Travel Day 177 - Phnom Penh & the Killing Fields

We have just left Seam Reap. Cambodia is certainly filled with history. The temple ruins of Angkor Wat are an extraordinary example of Khmer construction from over 800 years ago. Built using the benefit of gravity and the friction fit of one stone on top of another, the ruins are extraordinary for the sheer volume of intricate construction and detailed carvings. Some appear as if they were newly created.

On the other hand, two sites available for visiting in Phnom Penh contrast with Angkor Wat in age and in what humans are capable of. The history of these is recent (less than 35 years ago) and representative of destruction, not construction. Yesterday we visited the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum (also known as the S-21 prison) and the Choeung Ek Memorial (The Killing Fields). The names speak for themselves. However, Tuong Sleng Museum or S-21 as it also known (a converted high school) was the sight where people considered to be enemies of the Khmer Rouge who took power in 1975 and lasted until January 7, 1979, were processed, a.k.a. tortured. After interrogation and torture they were sent to Choeung Ek to be executed and dumped in the "the killing fields". Millions of the Cambodian people and some foreign nationals perished at the hands of a paranoid Khmer Rouge in a program that defies logic.

Words cannot adequately describe what happened. The history is complicated and outcomes could possibly have been different if it weren’t for foreign intervention in this and the other Indochina countries of South-East Asia (namely what was happening in Vietnam in the early 1970’s which spilled across the border.) Regardless, both sites, serving as museums, “are a memorial and a testament to the madness of the Khmer Rouge regime” (Phnom Penh Visitors Guide). As the Cambodians have said, these atrocities should be memorialized, lest we forget what is possible. Mitchell made some interesting connections between this genocide,the Holocaust, and the Inquisition against the Cathars in France.

If you want to read more, click on these links below:

Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum and photos

The Killing Fields of Cheoung Ek

So far, our visit to Cambodia has been a great experience. We’re enjoying the hot +31 degree weather and getting a dip in the pool whenever we can. The people are very friendly. Sadly, it seems too short a time to do this country justice. We will miss seeing the coast. Next we are off to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) for three days. We will be touring Vietnam (south to north) for the better part of a month.

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Sign outside Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum (also known as S-21, a former high school):

Cells inside S-21, where people were shackled, interrogated and tortured:

Photos of prisoners, taken before they were executed:

The memorial stupa, housing the skulls, bones and clothing of the thousands of victims excavated at the Killing Fields: Clothing uniform worn by the infamous Khmer Rouge soldiers:

One of the excavation sites of a mass burial of Cambodians:This is the tree where the Khmer soldiers used to swing babies by the feet, smashing their skulls against the tree trunk before throwing them into a mass burial pit (very sobering and horrifying to read of this and then see it ):On the bus from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh - frosty A/C onboard meant that Darlene's Jacket was required:

Lunch at a little French restaurant (lots of French expats here, all gloating about the hot weather here versus the atypical snow back home):

Countryside surrounding Phnom Penh (most houses are up on stilts due to the rains):

For one meal we went to the Foregin Correspondents' Club in Phnom Penh (well hey, we're kinda foreign correspondents aren't we, with this blog and all??):