The Killing Fields

Today was my first and only full day in Phnom Penh. We woke up late-ish and decided to skip breakfast so we would have time to visit the Toul Sleng Genocide Museum. And what a harrowing start to my holiday that was. We spent a couple of hours wandering around the museum where we saw hundreds of photos of men, women and children who were tortured there. The building was a school up until 1975 when it was converted by the Khmer Rouge into a prison and interrogation centre, renamed Security Prison 21 (or S-21). There are cells where the prisoners were kept in very inhumane conditions, interrogation rooms where prisoners where tortured showing photos of how the torture would have been carried out, examples of the instruments of torture used as well as hundreds of desperate looking mug shots. It is estimated that 17,000 people were imprisoned in Toul Sleng and there are only 7 known survivors. What shocked me most was that this happened in our lifetime (more Matt's than mine) yet I know little about what happened or why it happened.

When we finished at the museum, we had a quiet lunch across the road at the Boddhi Tree restaurant. After that we caught a tuk tuk to the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek and I had my first real experience of crazy Cambodian driving. There don't seem to be any rules of the road around here. When you come to a junction every just keeps going slowly, some of them on the wrong side of the road, and by some sort of weird miracle nothing crashes. Another thing that stands out to me is the number of motos (scooters) here. Everybody seems to travel around on them....I've seen up to 6 people on one moto. Mothers carry tiny babies in one arm, and hold onto toddlers with the other hand, while bigger children hold on to her or their Dad. I've seen guys holding babies in one arm and steering with the other hand. Madness! I'm too scared to go on one.

So after quite a long bouncy ride in the tuk tuk we arrived at the Killing Fields.
This is the place where the prisoners from Toul Sleng were killed and buried in mass graves. There are a few plaques describing what happened there, for example that to save bullets the prisoners were often beaten to death. We walked around the fields where there are huge holes where the mass graves have been opened and the remains exhumed. There are human bones scattered around the place. The main monument contains a glass case where 8000 skulls are arranged by age and gender. It's hard to imagine that these are real skulls and not just some exhibit in a science museum.

After wandering around the Killing Fields for a while, we were ready to head back into town and to the Russion Market. As it was late afternoon a lot of the stalls had already closed and I found it to be very claustraphobic and warm, but I picked up a couple of things before we headed back to the hotel for a rest.

We decided to pop out to try to book our trip to Siem Reap tomorrow, but unfortunately the bus we wanted was fully booked. While considering our options we went for wander on the riverbank and decided to do a sunset cruise on the river. One boat owner came up to use and offered us a trip but we didn't like the look of the boat so we wandered on to the next boat. It turned out to be a group of Austalian missionaries taking a bunch of Cambodian orphans out on a trip. The invited us to join them and we went for it. I really enjoyed this trip. We chatted to the Cambodian teenagers and learned a few words of Cambodian, and also chatted to the missionaries. They were really generous people sharing their food and drink with us, and refusing to take any money for the trip.

After that, it was time for dinner. We ate at the Veiyo Tonle restuarant. The profits from this restuarant go towards running a local orphanage. The food was great and we had a few beers while watching some of the orphan children doing some traditional Khmer dance. A lovely end to a good day.

Tomorrow we're off to Siem Reap. We've decided to get a taxi as the express bus isn't available and the other options take hours on end. It's Chinese New Year tonight though, so we weren't able to book a taxi, so we'll be up early in the morning to find one. Fingers crossed!