It's the 19th February and we are in Phnom Penh for one night. When we arrived we headed straight in in a tuk tuk to Choeung Ek, the most well know of Cambodia's killing fields. We were given audio guides to listen to as we walked round and its horrible to think what went on there only around 30years ago. We wanted to visit to understand more about it and they do explain it well with real stories from survivors. There were mass graves and the skulls if the victims placed inside a monument so people can pay respects. We couldn't believe how many people had died there and in such a awful way.
We then visited the Tuol Sleng museum. This was once a school used as a prison to hold and interrogate prisoners before taking them to the killing fields nearby. Again this was a very sad place, as you walk round there are pictures of the prisoners some elderly, and some children. Out of 20,000 people that were held here at some stage at the end when it was discovered there were only 7 people alive. One of the survivors was there selling his book on the way out which was sad to see as what he must have experienced there, including being beaten and his wife being killed must bring back all those memories each day.
So overall a bit of a sad day but very interesting to find out about and to understand what the Cambodians went through.