February 19th – Day 13 – Phnom Penh

To have a rest day here in the capital city of Cambodia is exactly what we need. We have had a whole day to tour the centre of the city using tuk-tuks.

As we left the Raffles Le Royale Hotel at around 10am, we took these photos of the hotel and cars lined up outside. Not far from the hotel we walked past the American Embassy.

After about 400 yards we came to Wat Phnom, Temple Hill, which marks the legendary founding place of the city.

We then went by tuk-tuk to the Royal Palace.

This is a large complex of buildings including the Silver Pagoda, so named because of the 5,329 silver tiles on the floor of the building.

Also on display in the Silver Pagoda are several Buddhas. There is the 90kg solid gold Buddha, encrusted with over 2,000 diamonds, as well as The Emerald Buddha. Another of the large buildings is the Throne Hall, completed in 1917, with beautiful paintings on the ceiling.

There is one building that looks totally out of place; it is Napoleon III’s pavilion, a gift to Empress Eugenie, which was subsequently given to King Norodom in 1876.

We left the palace complex after about an hour and again took a tuk-tuk to the Toul Sleng Genocide Museum. This is the site of the school that Pol Pot’s regime turned into a detention centre where prisoners were subjected to the most horrendous treatment, before being taken to the killing fields for execution.

A notice inside the centre translated into English.

The faces of the victims. Photos taken by Pol Pot.

We were shown round by a Cambodian lady who had been tortured by the Khmer Rouge and both her parents had been killed. She did not know what had happened to her brothers and sisters. Thirty years later, she still could not sleep properly without taking medication. There were only seven survivors from Toul Sleng and three are still alive. We were very fortunate to meet two of them.



They were gentle polite men, who spoke with a humbling dignity about their horrendous experiences. Wendy and I were moved to tears.

Our tuk-tuk driver had waited for us and we then went to a small Cambodian charity shop called Tabitha – Cambodia.

Wendy had read about this in the city guide and it had caught her attention because one of our grandchildren is named Tabitha. The charity raises money to train locals in making silk and other artifacts. The charity sells these items for them. We met the director, a Canadian lady, who told us that the charity was set up in 1994 and now supports over 200,000 Cambodians. We were very impressed by what they do and how much they have achieved.

By now it was nearly lunchtime and so we headed back to the hotel, passing the Independence Monument, built in 1962 to celebrate Cambodia’s independence from foreign rule.


When we arrived at the hotel we were met by Jingers, Kurt, Joanna Brown and James waiting for a tuk-tuk, so we alighted and they got in. Jingers, true to form, wasn’t going to be a passenger, told the driver he was driving and jumped on to the driver’s seat and off they went!



As we went in to the hotel we were told that one of the participants from the Indian tour of 2007 was in the hotel, Eileen Ainscough. She was on a cruise to Australia and had come by coach from her ship to Phnom Penh for the day. Wendy took his photo of me and Eileen.

It was great to see her again and we hope she comes on another event in the future. We asked her to pass on our best wishes to her co-driver in India, Tommy.

This evening we are walking to the Foreign Correspondents Club for a meal by the river. It should be a perfect way to end a very enjoyable day.