 17,000 people, it was a chilling experience to see these mass graves with clothing still pertruding from the ground. It was only in 1998 these killers were finally bought to justice leaving the country to try and re-populate and grow its economy again
Nase cesta do hlavniho mesta Kambodze trvala 6 hodin, a naskytla nam pohled na opravdovy zivot v Kambodzi... autobus uhanejic pres desitky vesnic a mest nam umoznil nahlednout do zivota zdejsich obyvatelu, kteri vice mene ziji ve drevenych chatrcich, stojicich na dlouhych nohach (kvuli castym zaplavam), bez oken, dveri, ci cehokoli co pripomina zapadni zpusob zivota..desitky deti nuceni pracovat, at uz na polich, ci snazic se ulovit rybu k veceri..centrum techto malych mest je hlavni silnice, a stovky zdejsich prodavajici vse na co si ani v hlouby duse nikdy nevzpomenete..tak napriklad, kdyz jsme zastavili na obedovou zastavku, nestacili jsme verit vlastnim ocim..to ze jsme v Thajsku videli smazene cvrcky ci cervy by nas jeste tak nevzalo, ale zde prodavaji (a zaroven nazyvaji jako delikatesa) smazene obrovske pavouky-tarantule! Pro me neco nechutneho, naskocila mi husi kuze jen kdyz jsem mela jit okolo nich. Samozrejme jsme odolali nechvalne vypadajici susene rybe a nakonec jsme si koupili ryzi s kokosovym mlekem, a to vse bylo zabaleno v bambusove tyci, na obed cokoli-jen ne tady tu zverinu. Za par hodin jsme byli radi, ze jsme dorazili do hlavniho mesta Phnom Penh ( 1 milion obyvatel), nasli si ubytovani, a zacinali badat o nasem pruzkumu a poznavani tohoto mesta. Nase prvni cesty vedly k Royal Palaci, rece, a nejakych tech proslavenych ulicek. Dalsi den jsme se jeli podivat na ' Zabijacka Pole', coz byl jeden z nesilnejsich zazitku, hlavne pote co jsme zacali studovat Kambodzskou historii trosku blize. Kambodza patri mezi nejchudší zeme v regionu, a to take castecne vinou řádění Rudých Khmerů v letech 1975-1979, kdy byly vyvražděny na 2 miliony obyvatel (zhruba čtvrtina tehdejší populace), lide byli vrazdeny nepopsatelnym zpusobem, a pohled ktery se nam naskytl na techto 'zabijackych polich' byl neskutecny. Na tomto miste zemrelo vice nez 17.000 obyvatel mesta Phnom Penh, byli muceni, tluceni, a pote hazeni do vykopanych dir, pote zapaleni (mnohokrat jeste za ziva), a po te polevani chemikaliemi, to jen pro jistotu ze stale nekdo zustal nazivu. Take zde je obrovsky proskleny pomnik, ve kterem je k videni stovky vykopanych lebek, kosti, a obleceni... Tato historie nas celkem vzala (hlavne proto ze tento obrovsky masakr se odehral jen pred 30 lety..!!), takze jsme zacali cist knihy, a snazit se pochobit zdejsi chudobu a charakter obyvatel. Jen pro zajimavost - novým panovníkem se v roce 2004 stal Norodom Sihamoni, který mimo jiné hovoří plynne cesky, nebot dlouhá léta studoval v Praze.
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