With one day in Phnom Penh we decided to organise our own tour for the day taking in the main sights, our first stop, the Killing fields. We entered the gate at Choeung Ek, and were pleasantly surprised by the efficiency and that the audio tour provided was included in the cost of entry, around $6 per person. The audio guide paints the picture well. It describes how the site would have looked during the Khmer Rouge’s reign and includes first-person accounts of those who were there at the time. It puts into perspective what you can see today.

Cambodia became isolated and over the four years the Khmer Rouge ruled the country between 1975 – 1979, it’s estimated about 3 million people died. That was almost half the population at the time. At least 20,000 Cambodians were executed here at the Killing Fields in Phnom Penh (the site is also known as Choeung Ek Genocidal Centre)

There is a new addition to the site, the stupa housing the skulls and other bones of thousands of victims. It’s a tribute to those who lost their lives, a shrine to the horrors of what happened here.

S-21 Prison
It feels morbid to walk through the classrooms of the school, called Security Prison 21 during the time of the Khmer Rouge and now known as Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. In some rooms there are still blackboards up on the wall; in some there are photos of the prisoners; and in many there are still the instruments of torture. The prison here was for people accused of political crimes but most of the detainees had committed minor or no offences against the Khmer Rouge. Such was Pol Pot’s paranoia, he felt it better to kill an innocent than let a guilty person go free.

After visiting the killing fields and S-21 you are left speechless and empty inside. You do wonder how such a terrible thing can happen in the world we live in and prey that it never happens again.

To lighten the mood our final stop on our tour was the Royal Palace - a must see whilst in Phnom Penh.