Day 13 - Another lazy morning whilst also attempting to be out and about before it gets too hot. No chance as at 09:30 it was already a stinker. Today the plan was to go to Choeung Ek (the killing fields).

Getting our usual tuk tuk driver from the hotel it was about 10km away on some made road and also some rutted dusty trails. Trying to shield ourselves from the sun and dust in a tuk tuk is a difficult feat in itself. Arriving at Choeung Ek we paid and were given our headsets to listen to on the way round. Considering this is the area where prisoners were taken from S-21 to be killed we weren't quite sure what to expect. It was used from 1975 to 1979 by the Khmer regime under Pol Pot.

The place was deathly silent as people listened intently to accounts of what happened at this awful place under the shady trees. Not to go into too much detail but we saw mass graves, some untouched, bones, teeth, skulls but most disturbingly, a tree that was used to smash young children against to kill them. Bullets were expensive and they didn't want to raise suspicion from neighbouring areas so they did this and threw them in the pit alongside their mothers. The skulls were housed in the Memorial Stupa at the entrance (front photo). We spent a couple of hours here which leaves you pretty horrified at how this was allowed to happen as recently as 30 years ago and a place that needs to be seen to be believed.

The tuk tuk driver had waited for us there so we set off back to the hotel covering the faces again. Once back we just chilled out by the pool and had some lunch, far too hot to be out walking about.

We ventured out just before sunset to go to Wat Phnom to have a look around but that wasn't overly interesting. A Wat on the only 'hill' in PP and there was an impressive bamboo snake at the base which housed a massive clock. To spice things up we walked along the riverfront (it was the river festival this weekend) where there were people everywhere, more people doing exercises on the front and traffic at a near standstill. After a gauntlet run across the road, we sought sanctuary in the Foreign Correspondence Club (FCC) where there is a roof top bar in an old colonial building to watch the chaos that was occurring below us. A nice storm in the distance as well which added to the atmosphere. Leaving here we went to a really nice local restaurant just off the front and during the meal the heavens opened for about 20 minutes. A tuk tuk back to the hotel as we are heading for Battambang tomorrow on a 5 or 6 hour bus journey so a bit of relaxing back in the room was required.