We had meetings for a few days in the capitol, Phnom Penh. Traffic was crazy. It makes sense that so many use motorcycles or scooters to get around.

The wiring is crazy–the circuit breakers are outside the houses and get tripped all of the time.

This is one way to get your fabric where it needs to go. They have a strong textiles market.

Also, poverty everywhere:

We had a variety of meetings at the American Chamber of Commerce, a visit to the US Embassy, meetings in the Special Economic Zone where they are trying to lure foreign companies. All of the companies mentioned how corrupt the government is and that makes it hard to do business without bribery. The government even has an anti-corruption unit to help.

We had a tour of Laureltin Diamonds where they cut and polish small diamonds. I was pretty excited for our tour of a candy factory–Aparti (a subsidiary of American Licorice Company, maker of Red Vines). I was hoping for Willy Wonka style but with licorice. I was disappointed that we only got to see and sample production of a coffee flavored hard candy. We had to get suited up properly for the tour (including white crocs).

After dinner we took a tuktuk to the night market. Walking home along the Tonle Sap river we saw lots of people sleeping on the sidewalks, including this baby in a little net:

The hotel didn’t want us to bring durian fruit into the hotel room because it smells so bad. I tried a sample of durian fruit ice cream–not so tasty.

After a morning visit to the Ministry of Commerce–government guys talking about the improvements and opportunities in doing business in Cambodia, then meeting with Young Entrepreneurs including breakout sessions, interesting chatting in the round table breakouts, one IT guy has a brother in the MISM program at the University of Utah.

We had a tour of the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum–which was a school built 1975, then Pol Pot and Khmer Rouge turned it into a prison and torture camp. Most were sent to the killing field nearby. About 2 million Cambodians (1/4 of the total population) were killed between 1975 and 1979.

We went to the Choeung Ek Genocidal Center. They have a memorial stupa (tower) with 10,000 skulls. There are marked mass graves and still bones and clothing jutting out of the dirt.

The worst part for me was the execution tree where they would hold the babies by their feet and bash their heads against the tree to kill them. Then they tossed them in the mass grave with the naked raped mothers. A sobering experience.