We've read a lot about the history of Cambodia recently and checked out quite a few blogs about various historical sites. Tripadvisor.com has been a huge help with just about everywhere we've been and so we certainly consulted that site before coming to phnom penh. The major things to see here are the royal palace, silver pagoda, the killing fields and S-21 prison. The last 2 being sites used by the Khmer Rouge for detaining and butchering the Cambodian people. For everyone who slept through history class, the Khmer Rouge was in power from about 1975 - 1979 and killed between 1.7 and 3 million people out of a population of 8 million. There's a whole lot more to it than that so you'll have to consult the all knowing google for more info.
Anyhoo, after some negotiation and haggling we decided to take a semi organized tour to the killing fields and S-21. The tuk-tuks were trying to charge between $10 and $15 while the tour was charging $10 and had the trump card of A/C!!!!!!
We went to the killing field first, paid our $5 / person entry fee and got an audio tour device. To say the place is emotional would not do it justice. Seriously the brutality committed there against humans is so upsetting ... Nauseating is how Carolyn described it. Walking around you can't help but wonder about the contrasting scenery. The place is peaceful now with birds happily chipping, children playing nearby and farmers working on a nearby rice field. Flowering trees are all over the area and several shade trees protect it from the heat. But every so often you notice scraps of clothing peeping out of the ground from a mass grave. A couple times we almost stepped on a skull and some bones the rains have unearthed. In the center of the area is a memorial pagoda with around 9000 skulls in it from the few mass graves which have been exhumed. Horrific.
We drove to S-21 next which was a Khmer Rouge prison used to detain, torture and execute people suspected of crimes against the government. Surprisingly it was originally build and used as a high school. Upon entering you're greeted by 14 graves which you're told are where the last 14 people killed at S-21 are buried. As the Vietnamese army liberated Cambodia and Phnom Penh, the guards at S-21 only had time to kill these last 14 people where they lay. So their bodies were left tied to the torture beds. Walking through the concrete buildings and rooms it's hard to imagine to atrocities that happened here. Several rooms house pictures of the former prisoners (of about 20,000 held here only a very small number made it out alive ... Maybe 100). Age didn't matter as we saw children who couldn't have been over 5 and old folks probably in their 70's. The old classrooms had been converted using brick and wood to house as many people as possible. Some of the torture devices used were on display as well as several pictures of the dead. As we were waking through a group of pictures of prisoners, Carolyn remarked that it was like a horror movie only this actually happened.
Needless to say we left both places pretty depressed. These places are evil beyond comprehension but in order to understand Cambodia you have to understand what these people have been through.
Completely unrelated: we're both currently suffering from intense gastro right now. Luckily it's affecting us differently so there's no competition for the bathroom. It's dinner time here but we can't seem to fathom eating anything. We may give it a go just because we need some form of nourishment since our last meal was over 10 hours ago.
Pics:
1) trees at the killing fields. These
Mark where the mass graves start.
2) Mass graves at the killing fields. This is where we saw clothing and bones in the ground.
3) building at S-21. The barbed wire was used to prevent the prisoners from trying to commit suicide.
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