A traumatic day

Today we organised a day trip around the city since we leave tomorrow and it was only $5 each in a a/c minibus plus there was only 3 of us (joined by Jay from Holland). Started the day at S-21 the school turned prison camp and now museum. We started by watching an excellent documentary about a young girl and her life during the revolution through to the Polpot years. During this time she got married to an officer but they were then separated as relationships were seen as a sign of weakness so families were split up. It included testimony from friends and family and personal letters from the husband and wife which were smuggled to each other. They both ended up in S-21 at the same time unbeknown to each other and were killed there. Needless to say it was a very human way of illustrating Cambodia's recent history and was very upsetting. We then spent some time going around the museum which included hundreds of photos of men, women and children all victims of the camp some looked as young as 2. The cells, leg irons, torture instruments are still in place here. At times it was all a bit too much (bit like the Vietnam War Museum in HCMC) but is a valuable reminder of what has happened here and hopefully it will never happen again. It really made me think about what atrocities are happening across the world now and how useless you feel to do anything about them, but makes our everyday concerns seem so irrelevant. I hope that I never forget this but it is an incredibly uncomfortable state of mind.

1 - S21 Victims

We then left there to go to the Killing Fields themselves where many bodies were disposed. It felt a lot less highly charged here but was obviously still upsetting as human bones and clothes are piled in a Memorial Stupa in the middle and as you walk around the field where some of the burial mounds have been excavated you can see bits of clothing and remains through the dirt.

2 - Manacles

The rest of the day was a bit less emotional so I cheered up a bit you will be pleased to hear! We first went to the Russian Market and resisted buying anything but had a nice lunch at Cafe Yejj which is part of a project to empower disadvantaged young people. Followed by a visit to the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda which are in pristene gardens and the temples themselves are in great condition. It is all very similar to the palace in Bangkok but you have access to fewer of the monuments. A very different side to the rest of the day.

On return to our guest house we went for a great Indian meal where it was all you can eat for $2 each. Sometimes it is only when you have something again that you realise you missed it so much! It was great though and a nice way to end a pretty upsetting but fascinating day.

3 - S21

4 - S21 Wire

5 - Killing Fields Memorial

6 - Royal Palace

7 - Silver Pagoda

8 - Em catching some rays

9 - Sunset from our terrace