To Phnom Penh

After a train journey from Berlin to Düsseldorf, then flying with Emirates to Cambodia, we landed in Phnom Penh, the capital of the country.

As a short introduction:

It is a country with an extremely interesting but also tragic past. After years of wars, fratricidal fights (The Khmer Rouge) and social experiments, it has only recently been enjoying relative peace, which allows to rebuild the devastated economy and redevelop the tourism.

Cambodia is one of the poorest countries in Asia, where almost 1/3 of the population live on less than 1 USD per day

Inhabitants of today's Cambodia are descendants of the warrior Khmer, who 1,200 years ago created a magnificent empire, occupying the territories of Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos and Burma.

In April this year it is the 42nd anniversary of the city's occupation by the Khmer Rouge, which initiated the reign of terror in the country. The opposition leader demands justice for the victims of the bloody dictatorship of the '70s

For those interested, we recommend the book and the film "Fields of Death". In 1984, a British film about the fate of Cambodian journalist Dith Pran, who managed to escape from the camp. The film has exposed the scale and nature of the crime to international public opinion, further increasing tourism related to martyrdom. Museums, exhibitions and places commemorating the victims of the regime,  are controlled and used financially by the authorities of the regime itself, and even directly involved in the crimes of the Khmer Rouge.

The local "IPN" (the Institute of the National Memory) did not perform any lustration ...

In turn, Angelina Jolie produced the film "First they killed my father." This is a terrifying story of the civil war, which we observe with the eyes of a 7-year-old Loung.

We finish off our very long journy day in the FCC bar.

The "F", as those know to frequent the big horseshoe bar call it, has served stiff drinks, camaraderie and comfort to a storied cast of journalists and diplomats, movie stars and intrepid travellers since 1993.

Back then, when The "F" first opened its doors, the bar gave shelter from the gritty and tense streets of the capital, where an uneasy peace was just taking hold. Writers and their sources traded secrets in the shadows. Diplomats drank their per diems, swapped social strategies and spilled their martinis.

Today, the bar still serves a stiff extra-dry, and the journos still pass through on the great hunt. The tension is gone. But there's still plenty of action, and the liquor, on occasion, still gets spilled.

We finish the day slightly intoxicated (beer) and overwhelmed with the change of climate