Week 4- Cambodia (Phnom Penh) Day 2

Today we got up and hired a tuk tuk for the day and went around Phenom Penh. Firstly we visited the 'Killing Fields' this was a very intense and emotional experience, I spent the majority of the time with goosebumps. We had an audio guide which was amazing because it allowed us to take our time and repeat things if we didn't quite hear it. The killing fields were very peaceful and everyone walked around in silence.

What shocked us the most is that this only happened 39 years ago! In 1975, the Khmer Rouge ( a communist group led by a man named Pol Pot) took over the capital city of Phnom Penh. At this time the Cambodians were very pleased that the civil war was over. However little did they know Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge planned to bring the country back to “Year Zero”, creating an equal society where everyone was of one agricultural class. Therefore, this meant that every intellectual Cambodian became an enemy. If a Cambodian wore glasses, knew another language, had foreign friends, or held a job other than farming, he or she would be tortured in prison. Those that refused to cooperate were executed. Pol Pot had said 'To keep you is no benefit to destroy you is no loss'. Those that did cooperate were sent to the fields to work 12 to 15 hours a day with only minimal rice meals were provided. This led many workers in the field to die of starvation, exhaustion or were murdered.

As you can imagine walking around the very grounds where this all went on was a rather upsetting/ distressing experience. Nonetheless it was extremely interesting and touching to see the memorials. The audio included clips of survivors telling their stories, it is crazy to think that many of the survivors are still likely to be alive. We had the chance to walk down the side of the lake listening to the different survivors telling their stories including; loss of an infant, witness to a killing, rape leads to shame and saved by a stranger's sacrifice. It was said that the Khmer Rouge killed everyone in the families to prevent anyone being able to take revenge. This meant that people of all ages including babies were killed at these killing fields.

The tour started off at the 'Truck Stop'. The Cambodians were led to believe that they were being brought here to move into a new house, however, they had been tricked and they were actually there to bed killed. Many were killed within 24 hours of arriving and some had to wait another night during their busy periods. The beginning of the tour we just stood in front of signs, this was because the Cambodians had been so devastated by what their country had been through they destroyed the majority of the killing field, ripping down the buildings.

The Khmer Rouge would tie the victims hands together and slit their throats because this meant they couldn't make any noise during execution. We saw a giant sugar plant tree, the leafs were used to cut their throats as they are extremely sharp. The victim would then be thrown in a deep hole which was actually their grave. Next to this was a storage room for chemical substances. DDT was used to sprinkle over the bodies to completely finish them off and mask the smell of rotting bodies. It was all very traumatising!

As we followed the paths we saw many fragments of bone and teeth. When Phnom Penh gets high levels of water often more and more fragments arise to the surface even to this day. It felt very weird that you could see bits just on the side of the paths and they weren't all preserved in boxes which you would usually expect. The caretakers pick any bones etc up when they arise and put them with the others!

We then saw which I found the hardest thing to see, the killing tree. This tree was used to kill the babies by giving them a blow to the head by hitting them against the tree. When this killing field was found blood and hair was found in the bark of the tree. Many visitors to the killing fields had attached colourful bracelets to the tree, this made it look very pretty. The mothers would usually be stripped of their clothes and tortured before being left to die. We then came across the magic tree. There was actually no magic behind this tree and it was a horrifying story. The Khmer Rouge used speakers attached to this tree to drown out any screams of anyone being tortured, the music was the last thing they would hear. The audio played us a sample of the music and it really made me go cold.

At the end of the tour we saw the Memorial Stupa, this was a beautiful building (which you can see in the picture) many people would lay flowers and light incent sticks in remembrance. The memorial had 11 levels which had preserved skulls of all of the bodies found at the killing field. They could tell by the skulls how most of the victims had been killed for example many had a crack along the top which showed they used a blast to the head with a knife.

From the killing fields we then got back into the tuk tuk and went to S21 Prison- the Genocide Museum. This was designed for detention, interrogation, inhuman torture and killing after confession. This was as equally as horrifying as the killing fields. However, it was such an experience to visit it all. Prior to Pol Pot turning it into a prison it used to be a school. The windows were panelled to minimise the screams from the prisoners being heard from the outside.

Building 'A' was used for detaining victims who were accused of leading the uprising against Pol Pot revolution. Whereas the other buildings had been split into cells with no doors or ceilings. Nevertheless the prisoners couldn't escape because they were chained to the floor. The buildings were covered in barb wire to stop prisoners committing suicide. The Khmer Rouge had been annoyed because prior to this a lady had jumped from the balcony and they felt she hadn't received enough torture before her death.

There were many forms of torture used including; Ripping nails off, hanging victims upside down until unconscious then dipping their head in dirty water to bring them round again to continue torture, scorpions biting females nipples and many many more. Throughout the prison there were lots of distressing graphic photos of the victims once they had been tortured and killed, we didn't like this at all. At the end we met an old man who was actually survivor of the prison. It was touching to meet him as we had just seen the very cell he had been confined to. All in all this was a very strange and distressing experience, however, we learnt a lot about the history and found it really interesting. It took us time to get our heads around it all and understand what had happened and why. I can't begin to imagine the pain and heartache the families must have gone through. This was definitely one of the most powerful places we have visited so far on our travels. We will never understand how someone can do this.

In the afternoon we went to visit the National Museum of Cambodia and also saw the Palace. We both love the architecture of all the Cambodian buildings, they are all so magnificent and bright. After an exhausting morning we decided to head back to our hostel and chill out. We have also continued to plan our Vietnam route. We are being picked up from the hostel tomorrow by the bus to Sihanoukville, we are both excited for a few days on a paradise beach soaking up the sun!