'The Best Richness Is The Richness of the Soul': Day 2:Phnom Penh

[oklahh since ade permintaan, sy akan meneruskanlah penceritaan di dlm blog ini .teehee.. are u ready?;p]

Day 2 : Phnom Penh City

Allright, so we woke up that day anticipating more excitement for the day. Jalan-jalan around Phnom Penh, eg the Royal Palace of something-something (can't remember its name, but that's where the royalties of Cambodia Kingdom reside), stopping by every few minutes to take photos with thousands of different poses (can't help it!! not only the girls but the guys as well! ). And let us welcome to the team, Kak Avy!!She's a Cambodian who just graduated from a university in Indonesia. She's been most helpful and kind to us along the journey, and she was always making us double up with laughter ..like..once every 2 minutes ..[owww I'm missing her already!!]

Pic: Wajah-wajah ceria kami ketika berjalan-jalan di bandar Phnom Penh..hehe

Anyways..Wouldn't you agree that to get to know a country more closely, you've got to know its history, of what has been revolving in the country and its people, previously so that we may learn a thing or two from it?

And so...ever heard of the Khmer Rouge? Of the Pol Pot regime? Of the sufferings and burden put onto the lives of millions of innocent Cambodians? Of the dark period of Cambodia and which had claimed the lives of millions of their people?

Well, if you haven't then, let me tell you myself.

From 1975-1979, the Cambodians were under the rulings of the Khmer Rouge which was a communist party led by Pol Pot. In its few years of ruling, it is estimated around 1.5 to 3 million people were killed, and some, in the most brutal and inhuman way. We were told that many of those who perished were of the professionals in their own field, doctors, professors, political leaders and what not.. Families were separated and even children are forced to work.

We were brought to the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum /The Killing Fields to see with our own eyes the forms of torture that was put onto the victims of Khmer Rouge. The Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum used to be a school but during the Pol Pot era, it was turned into a prison, enclosed by iron sheets, all covered with dense, electrified barbed wire. Well, so that no one can escape obviously..

Pic: The prisoners were photographed before they were tortured and killed!

I'll just jot down the points that I have got on this brochure of the museum here/and some source from wikipedia:
" The prisoners were kept in small cells and shackled with chains fixed to the walls. Before the prisoners were placed in the cells they were photographed,...and they were stripped to their underwear.... "
"The prisoners had to defecate into small iron buckets and urinate into small plastic buckets..In each cell, the regulations were posted on small pieces of black board."
"Prisoners were tortured with electric shocks, searing hot metal instruments and hanging, as well as through the use of various other devices."
"At the extermination center, they were killed by being battered with iron bars, pickaxes, machetes and many other makeshift weapons."

Pic: OK cuba try sengetkan kepala masing-masing untuk membaca point2 ini. Tahniah.

Ugh, really. How can there be people who actually live to see other people suffer? How on earth could they actually enjoy looking at these innocent people get tortured to death? I mean, seriously, we're talking about people's lives here! It was a dark age I guess for the Cambodians especially and, I think it somehow cripple them and to some extent, perhaps destroy part of the nation as a whole. Look at what Cambodia has become today after many of its professionals died in this unbelievably cruel period of time!