We were up early this morning and got picked up in a tuk tuk at 7.30am for the quad biking and killing fields tour. The tuk tuk ride was quite long, once we got to the quad bike place we all sat and got introduced to the tour guide James and we were given disclaimers to sign. He then showed us how the quads worked, they're really simple, they have an automatic stick for drive, neutral and reverse. The right handle bar has a button for your thumb for the accelerator and the left had a brake bar just like a bicycle, that was it. We went in single file with the tour leader at the front then, Sam, Steph, me and James. We drove around for 1 hour in total through the villages and saw where a lot of Cambodian people live. James had read before hand about bringing some sweets to give to the children. Most of them came out and either waves at you or came to give you a high five, then James gave them a sweet at the end. Some of their faces were so cute when they got a sweet, they rushed off to show their parents. It was an awesome hour of fun. After riding the quads which we all loved and could have gone for longer, we got back to the office where we got the tuk tuk to the killing fields. We got the ticket price in with the quad tour so the tour leader came with us to organise it for us and said the tuk tuk would wait for us to finish and take us to where we want to go next. We got head sets and maps to walk around the site with loads of information as we went. It is such a serene place now where unthinkable horrors happened really not that long ago. There were fences surrounding the mass graves which held thousands of wristbands visitors have placed over the years as a sign of respect, I added one of mine. As you walk around the site there are clear boxes with clothing or bones inside which have been most recently found by the staff here. When the rains come more items come to the surface and are collected, as you walk around you can see pieces of bone and clothing in the ground. In the middle of the site there is a stupa which was built in March 1988 and houses 8000 skulls and bones as a memorial to the dead. I knew some of the background of Cambodian history but to actually be listening to some real life stories while you were there was hard. After this we found our tuk tuk and asked to get dropped of at the S21 prison which was one of the prisons used at this time. People were imprisoned and tourtured here before being taken to the killing fields. The prison was a former school building with four blocks. The first had a strip of classrooms with only one bed inside each for 'special' prisoners such as politicians etc. The other three buildings had around 20 cells in one classroom only just wide enough for James to fit inside! There were still blood stains on the floor and some chains and shackles still in the ground. There were thousands upon thousands of black and white photographs of all the inmates. Out of the thousands who came to S21 only seven people survived. Not very uplifting morning but it is nice to know the true history of the country we are visiting. We got a tuk tuk back and went for something to eat
I had Amok chicken curry and James had Khmer curry both local dishes and delicious. We went back to our rooms at the guesthouse to chill and ended up having a nap. We did a little packing as its out last night and went out for tea later on for our last tea altogether. We walked by the river front and saw the grand palace all lit up at night then went back to the guesthouse to finish packing and set our alarm for the morning.