Phnom Penh and the killing fields

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The 7 hour journey from HCMC to Phnom Penh, Cambodia's capital, was more or less event free with the border crossing being very straight forward and slick. The first couple of hours, whilst we got our bearings were not a very positive start but we soon chilled out and started to like the place. The biggest surprise was the extensive use of dollars here - not an optional currency that suits international travellers but the main currency with Cambodian Riel only being used for very small change. We had rebelled against the dollar elsewhere since the roundings always seem to be in the vendors favour and so we rejected the first cash machine that offered only dollars from our card. We were then livid when the next one gave us 100$ note which we had to change before being able to hail a tuk tuk.

Phnom Penh isn't a huge city and the very rough roads everywhere except the very centre means it certainly doesn't feel like a capital. Having said that, the area along the river side with its huge Royal Palace, huge pagoda and melange of other majestic buildings is a bit of a give away that it does have some status. Right along the river front is a series of competitively priced restaurants and bars (local drink being draught Ankor, 0.5$) and is the main tourist hub. We ate here a couple of times but chose to stay in a different area with a smaller cluster of hotels and restaurants just inside the city which we found to be akin to Chorlton, Manchester. This chic area of town was a little more expensive but very cool with its music vibe and trendy beer gardens.

The only thing we really wanted to do here was see Choeung Ek, the killing fields but whilst this was on our bucket list, we weren't exactly enthusiastic about such a morbid day out. We hired a bike and braved the very dusty, pot holed road riding 15km out of city. The killing fields here, enclosed on 3 sides by a fence and with a lake on the 4th, are the most notorious of several locations in Cambodia where thousands of people were killed and buried as part of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge's regime between 1975 and 1979. The 86 mass graves exhumed here contained the bodies of 8985 men, women and children who were brought here at night to sign their own death warrant and walk to their own graves then be executed or buried alive. A further 43 mass graves remain untouched. Skulls and other large bones have been displayed in the large stupa which is full of hindu and buddhist symbolism. During rain, clothing, bones and teeth still emerge here and can be seen on the ground in some areas. The audio tour is excellent and provides a lot of factual information as well as some first hand accounts. Stops on the walking tour include the original Chinese graves on the site, a collections of clothing and 'The killing tree' against which, babies were hit before being thrown in the pit nearby. There is also a museum here containing some of the killing tools; hoes, axes and hammers etc. These tools were used as bullets were considered to be too expensive.

To complete the picture we visited the Toul Sleng genocide museum once back in the city, an old school converted into the S21 detention centre. Here, political prisoners, (anyone who was thought to be educated included teachers, doctors, monks and anyone with glasses) were interrogated and tortured, accused of anti-revolutionary behaviour, before being sent to Choeung Ek. Their family was taken too to reduce the risk of revenge. The prison is untouched since being found by liberating Vietnamese forces and remains uncleaned with blood stains on the floor and walls. 13 rooms display pictures of how 13 bodies were found dead in each one. After a long day of harrowing sites, we decided enough was enough and we were quick to leave here. I felt guilty for not looking at all of the prisoners pictures from Khmer records but some were just too graphic.

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