The second day, we had an early start to a more rural area to do an ATV trip. The trip was meant to see the more rural and agriculturally focused area of Cambodia and we had a 3 hour ride ahead of us. It was a great way to start the trip though - Mandy and I were the only ones taking part in the tour in the morning so it was great to have the whole dusty road to ourselves. The landscapes we rode by were beautiful and the people were nice and waved at us whenever we drove by. We stopped by a stand to buy some candy for the kids we drove by and their eyes would light up and they would swarm whenever they saw us driving by.
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| Our tuk tuk driver gave us masks for the ride |
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| Scenic ride |
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| The day we got farmer tans |
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| Little kids want to play =) |
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| Mandy's swarmed |
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| The people were friendly and waved to us |
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| Exhausting ride |
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| Delicious sugar cane juice |
The second part of the tour was to visit the Killing fields in Cambodia, the site where many Cambodians lost their lives in a genocide of the Khmer Rouge from 1975-1979. We had the audio tour with us and it really helped contextualize the brutality of the Khmer Rouge and the sadness of such an event happening not too long ago, all to fulfill the twisted communist ideals of Pol Pot. He believed in a self-sufficient agricultural Cambodia where all property belonged to the state. Those who were educated (engineers, doctors, professors, lawyers) were sent to the farms to work in slave-like conditions and many were executed. Executions can come from as frivolous a criteria as having hands that were too soft: a sign that one didn't labour hard enough in the fields. The killing fields were a site for mass execution and burials. Revolutionary music blared in the background to cover up the screams of the executed and DDT was used to cover the stench of decaying bodies. It was an extremely sobering experience and I felt slightly numb after that.
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| Memorial building |
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| Definitely worth it to get the audio guide |
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| The fields |
From then, we took a tuk-tuk back to the hotel (Mandy managed to somehow sleep on the bumpy dusty ride back). After a short nap, we went to check out the National Museum, which was full of statues of Buddha, Vishnu, Shiva and Harihana. Afterwards, we went to check out the National Palace at night, and caught happy hour again along with some beef nachos. After sitting on the ATV all day, we ended the day with a traditional Khmer massage and then bed time!
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| Hot pot |
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| We were starvinggggg |
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| National Museum |
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| So pretty |
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| CBC |
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| Restaurant we were at the night before |
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| Double fisting (again) |
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