Cambodian Activities

Things to See and Do


Tuol Sleng Museum

The Museum of Genocide is located in the former Tuol Svay Prey gymnasium at the 103rd Street, close to the corner of 350th Street. After April 17, 1975, when the Khmer Rouge took the capital, the school buildings served as Security Jail 21 where thousands of people were systematically tortured. Many died during the torture and more than 20,000 people were brought from the jail to the Choeung Ek execution area, where they were murdered and thrown into mass graves. Only seven of the prisoners survived: sculptors who had to produce busts of Pol Pot

The museum was set up in 1979, soon after the invasion of the Vietnamese. Walls were decorated with numerous photographs of murdered prisoners as Pol Pot's torturers had, with the same small-minded pedantry met in Hitler's KZ personnel, taken pictures of all the victims.

Also displayed are instruments of torture, often surprising in their primitivity. Obviously high-tech is not needed to inflict inexpressible suffering and pain on other people.

The museum is open daily 7 to 11 am and 2 to 4:30 pm, except on Mondays. Entrance fee is one US Dollar.

For all tours you will be picked up from your hotel and brought back. The offer includes:

Originally built as a secondary school named Tuol Svay Prey High School in 1960, during the reign of Preah Batnorodom Sihanouk. The Khmer Rouge converted this into a torture and interrogation centre to extract 'confessions' of anti-government sentiment.
Many victims were women and children incarcerated along with the 'suspected' father.
Documents recovered indicate that over 17,000 persons had been imprisoned there between1975 and 1978, only seven of whom are known to have survived. The others, once the 'confession' had been extracted under torture, were transported to Choeung Ek for execution. Records show that the highest figure was on 27 May 1978, when 582 persons were sent to their death. The museum was established in 1979 after the Vietnamese invasion, and the Khmer Rouge's meticulous photographic records of their victims are exhibited as tragic testimony to those who suffered and died in their hands


Choeung Ek Execution Area

15km southwest of the city centre is one of the many sites of Khmer Rouge mass executions. The exhumed skulls of some 8,000 souls, arranged by sex and age, are displayed behind glass panels in the Memorial Stupa, which was erected in 1988. Although some were killed and buried at Toul Sleng, most victims were driven out to Choeung Ek at night by truck. Some were made to dig their own graves before being clubbed to death with any heavy instrument available. In addition to those exhumed, another 43 pits have been left undisturbed and the final shocking total can only be guessed. The pleasant orchard setting does little to dispel the horror engendered by this grim sight, as Choeung Ek is just one of thousands of recorded mass grave sites throughout the country, and is by no means, the largest. On May 9th each year a memorial service is conducted at the stupa, in memory of the estimated 1.7 million people who died during the genocide.


Royal Palace & Silver Pagoda

The Royal Palace, located between 184th Street and 240th Street, was built in 1866 by the French. The entry is at the Samdech Sothearos Boulevard, formerly Lenin Boulevard, not far from the banks of the Tonle Sap river. Among various buildings within the walls the Throne Hall ranks as most important. This Khmer-style building was erected only in 1917. It is used only on special occasions. Attached to the Throne Hall is a tower, 59 metres high. South of the Throne Hall are the Royal Treasury and the villa of Napoleon III. This villa was built in 1866, not in Cambodia, but rather in Egypt. There it served the French Empress Eugenie as accommodation on occasion of the opening of the Suez Canal. One year later Napoleon III gave the villa to the Cambodian king as a present. At the northern area of the palace grounds is the Silver Pagoda. The original pagoda, built in 1866 by King Norodom, was, for the most part, made of wood. In 1962, it was expanded by Sihanouk. The name of the pagoda derives from the fact, that its floor is made of more than 5,000 silver blocks weighing more than 6 tons. When visiting the Silver Pagoda, one should not wear shorts or hats. Entrance fee is two US Dollars per person; anyone bringing a camera is charged another two Dollars; the extra fee for video cameras is five Dollars. The most important Buddha statue of the temple is, like in Bangkok's royal temple, an Emerald Buddha, which in this case is not made of emerald, but of Baccarat crystal. It dates back to the 17th century. Behind the Emerald Buddha is another Buddha statue made of 90 kilograms of gold and decorated with 9,584 diamonds. It was cast in 1906. The inside of the 600-metres surrounding walls of the Silver Pagoda are decorated with murals displaying scenes from the Ramayana epos. East of the pagoda is an equestrian monument of King Norodom - which is actually a monument of the French Emperor Napoleon III. The head of the original statue was removed and replaced with one showing King Norodom.


National Museum of Arts

The National Museum of Arts is to the North of the palace grounds, on the opposite side of 184th street. The building was designed in Khmer-style in 1920 by a French architect. The most important artifacts are sculptures from the Angkor era and before. The museum is open daily 7 to 11:30 am and 2 to 5 pm, except on Mondays. Entrance fee is two US Dollars. English and French speaking guides are available.

North of the palace grounds, the building was designed in Khmer-style, in 1920, by a French architect, and contains important artifacts and sculptures from the Angkor era and earlier.


Wat Ounalom

Wat Ounalom is the most important Wat of Phnom Penh, and the center of Cambodian Buddhism. It is north from the National Museum of Arts (two streets from the Royal Palace). Wat Ounalom was built in 1443 to keep a hair of the Buddha. Before the Khmer Rouge emptied Phnom Penh in 1975, more than 500 monks used to live at the Wat. The Khmer Rouge killed the abbot and a large number of monks and vandalized the buildings and their treasures. After the Vietnamese invasion on 1979 the Wat was restored, and today again serves as the center of Cambodian Buddhism.

Built in 1443 to enshrine a sacred hair of the Buddha, and located north of the National Museum of Arts, this temple is considered the seat of Cambodian Buddhism. When the Khmer Rouge evacuated Phnom Penh in 1975, they vandalized the building and murdered the Abbot along with many of the 500 monks who lived there.

Wat Ounalom is the most important Wat of Phnom Penh, and the center of Cambodian Buddhism. It is north from the National Museum of Arts (two streets from the Royal Palace). Wat Ounalom was built in 1442 to keep a hair of the Buddha. Before the Khmer Rouge emptied Phnom Penh in 1975, more than 500 monks used to live at the Wat. The Khmer Rouge killed the abbot and a large number of monks and vandalized the buildings and their treasures. After the Vietnamese invasion on 1979 the Wat was restored, and today again serves as the center of Cambodian Buddhism.


Wat Phnom

On a hill in the northern part of Phnom Penh lies Wat Phnom, after which the Cambodian capital is named. The Wat was built in 1372 and was restored or reconstructed in 1434, 1890, 1894 and 1926. Wat Phnom is much favoured by the inhabitants of the city as it is considered the most appropriate place for prayer and small offerings, given in order to influence one's own fate.


Oudong

Approximately 40km from Phnom Penh, and located on a hill overlooking vast plains, this site is famous for the burial chedis of the Khmer kings.


Phnom Tamao Zoo

This is a 1200 hectares zoo and wildlife rescue centre located 30 kilometres southeast of Phnom Penh in Tro Pang Sap village, Tro Pang Sap commune, Ba Ti district, Takeo province.

The zoo itself covers 80 hectares, the remainder has been reserved for its future extension and development. The sanctuary is continually undergoing improvements and strives to provide suitable habits for its larger animals. It was set up to preserve and rescue rare and endangered local wildlife. Some rare species housed here, including tigers, leopards, a lion and several species of exotic birds. At least two dozen of the species found here are endangered.

The majority of confiscated or donated animals are unable, due to a variety of  reasons, to be released in the wild and are therefore housed at the Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Centre (PTWRC).  The hope is that these animals will contribute to the gene pool in future wildlife rehabilitation programs.

Phnom Ta Mao is by far the largest zoo in Cambodia and the influx of visitors testifies to this. It was officially opened by Prime Minister Samdech Hun Sen in 2000, although it had been running for some five years previously. PTWRC is currently the only official sanctuary in the country.

One of the biggest enclosures is the sun bear enclosure, now with an infant Malayan Sun bear
confiscated in a raid by WildAid's Wilderness Protection Mobile Unit (WPMU) in Stung Treng province in February 2005. The bear, only a month old and weighing less than ten pounds, was taken from a well known wildlife trader, Y Banka. The WPMU took the infant bear to the PTWRC where it joined other rescued bears in the bear enclosure.