Day 2 in Cambodia

Getting Up in Phnom Penh

The day began without urgency. The writing had been taken care of the previous night. Notes, the blog, and the social posts were completed before sleep. That sense of completion carried into the morning, leaving the mind settled and free to receive the day.

Once awake, I got ready and completed my morning riyaz.

Breakfast was at the rooftop restaurant and sky bar. The open space and morning light made it an easy place to begin the day. There were enough vegetarian options to eat without effort, flat noodles, a ramen style soup with boiled vegetables, and the usual breakfast items.

The setting itself contributed quietly to the mood. Being above the city, with open air and a wide view, allowed the day to start in high spirits.

Wat Phnom and the Spiritual Origins of Phnom Penh

From breakfast, we went to Wat Phnom. This was our first temple visit of the day and an important one, as this small hill is closely tied to the origin of Phnom Penh itself.

Wat means temple. Phnom means hill. Penh refers to Lady Penh, the woman at the centre of the legend. According to tradition, Lady Penh found sacred Buddha images floating in the river after a flood and built a simple shrine on this hill to house them. Over time, that individual act of devotion became the spiritual seed around which the city grew.

People were present throughout the temple, praying, offering flowers and incense, and sitting quietly. The space reflected the deeply rooted spiritual practice of the Cambodian Buddhist people.

We walked slowly around the shrine in circumambulation and then sat quietly for a few minutes. The Buddha altar was richly detailed, with layered carvings, gilded surfaces, and small narrative elements worked into the structure. Figures, floral motifs, and symbolic forms were arranged with precision, inviting attention rather than demanding it. The craftsmanship reflected patience and devotion, meant to be approached closely and taken in gradually.

People offered lotus flowers, incense sticks, money, and fruit before the altar. Some paused briefly, others stayed longer, absorbed in prayer. Each person related to the space in their own way, quietly and without display.

Sitting there for a while, it became clear that places like Wat Phnom are not understood through architecture alone. What gives them meaning is the continuity of practice, the way belief is woven into ordinary routines.

Choeung Ek Genocidal Center

Before arriving at Choeung Ek, it is necessary to understand what Cambodia went through under the Khmer Rouge. Between 1975 and 1979, the country was ruled by the regime led by Pol Pot, which sought to radically remake society through forced agrarian collectivisation. Cities were emptied, religion was suppressed, education was dismantled, and suspicion became a governing principle.

During these four years, an estimated 1.7 to 2 million people, nearly a quarter of Cambodia’s population at the time, died due to execution, starvation, forced labour, and untreated illness. Choeung Ek is one among more than three hundred identified genocidal sites across the country, often referred to as killing fields, where detention, torture, and mass execution took place.

Choeung Ek lies outside central Phnom Penh, surrounded by open land and quiet roads. The distance from the city was deliberate. Prisoners were brought here at night from detention centres such as S 21, also known as Tuol Sleng, after interrogation and torture. For many, this was the final destination.

Walking through the site with the audio guide was deeply disturbing. Each stop revealed another layer of what had taken place here. People were executed without bullets to save ammunition. Loud music was played to drown out screams. Mass graves were dug and filled repeatedly.

What was most difficult to absorb was the systematic nature of the violence. Even infants were not spared. Thousands of babies were killed deliberately, often by being smashed against tree trunks, a method chosen to ensure that no future revenge could ever be imagined. This detail does not exist to shock, but to reveal how completely empathy had been erased.

At the centre of the site stands the memorial stupa, housing the skulls of the dead. Arranged by age and gender, they confront the visitor quietly, without explanation or display. The absence of dramatization makes the encounter harder to look away from.

The calm of the surroundings only deepens the unease. Grass, trees, and birds remain indifferent to history. The site does not attempt to recreate horror. It allows the ordinary appearance of the landscape to carry the weight of what happened beneath it.

Walking through Choeung Ek, it became difficult not to think about how systems of absolute power function. Paranoia replaces trust. Ideology replaces empathy. Violence turns inward and consumes ordinary lives. This was not a failure of humanity in the abstract, but a reminder of how fragile it can become under unchecked authority.

After Choeung Ek

After leaving Choeung Ek, we went for lunch at Haveli. A sense of heaviness and gloom stayed with us. We ate quietly, carrying the weight of what we had seen and heard, and found ourselves reflecting on how ideologies that appear just and fair in principle, such as communism, can in practice create monsters who carry out the extremes of the very opposite.

Phnom Penh Seen from the Mekong River

Later in the evening, we boarded a Mekong river cruise. The journey lasted close to two and a half hours, taking us through long stretches of the river and offering wide views of Phnom Penh from the water.

As night set in, the city changed character. The skyline lit up, traffic increased, and Phnom Penh revealed itself as busy and active, its movement and energy clearly visible from the river.

Food and drinks were served on board. As had become familiar by now, french fries were the only available vegetarian option. We took a piña colada, which added to the high of the evening.

Watching the city from the river offered a different perspective. The movement felt continuous rather than hurried, with buildings, lights, and boats forming a steady rhythm along the water.

The cruise ended, and we returned to land. We ended the day with dinner at the Indian restaurant Indigo, followed by a fine cappuccino and Butterfly honey pea ice tea at Alchemist.

The day was vividly mix. Too heavy to handle I would say and yet profoundly reflective. Aparna is recovering from cold and cough and now throat pain has started. My backache troubled me the whole day. Nothing in relation to what some people in the world have to go through.