[Cambodia] Chapter XXVIII: In which nobody succeeds in making Cambodia listen to reason

Whereas in Siem Reap we came face to face with stoic stone faces adorning the temples and towers of the ancient Khmer empire at its highest and brightest, when Angkor was the largest city in the world and the centre of an expansive empire, in Phnom Penh we instead came face to face with pale desperate faces staring at us from

black-and-white photographs at the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum and piled unearthed skulls at the Choeung Ek Killing Fields, remembrances of modern Cambodia at its darkest and lowest, when --- merely forty years ago --- a quarter of its population had been exterminated in the name of a utopian Khmer Rouge ideal.

The day we spent at these two sites stood in contrast to the rest of our stay in Phnom Penh, which was celebrating the end of the rainy season in its annual three-day Bon Om Touk water festival, with national longboat races during the day, a flotilla of brightly illuminated boats coursing along the riverfront by the royal palace after sundown, and food and festivities punctuated with dramatic fireworks well into the night.

So, yes, we did make it from Battambang to Phnom Penh (by public bus) in time for the festival, and it was quite worth it, even if it meant seeing less of Battambang.

Accommodations:
- Succo Gene Palace Boutique Hotel (4 nights; pretty nice and superbly located)

Photo captions: (a-h) Bon Om Touk Festival - people and food; (i-p) Bon Om Touk Festival - fireworks and illuminated boats; (q-v) Bon Om Touk Festival - boat racing; (w-z) a Phnom Penh market; (aa-mm) the royal palace