What is life without an adventure?
- vivienroams
- Apr 29, 2017
- 3 min read
And what is an adventure without the unexpected?
If everything is supposed to be expected and predicted, then we can just follow the way machines operate - just be a robot. Then, perhaps it'd be hard to fight and outsmart Artificial Intelligence (AI).
And well - another journey began in Cambodia, Phnom Penh.
The more you travel,, the more you tend to appreciate what you have instead of complaining about what you do not have.
3 days in Phnom Penh seems just right.
Day 1 - Roaming the streets of Phnom Penh
Phnom Penh Palace
A dangerous night ride on the Tuk Tuk - Driver was lost and could not find the way back to the hotel.
Day 2 - Oudong Mountain
Oudong Street Market
Phnom Penh Street Market
Trip to Oudong mountain was quite a quick one. We were done by 11am.
What are we gonna do for the rest of the day?
Choeung Ex Killing Fields
There came the thought of Killing fields. No expectation - just to take a look and have some history lessons. But it has been hard to grapple and reconcile many of such issues..
How evil can men be? What's in the hearts of men to do such acts of evil?
Where is God in all of these? How can evil prevail while God seats on His throne? How can He bear to see the innocent tortured and killer?
The Choeung Ex Killing Fields, located 15 km from Central Phnom Penh, is one of the 15 killing fields in Cambodia. Phnom Penh has a long history of horrifying times during the reign of Khmer Rouge. In Choeung Ex, more than 17,000 civilians were tortured and killed. Many of them were transported from Toul Sleng High School (turned into Security Prison, known also as S-21).
(Khmer: ទួលស្លែង Khmer pronunciation: [tuəl slaeŋ]) means "Hill of the Poisonous Trees" or "StrychnineHill". Tuol Sleng was one of at least 150 execution centres in Cambodia.
Day 3 - Tuol Sleng Museum
Both Tuol Sleng Museum and the Killing Fields exhibits may be disturbing for some and aren't suitable for younger children and adults who are easily shocked.
Between 1975 and 1978, at least 3 million civilians were tortured by the Khmer Rouge Regime, lead by Pol Pot, a former schoolteacher.
The Khmer Rouge was the name given to the followers of the Communist Party of Kampuchea in Cambodia. It was formed in 1968 as an offshoot of the Vietnam People's Army from North Vietnam, and allied with North Vietnam, the Viet Cong, and the Pathet Lao during the Vietnam War against the anti-communist forces from 1968 to 1975.
The leadership of the Khmer Rouge remained largely unchanged from the 1960s to the mid-1990s. The leaders were mostly from middle-class families and had been educated at French universities.
Khmer Rouge emphasised work and hard labour over education and professionalism. During that period, America had set up companies there
Professionals and intellectuals – in practice this included almost everyone with an education, people who understood a foreign language and even people who required glasses (which, according to the regime, meant that they spent too much time reading books instead of working). Ironically, Pol Pot himself was an educated man with a taste for French literature and spoke fluent French
All religion was banned by the Khmer Rouge. Any people seen taking part in religious rituals or services would be executed. Several thousand Buddhists, Muslims, and Christians were killed for exercising their beliefs.
Chilling at the cafe before flying back to Singapore
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