Random Photo Du Jour 14

Salut tout le monde!

As you know, we are have been living in the Philippines for more than a year, 

so this Photo Du Jour was meant to happen sometime!

 So, we dare you...

 

It is a famous landmark in Manila, but which one?

Ooooohhh.

In and Out of Phnom Penh

On our last full day in Phnom Penh, we thought about investigating other sections of the map... too much free time :)

We had breakfast around Central Market, a queer yellow building whose initial design was made by a French architect.

If you walk around Phnom Penh, you'll find old buildings as curious as that - charming reminders of Cambodia's colonial past.

One of the main backpacker haunts was around a lake that we could see on the map, but couldn't quite locate. We knew we were in the right place but Beoung Kak Lake seemed to have disappeared!

The Killing Fields

Day 233.

Henri has sharply called attention to my love of the macabre a couple of times. When we were dating I asked to be taken to the catacombs of Paris, he freaks out when I take pictures of dead things, I obsess about zombies, I love Poe and Lovecraft, there's even a photo of me with the tomb of Oscar Wilde! But somehow a visit to the S-21 prison and the Killing Fields felt perverse even for my standards. A torture tour? Quel horreur! It just felt wrong. But the locals said we have to go, not because it's there to see... They could not explain why, they just said it was important. The rickshaw driver who helped us get lodgings basically said, "just go and you will know." (Here is a link to a National Geographic article about the genocide tourism phenomenon in Phnom Penh in case you want a backgrounder.)

The more we thought about it, it became less morbid curiosity and more of a dare to face the evil depths our kind can sink to. The more we thought about it, the more it made sense that we had to go to learn what what we could, and understand if we could, what happened in Cambodia almost 40 years ago.

Henri and I rented a bike from an Irish guy, a living Wikipedia of local scams and travel advice. Apart from suggesting that we speed past any traffic officers ("They can't run after you!"), he told us to go to Toul Sleng first, then Choeung Ek about 7 kilometers away because seeing the sites in this order would really drive home the point.

Not your ordinary high school.

It was very humid that morning, but Toul Sleng ("Hill of Poisonous Trees"), perhaps the most famous interrogation center from that era, gave us the chills. In the time of peace it was just a school, but education was for the elite and the elite had no place in this new society; so the school found a new purpose - as a torture complex. 

Prisoners were hung by their feet on these gym bars and lowered into water jars.

For me, high school was hell on so many levels - but imagine the day that the academics, intellectuals, politicians and the occasional foreigner were tossed in here to be tormented on a daily basis. 

RANDOM PHOTO DU JOUR 13

We know, it's been a while. 

A lot has happened since we last updated the blog. We built a nest in Manila, Henri tested the waters for a business we talked about throughout the trip, I took a job, and we did a lot of DIY home improvement (which is still a work in progress). 

And then an idea to travel again took hold, and we packed our bags, went to Europe, and did as much as we could while seeing family and a few friends. (Merci beaucoup, Vero et Philippe!)

Guess where we are below!

In France, some of you asked us to finish the blog -- well, we're going to get to it soon, just let me find the pictures first :)

Thank you for reading about our adventures, more to follow!