Day 51 - Terrible sights of Phnom Penh

After enjoying our inclusive breakfast at the hotel we prepped ourselves for a terrifying day of sight-seeing.

We hailed a Tuk-Tuk to take us to the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum; which is also known as S-21.  The Khmer Rouge regime used this local high school from 1975-1979 as one of its security prisons.  Tuol Sleng means Hill of Poisonous Trees and it was a deadly place to be; of the thousands that were tortured and killed there, only 7 survived.

Interrogation room

Cell in Bldg A

Hallway of Bldg A

Rules of S-21

Neighbours to the Genocide Museum

Old Classroom

Horrifying remnants

Prisoner's clothing

Pol Pot/Khmer Rouge outfits

Rows of pics of prisoners at S-21

We met the gentleman to the left of the middle

Pile of suspicious rags at the end of the hallway...

Courtyard of S-21

Example of a cell in Bldg C

View of the courtyard from behind barbed wire

Hallway of cells in Bldg B

Cells in Bldg B

Collection of skulls and bones from the victims of S-21

Courtyard of S-21

Graves of the last 14 victims of S-21

After our sober tour through the museum we actually met one of the seven survivors of S-21 - he spends most days selling his memoir and talking with tourists with the help of a translator.  We grabbed a quick bite at the Tuk-Tuk restaurant across the street and then hopped back into our ride to go to the Choeung Ek Killing Fields.


    Khmer Brewing Company!

The Killing Fields is a former orchard and Chinese graveyard where the Khmer Rouge executed more than 1,000,000 people between 1975 and 1979. Mass graves containing 8,895 bodies were discovered at Choeung Ek after the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime. 

Memorial built in 2000

A sign on the memorial

We decided to do the audio tour and started out learning about the history of the area.  Within minutes we were touring the grounds, with signs posted detailing what each site was used for.

Orchard tree that survived

Killing Field Museum

The kiosk was turned into a shed that held transported prisoners

Tourists contemplating the terrible actions that took place

Guards would use the sharp edges of the palm tree to kill prisoners

The first mass grave discovered

Hard to see but there are a lot of divots in the ground, which were all mass graves

They still find clothing, bones and teeth fragments in the ground here

Piece of clothing left behind (bottom right of pic)

Large bog/marsh area with mass graves within

Rice paddies outside of the Killing Field ground

Gorgeous walkway along the marsh...

You could see bones in the ground everywhere (bottom right of pic)

Another mass grave with women and children

Victims' clothing

Found bones and the bottom part of a skull brought over by tourists

Scraps of clothing in the ground...

Just horrifying 

"Don't walk on the mass graves" - but I think chickens are exempt

The Magic tree was used to amplify patriotic music to cover up the sounds of the prisoners dying

Bone and teeth fragments underfoot

Collection of skulls that were exhumed

Rows upon rows...

Large collection of baby/children's' skulls in the memorial

We spent about two hours touring the grounds of Choeung Ek, with quite a few tissue breaks and rest breaks. I found it extremely surreal to be strolling around an orchard that had remnants of the victims who died there still in the ground.  Its still hard for me to believe that a culture could come back from such an extreme situation but the locals we spoke with were hopeful and positive about their present and future.  We heard that a lot of the people involved in perpetuating the genocide in Cambodia eventually reintegrated back into the culture; I guess life ultimately, must go on.

We wandered out of the museum and found our guide was playing a game of Cambodian checkers and with a knowing smile he drove us right back to the hotel.  After such an emotional day we just couldn't haggle with our driver so we paid him $45 USD (a really exorbitant amount) for our day of sight-seeing and counted ourselves lucky.

We had time for a little pool-ing before the mosquitos came and then walked towards the more touristed area of Phnom Penh for dinner at Chat'n Chew, a local place that served up a huge bowl of pasta for $3 USD, drinks for $1.50 USD each and tapas for $0.50 each!  

Scooter traffic jam

When we got back to the Hotel we caught the movie The Beach on TV and settled in for the night.