Phnom Penh, City of Ghosts
高棉首都金邊的殘破風華
Phnom Penh (金邊), the capital of modern Cambodia, used to be one of the most beautiful colonial city in Southeast Asia. There were a lot French style mansions. After Khmer Rouge took Phnom Penh in 1975, all the city residents were forced to move out to labor camps in countryside. An empty Phnom Penh became a "City of Ghost" (it is what the 2002 Matt Dylan movie was named after). Walking around Phnom Penh, even though it is dusty and chaotic, we still can see its fading glory of its building.

However, the real highlight of a Phnom Penh visit is not about its colonial buildings or Buddhist temples (wats), but is about the museum sites related to Khmer Rouge genocide from 1975 to 1979.

Fortunately, not all our encounters with Phnom Penh were that sad. We had a great evening with local kids dancing for us in a riverfront restaurant. The next night, we were invited to our guide's house for a delicious (and very filling) meal!

Due to that both my digital and tradional cameras were broken at this point, I did not tke too many pictures around Phnom Penh.

Please click the thumbnail on the pictures to see enlarged images
在照片上按一下滑鼠就可看到此照片的放大版

???
Buildings on the Riverside Promenade. One of the exhibition at S 21. Those are pictures of victims who were killed at S 21 torture camp.
A lava rock
A horrifying picture to remind people about Khmer Rouge's atrocity. The Cambodia was full of dead bodies and soaked with blood
More pictures from S 21...
More pictures of these lovely kids dancing.
Kids from local dance academy showcased Cambodian traditional dance in our welcome party in Phnom Penh.
A lot of food...
From another angle. I was looking up to the Camdodian queen's picture.
We were invited to our local guide, Ron's place for traditioanl Cambodian meal. We were obviously overwhelmed by the spring rolls, spicy meatballs, curry chicken, fried noodles, and fish soup hotpots.