Fly into PP and immediately realize that we have entered a hot zone, and not because of the Khmer Rouge -- it actually feels hotter than Siam Reap which didn't seem possible! After collecting our bags at the airport, we get picked up by local guide Sieha - and there the whirlwind began.

With no time to waste, we transition from a peaceful sunrise in the Angkor Wat temples to... the Killing Fields. We walk on a path through the KF that has hundreds, if not thousands, of bone fragments of those people killed during the Pol Pot regime. We go into the pagoda/shrine with 12+ tiers of skulls and bones found when excavation began in 1980.

Then on to S21, the prison operated by the Khmer Rouge. Seems everyone who was different in any way were either imprisoned or transported to the KF to be slaughtered like cattle. Some 2 million men, women and children were killed. Farmers, teachers, students, journalists, people from all walks of life were killed here. We met one of the 2 remaining survivors of the small handful who lived to tell the story of S21. Both of them, now seniors, spend every (very hot) afternoon at S21 to speak to visitors - and one has written a book about their experience.

[No shade. Everything seems melty in the car. Only the bottled water in the Igloo Cooler is not, but outside in the air it warms up from frosty to tepid in about 2 minutes.]