Here's a depressing one folks. Unfortunately, a visit to Phnom Penh is not complete without a visit to The Killing Fields of Choeung Ek and the Tuol Sleng Prison, more commonly known as S-21. From 1975 until January 1979, under the leadership of Pol Pot , the ultra-communist Khmer Rouge (Red Khmer) regime controlled all of Cambodia. They systematically killed thousands and millions more perished due to famine and disease. Prior to 1975, Choeung Ek was an orchard and Chinese cemetery but during the reign of the Khmer Rouge, it became one of the dozens of killing fields scattered about the country. Basically, they were just dumping grounds for the dead bodies of the executed. At this particular killing field, 17,000 men, women, and children were executed and buried in mass graves, usually before being tortured for confessions at S-21 prison. This place is quite disturbing to say the least. There is a memorial stupa, or tower, that houses 8,589 skulls from the the graves that have been disinterred. Of the 129 grave sites, 43 have never been dug up. Pieces of bones and clothing are still making their way up through the soil as Father Time combined with Mother Nature's rains slowly push them to the surface. One of the most disturbing locations here is The Killing Tree. In order to save on the cost of precious bullets, children were swung by the feet, baseball bat style, bashing their head into the tree until dead. Another favorite technique was to toss a child in the air and have them land on a spear. The Magic Tree nearby provided a place to hang a loudspeaker that made noises to muffle the sounds of those being executed. Tuol Sleng Prison, or S-21, was a high school until 1975 when Pol Pot's security forces converted it into a detention and interrogation center. 17,000 people were processed here and less than a dozen survived. Now it's a museum that is testament to the atrocities that occurred under the Khmer Rouge. The former classrooms were turned into prison cells and a children's swing set was used as a gallows. The museum has been left pretty much the way they found it so the reality of it hits pretty hard. They Khmer Rouge kept extensive records and took pictures of all the prisoners, making for a ghostly photo album on display. From here, everyone went on to the Choeung Ek Killing Fields for extermination and burial. It's pretty obvious now why the Cambodian people are still a little screwed up in the head...especially the older generation. Now it's time to go seek out some happy energy...