Phnom Penh tour & the Killing Fields
Trip Start
Oct 14, 2007
1
3
17
Trip End
Dec 04, 2007
Phnom Penh,
Cambodia
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
The Tuk-Tuk driver we had arranged the night before was waiting for us outside the hotel. His name is Wah. We arranged to go to the Killing Fields a few kilometres out of the city. On the way we took an unplanned detour on some very pot-holey road and stopped at a shooting gallery. I must admit that it did cross my mind that we could be the targets if we did not hand over our money. Fortunately we just were given a menu that inculuded coca cola as well as several weapons that you could shoot. Craig couldn't resist and insisted that his viewing of several Dirty Harry movies qualified him. After we got the paper target back I am glad that I won't have to rely on him to defend me. It was then a short journey to the killing fields - a memorial to those killed in that area during the Pol Pot regime. After viewing the evidence including the bones and skulls recovered from the mass graves, we somberly wandered around the perimeter of the complex. Just beyond the fence we could hear the laughter of a child. In a small boat a mother and daughter were collecting food from the river. They smiled and waved at us which got me thinking about the resilience of people and the hope in the midst of tragedy. We then moved on to the Russian Markets, so named because of the original population living there. The markets used to sell guns and grenades but now concentrates on local produce, clothes and houseld goods.
Craig's Target Sheet - As New!
We stopped off for a freshly squeezed orange juice and some traditional Khmer beef noodle soup. The total bill for 2 was $4.00.It was then back to our friendly tuk tuk driver who took us to the Genocide Museum. The site was orignally a local high school until it was taken over by the Khmer Rouge after the mass evacuation of Phnom Penh and used as a prison. S-21 as it was known was established in May 1976 - I was in my finalyear of uni! It is amazing to think that we knew nothing at all about this atrocity.
During the KR regime the school was enclosed by corrugated iron and electrified barbed wire. Houses around the four school buildings were used for adminstration, interrogation and torture.
Most of the guards at S21 were children aged between 10 and 15.
We walked through the buildings - on the first floor the classrooms had been converted into brick cells, on the second floor wooden cells and the third floor the classrooms were used as mass detention areas. It was here that we could still see the numbers painted on the walls that identified the prisoners. The prisoners were shackled with chains and iron bars to the floor and to each other. In order to do anything - even to alter their position they were required to ask permisson. Those who did not were severely beaten.
Wandering through the rooms of evidence including the photographs of the victims took my breath away. They appeared to be staring into my eyes no matter from what angle I looked. Signs outside the buildings warning vsitors not to smile seemed somewhat superfluous.
We were free to wander anywhere - noone came to check that we were not touching or taking anything. The country seems to be very trusting - I hope that it stays that way. Unfortunately some German tourist had scrawled on the wall "This is not taught in our history" Ironic.
The experience is one I will not forget. The evidence of the previous school environment was still there including the outdoor exercise equipment that was used by the guards to torture the prisoners. Prisoners were hung upside down until they lost consciousness and then revived by sticking their heads in flthy water.
This prison and the killing fields were only examples of the many that exist throughout the country.
It is only now that the country is beginning to rebuild. I feel priveleged to have had this experience and I can only hope that the trust and friendliness of the people is maintained through the inevitabilty of westernisation.
