We had planned to visit the killing fields today and maybe the shooting range so when we woke up we got breakfast at the rooftop bar. My eggs were a bit slimey which put me off abit so i just ate mainly the bread and bacon and enjoyed my strawberry and banana smoothie. When we left the guesthouse we were approached by a tuktuk driver who would take us to the killing fields so we got in and began the 10km journey out of town. Some of the roads were really bumpy so we were bouncing about a lot in the back.
The tuktuk driver had driven us to the shooting range even though we hadn't told him we wanted to go there but we got out anyway as it was on our to do list in Pnom penh. Apparently it's an old military base but you wouldn't think it. There was a wall with around 15 different fire arms displayed which you could later take photos with. We were greeted by a man who sat us down at the table and gave us a menu for guns. There were many different guns to shoot: ak47, m4, pistol, m16, rpg, shotgun, rocket launcher and grenades. The prices all started from $40 all the way up to $150. It would cost you $100 to fire just one bullet from a shotgun!
With Dan's help and the man's advice i decided on firing an M16 and Dan wrnt for an M4. We both got 30 bullets to fire so we headed through a door and into a dark, smokey shooting range. He had set up my M16 first so i had to shoot before Dan. He told me where to look to aim and where to hold the gun. The aim was ridiculously small, there was a hole the size of a pin to look through. Dan bought three coconuts for us to shoot instead of the target. He handed us ear muffs to protect our ears from the loud sounds of the gun. The man was stood behind me with his hand pressed against my right shoulder blade to support my shoulder from the force of the gun when shooting and i began.
I really couldn't see where i was aiming because of the darkness and smokiness and the sight was so small so i basically was shooting freestyle. At first the gun was on a setting to shoot individual bullets and after around 10, he changed the gun to automatic so bullets would fire simultaneously; like a machine gun. I still didn't hit anything which i was gutted about but i still shot a gun! Dan's turn came next and he managed to hit all three coconuts, i wish i chose the gun he had instead! After we had fired all the bullets we headed back out through the door and began to take pictures with the guns displayed on the wall. I had do rein-act the opening credits to a james bond film, i just had to.
Feeling a bit criminalistic, we hoped back into the tuktuk to head to the killing fields. When we arrived we paid $5 each for entry and were handed audio tours in english to listen to as we made our way around. It was shocking to hear of the torture that happened in the field and see the mass graves where up to 450 bodies were found. Bones and clothing would occasionally resurface after rainy season and we could see bits of fabric and pieces of bone on the floor we walked on. The most harrowing part of the tour was when we arrived at a mass grave of women and children which was next to a tree called the killing tree. Khmer rouge soldiers would hold babies by their legs and whack their heads against this big tree until they were dead and fling them into the ditch next to it along with naked women (most of whom were raped before they were killed) and other babies and children. Visitors had left friendship bracelets all over the tree and on the graves as a sign%