Phnom Penh - Brother Number Four

Of the hoards of smarmy moto drivers plying their trade along the lakeside backpacker district, only a precious few comprehend English sufficiently to communicate with foreigners. Even then, most were confused when we asked to go to visit Phnom Penh’s prison, a place not frequented by many tourists. Nearly all assumed we wanted to go to the S21 genocide museum, which we’d already covered a couple of days ago. The plan was to go on the off chance that they would let us in to visit Ta Mok the Butcher, also known as Brother Number Four.

Ta Mok is one of the few high ranking Khmer Rouge officials currently awaiting trial for crimes against humanity. Most of his compatriots managed to strike immunity deals with current Prime Minister Hun Sen’s (also former Khmer Rouge) administration and have made off scot-free. During his tenure as the party’s Chief of Staff, Ta Mok gained notoriety as the man who orchestrated the brutal purges (such as those in S21) synonymous with the Khmer Rouge’s rule.

Anyway, back to the story. As is daily practice here, we were continually accosted by moto drivers between the guesthouse and the main street. One particular moto driver on this stretch has taken to calling me “Ajinomoto” whenever I walk past because a) I’m “Japanese” and b) he’s trying to sell me a moto ride (get it? Ajinomoto hur hur). Ajinomoto is Japanese for MSG. We finally found a driver who was positive he could take us to the prison so Andrew, Jo (a British girl I’ll be traveling Vietnam with) and I climbed into his tuk tuk and away we went.

A retro cop car stationed near the guesthouse:

The ride went relatively smoothly until we reached a flooded out patch of road.

Soon after, our driver stopped for directions, stirring up a bit of concern between the three of us. A few minutes later he called his boss at the base station for further instructions. We did finally manage to get to a corrections facility but it ended up being the wrong one. Unfortunately, they didn’t allow visitors so we had to turn back.