Traveling Back To Phnom Penh

Hey everybody sorry I haven't posted for awhile! I was traveling back from Ratanakiri and didn't have access to a computer with Internet because my mom's laptop crapped out and now I'm blogging on my mom's iPhone... But two days ago we drove from Ratanakiri to Kratie on our own private minivan. Once we got to the hotel at the reception the receptionist booked us a trip on a boat to see the Irawaddy Dolphins. They only live in Southeast Asia and are the only freshwater dolphins in the world. There are only a couple hundred left but when we got on the boat before our helmsman turned on the motor we saw at least 5. When we were finished we took a tuk-tuk back to the hotel. That night we ate at one of the little curbside restaurants across the street. The food was really good and they made it just on a grill by their tiny cart. The next day we hopped on another minivan but this time it was with a bunch of other people. We had to side four to a row and my whole family squeezed into a row made for three people. At the peak number of people in the car it was probably about fourteen including a baby. There were also two brand new motorcycles in the minivan which the workers were very worried about damaging, to say the least it was just a bit cramped. On the minivan we met a Belgian lady named Monique who was traveling to Laos and Cambodia on her six week trip. My parents talked to her the whole four hour trip and when it was over we all went to our hotel The York. After we settled into our room we went toe the beauty salon the New World where we had gone to all the times we've come to Phnom Penh ands my brothe and mom got haircuts and I got a manicure. Which is a pretty turquoise color. Today we went shopping at the Russian
marke which is one of the three markets in Phnom Penh. It is really claustrophobic in there because the ceiling is really low and the stalls are really close together but I got all my presents for my friends. As a heads up to all wishing for stuff from me I only got stuff for everyone that sits at my lunch table because it would be too much to get it for everyone sorry. Oh and Alice and Margaret Honig because they're my BFFS. Sorry... But it would be hard. After the market we went to Tuol Sleng the genocide museum. It was really haunting because during the Khmer Rouge which was a lot like Hitler's regime they took pictures of everyone that went into Tuol Sleng which was a interrogation prison. 17,000 people we brought into it and only 7 survived. People only stayed there for an average of three months befor e they were either tortured and killed or taken to the killing fields to be killed and put into the mass graves. Many of the people who were leaders and soldiers for the Khmer Rouge we teenagers and it was during the time that the US was bombing Cambodia during the Vietnam war so Pol Pot the leader of the Khmer Rouge convinced many people that if they wanted to live and not get killed when the US was supposedly going to bomb Phnom Penh they would follow him and evacuate the area. That's when they took over Phnom Penh on April,17 1975 but they had already taken over other areas of Cambodia. The Khmer Rouge wanted to turn back the clock to year zero and abolished any form of moving forward and closed all schools, hospitals and got rid of money nobody earned anything; it was a radical type of communism. At Tuol Sleng they photographed everyone that went into the prison and many when they died. Many people look like they don't know why they're there in the photos, for many it was the first time they've ever had their picture taken. Upstairs above where they displayed all the photographs there was exhibits of pictures of the young Khmer Rouge soldiers and leaders some as young as 14 and pictures of them now. They interview them with the question why did you join and what do you ant to say about it now. Most said they were terribly sorry and that some never wanted to join but it was either kill or be killed and that they were just following orders. One of the seven survivors was a painter who was commanded to paint pictures of many of the Khmer Rouge leaders and after the Vietnamese helped Cambodia regain it's freedom front the Pol Pot regime he painted many gruesome and haunting pictures depicting what he remembered from all the tortures the prisoners were put through and he was forced to watch and hear. There was a guide there who survived the Khmer Rouge by escaping to Vietnam who fought with them to over throw Pol
Pot. Many who were lucky escaped to Vietnam where they amassed an army with the Vietnamese army backing them. After we left Tuol Sleng we went back to the hotel where we watched a weird breakdancing movie then went to the Central market where my mom and I looked for jewelry. I got a sapphire ring which cost a ridiculously low price of thirteen dollars. Then later for dinner we met up with Pali and his family for dinner at Sarika where whe had had dinner with Jerker and Vathiny when we first arrived. It was really fun my brother and I swam in the pool there then had some food and Pali's two sons and Chamren and I played pool by his older son Sok hok didn't really understand and kept hitting th eight ball in. Then we retruned to our hotel where I began blogging this.
Aujourd'hui je vais aller a Tuol Sleng c'est tres catastrophe. Je ponce le cadre sont tres fou! Je suis contente ce nous n'allons pas a le Killing Fields. Le skulls sont tres creepy! Mais les faire du courses a ete amusante. J'achete beaucoup les cadeaus! J'aime les silks ici c'est tres beau! Et J'achete les CDs Et les DVDs pour moi et mes amis. Mais Je ne contente pas ce nous rentrons a Berkeley! J'aime Cambodia beaucoup! Mai notre visas will expire Mais Chamren a deux citizenship.
Happy December! Only on full day left in Cambodia :(
Ming ;)