Phnom Penh

We are safely back at Kozyna guest house in Phnom Penh. We had a nice send off this morning from Roth, Wooth and Mr Sen who had been our moto drivers and interpreters during our stay. The bus ride from Kep to Phnom Penh was relatively uneventful and I was able to ignore the bumps along the way while watching dubbed Chinese slapstick/action movies.

The water festival is on this weekend so the city is very busy. Our guest house is right in the middle of all the chaos so it will be interesting to see what things look like in the morning. We were told all kinds of horror stories about how crowded it would be but it doesn't really seem too bad all things considered. Still I'm happy our room is at the back of the guest house, away from the street noise.

We spent the afternoon visiting the Tuol Sleng Museum. The museum contains photographs and biographies of some of the hundreds of thousands of people killed during the Khmer Rouge's rule of Cambodia. It is a tragically sad place to visit but I think it is a very valuable place and could certainly use a bit of funding to assist in its upkeep. According to the pamphlet handed out at the door, the government has stopped funding the museum and it is now in danger of falling into dangerous disrepair. They are also concerned that many of the documents and photographs will not be adequately preserved and may not survive to be seen by future generations. I was surprised that there wasn't a stronger effort by international organizations to help fund the museum.