Breakfast (4000 Riel ~USD$1).

Noticed that there are a lot of Chinese characters on shops around and some Cambodians are able to speak Mandarin or some other Chinese dialects.

Visited the Tuol Sleng Museum (USD$2), also known as the security prison 21 and Genocide Museum.

This is a school converted to a prison by the Khmer Rouge to torture and kill those who were suspected to be anti government then. There are some gruesome pictures showing prisoners who were tortured and killed.

A frame used to torture prisoners.

When the Khmer Rouge came into power, they divided the population into the Old people and New people. The Old people were classified as people who lived in rural area before the Khmer Rouge came in 1975 and they have full right. The new people were those who were in the city, they were viewed to be unreliable and subjected to persecution.

After a hot day yesterday, it rained this morning. This made the visit to the museum a little more gloomy. Few months back when I was visiting the Auschwitz prison, it rained too.

The Khmer Rouge ruled the country from 1975 to 1979 and approximately around 2 million Cambodian were killed. Khmer Rouge imposed an extreme version of agrarian communism which sent the whole city population to the country side to work in farms. The wanted to end any dependency with foreign developed countries by being self sufficient on agriculture products. Many people were sent to work in collective farms and this caused starvations. They also introduced their own ideas in combination with communism.

The leaders of Khmer Rouge were actually very well educated and studied in Paris, some even have doctorate degrees. Somehow when they came into power, the Khmer Rouge murdered all the intellectuals and burned money and books.

In Dec 1978, the Khmer Rouge launched pre emptive strikes against Vietnam because of strained relations. After almost a 4 year rule, Vietnam attacked Cambodia and removed Khmer Rouge from power. Even though Khmer Rouge ruled Cambodia brutally but they still retained a UN seat until 1982 and was backed by the western world.

They recruited mostly young soldiers,

brainwashed them and made them do some evil stuffs.

Prison

Bones and skulls of prisoners

I saw a few signs like this

not sure if it means do not smile.

Went south to the Russian Market which sells all kinds of stuffs from pirated DVDs to clothings, sovenirs and poultry.

Central Market

The last bus to Ho Chi Minh departs at 2pm (USD$12) and bought the ticket last minute at 1.30pm. Returned the motorcycle and managed to get back just in time for the bus.

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The bus got on a ferry to cross a river

Arrived at Ho Chi Minh around 8.30pm after a 7 hours bus ride. Ho Chi Minh is a pretty big city of around 7 million people. After the fall of Saigon in 1975, the city was renamed Ho Chi Minh. There are many motorbikes on the street.
The bus dropped us at Pha Ngo Lao road which is sort of a backpacker’s area.
Had a bowl of Pho (30000 Dong~USD$1.50, USD$1~19,000 Dong)

for dinner and getting my bearings before searching for accommodation.
There are many budget hotels around the Pham Ngo Lau area. After asking at a couple of places, finally stayed at Dai Hoy Hotel (USD$10).