Day 54 - Pnom Penh

WARNING: This page contains material that some readers may find upsetting.

We were prepared for our time in Pnom Penh to be a pretty depressing one.

The main reason people go there is simply to visit S-21 and The Killing Fields (I'll elaborate on them in a minute)

Our stay in Pnom Penh was still nice, as we met up with Crystal and Dave again (who we met on the infamous slow boat trip) who we'd not seen since Laos.

We paid $15 (between five people) for a tuk tuk, that took us to S-21, waited for us, then drove us a further 15km to the Killing Fields.

I'm no history expert but in short, on 17th April 1975, a man named Pol Pots, led the Khmer Rouge Revolution and took over Cambodia.

They forced every person in cities to go to villages on the outskirts of Cambodia, where they were worked in slave labour farms and camps (many died of starvation or were executed if they stepped a foot wrong).

They wanted to 'cleanse' the city and prevent any possibilty of being overthrown. So they let the pheasants live and wiped out anyone that was even considered to be a threat, which included anyone who was clever, had a good job, wore glasses, was related to any of the above...etc.

They brought these people to S-21 (an old high school turned into a prison) where they tortured them beyond unimaginable belief and made them confess to stories that were absurd.

Local Khmer (Cambodian) people were admitting to working for the CIA and being apart of things that couldn't possibly be true.

Thousands died here. Then they were running out of space for the bodies.

So they started using 'The Killing Fields'.

They blindfolded prisoners and brought them at night to the fields, then one by one they executed them with whatever they could find (bullets costed too much) and threw them into a pit.

They played very loud music to cover up the screams and one 'grave' had over 400 bodies in it.

The most disturbing part was the 'Killing Tree.' The Khmer Rouge believed that you had to kill a whole family, so that no one would seek revenge.

This included babies.

The killing tree was used by them frequently, they held the babies legs and hit their head against the tree, then flung them into the 'grave' with other women and children.

One of Pol Pots' mottos was 'it's better to kill an innocent by mistake, than spare an enemy by mistake.'

They're not sure exactly how many people were killed but it is millions.

As you walk around the Killing Fields, you can still see bone in the ground, which appears frequently after heavy rain.

Some of the Khmer Rouge leaders are still on trial today.

As you can imagine, it's pretty depressing and a lot to take in. But if you are ever to visit Cambodia I would definitely recommend going there, as it just makes you understand what happened a lot clearer and puts things into perspective.

After that...we needed a drink! (As may you after reading this post)!

We went for a curry and a few beers. Then Marie and crystal absolutely had the floor with Jack and Dave at pool!

The next morning.. we killed some time having some tea and coffee at this local place (where we stood out like a sore thumb).

Then got the bus to Siem Reap. We wanted to go to Battambang but unfortunately because it's almost Cambodian New Year, everywhere is crazy busy and if we left it any later we wouldn't get to Siem Reap or Angkor Wat in time.

*Apologies about the depressing side to this post but it would be impossible to reflect on our trip there without reflecting on the Khmer Rouge revolution, which dominates everyones short time in Pnom Penh.

However, our next stop is Siem Reap, of which both mine and Jacks birthdays and Cambodian New Year will be apart of, as well as the temples of Angkor....so be prepared for a very different post :)!