Central Market

With one more day of Khmer New Year we went through more of our online training this morning, then we decided to go explore the city while things were quiet here. Because of the long holiday there were a lot of shops still closed. Becky asked us to take pictures at Central Market, so we went to check it out. One of the advantage of everything being so quiet and less people in the city is that the market was not very crowded. The disadvantage is that much of the market was closed. We did get a few pictures. We will have to come back another day to find the full effect of the market.

We found where everyone in the city went with everything closed. In spite of the holiday Aeon Mall was open. (Yes, Elder Oveson even went shopping at the Mall!) The parking lot was full enough that we were directed to the roof-top parking. We were looking for a couple of items, but no luck. We came out empty handed.

We figured we were done shopping, so we went searching for a Cambodian History lesson. We found the Tuol Sleng Genecide Museum not far from our apartment. This museum had been a High School built in 1962. However in 1972 when Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge took power, they used this school as a place of torture and interrogation, and called it SR21.  Of the 12,000 to 20,000 people (men, women and children) processed through, there were only 7 who survived. The atrocities during this time rivaled the Holocaust.  It is estimated there were 25% of the population, estimated at more than 2,000,000, were either killed or died of starvation or disease.  It is no wonder 65%+ of the current population is under the age of 30.