Killing fields

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So today, Thursday, it was time to leave PP. We had a 7.30am start and time to meet some new fellow travellers, Phillipa who is heading back to the UK from Oz and Chas and Becky who are two girls just in from Vietnam.



Our first port of call was S-21 prison and torture centre. This was previously a school but when Pol Pot came to power he closed all schools and hospitals etc down. He made the people of the city leave and go to work in the countryside to produce food and work on the farms in almost total slavery. We wanted to hire a local guide to go round the prison so we would know and understand the history of the prison, but all the guides were ring fenced as a group of 200 students from a local school were due to arrive so we had to wander around at will.



The camp was used to receive, house, torture and kill alleged traitors to the Khmer Rouge regime. It was a very sobering and moving visit. There were cells which had the original beds and shackles in and photos on the wall of actual victims.



There was an exhibition of photos of victims of the camp, hundreds were shown but they were a fragment of the thousands of people who ended up there men, women, teenagers & children, old and young alike. Professionals, farmers, office workers any body and everybody no one was safe.



One building of the five in the complex was still shown as it was originally with the barbed wire across the front of the building and inside you can see how they built narrow cells from brick and wood.



Inmates were tortured in a number of ways, treated brutally and killed in the buildings. When the Vietnam forces came to free the city they found 14 bodies in the cells including one woman, and they were buried on the site and there graves are noted with white coffin shaped sarcophagus's.



There are paintings done by survivors showing the brutality of the torture the inmates endured. There are only 4 survivors left today and they have written their story of their internment and experiences whilst being held in the camp. Two of them 'work' there and you can chat to them. Unfortunately we only had an hour there so it wasn't possible to spend time talking to them. It would have also been nice to spend more time reading the information provided and the written records of those people who had 'confessed' to their crimes they were accused of and of the soldiers who worked there and their stories, However we were only allotted an hour there so something's had to be skipped.



After the S21 camp we headed to the Killing Fields which was about 40 minutes away just on the outskirts of the city. The site was originally the site of a Chinese cemetery but was commandeered as the site of mass graves When the Khmer Rouge took power. Prisoners from S21 were taken there in trucks and executed under the sound of political music playing through loud speakers to mask the sounds of their screaming as they were brutally tortured. Pol Pot said it was better to kill an innocent person than allow a spy or traitor to live.



We hired audio guides and wandered from point to point to hear the story narrated by a survivor of the camp. It was very moving listening to the commentary with added information from other survivors and prison guards. Some graves have been left untouched but others have been fully excavated and documented. As the water erodes the soil of the graves pieces of bone fragments, teeth and also items of clothing are still coming to the surface. You are asked not to take them away as souvenirs, and the local staff periodically collect them up and add the remains to those already found.



In one grave they found 140 headless bodies of Khmer soldiers who were executed for not doing there job correctly. In another grave they found bodies of women children and babies. It was documented that babies were held by their legs and had their heads bashed against the tree. After the atrocities they found bone and brain matter on the bark of the tree and around the base Next tot he grave where the women and babies were brutally killed. Prisoners were killed by any and every means possible other than being shot, as bullets were expensive. Prisoners were blindfolded and had their hands tied behind their backs and were killed in brutal barbaric methods using hammers, pick axes, knives, scythes etc.



Around some of the mass graves bamboo enclosures have been erected and hundred of braided bands have been tied to the bamboo in memory of those who died. They were also pinned to the tree used to kill the babies.



All around were dips in the soil to mark the place where excavated graves are. Only about half of the graves have been opened up the rest have been left untouched and the souls left to rest in peace.



As you walk in the gate and up to second audio point you can see the huge memorial tower which has been built to house some of the thousands of bones and skulls, and gives you a sense of just how many people were executed there. Again sadly we only had an hour there so I didn't have time to fully explore the museum or watch the video they had playing there. It would have been better to have an extra 30 minutes at each place. However our guide said we needed to leave PP by 11 as we had a 3 hour journey to the coast and had to catch the ferry over to the island where we were due to stay for the night.



We left the killing fields and continued our journey stopping off for the loo and to buy snacks as it would be a late lunch. During the journey our guide advised that in the island there was no leccy between 10pm and 6am as the power was provided by a generator. Also no wifi And the accommodation wasn't the greatest. Phillipa on our bus has a fear of boats especially the small variety and we had been told that the crossing would be choppy and opted to stay on the mainland. I decided that after the experience of the home stay I would keep her company and also stay on the mainland. The other 3 decided to ruff it lol.

However it turns out the accommodation wasn't that bad and they were told by some guy that if they went swimming in the sea at night it would light up due to the plankton living in the waters of the island, something our guide failed to tell us about. If we had known we would have braved the basicness of the accommodation just for the experience. Oh well may be another time another place.



We got dropped off and arranged to be picked up again the next day at 11am. There was a rather odd looking lady boy in the car par who was insistent we followed him/her to look at a room in a guest house. The first room was small, only had a fan and no wifi and smelled fusty so we said no. He then took us to another guest house and we were shown a much bigger room with two double beds, AC although it turned out that the AC was not working so we had a fan. It did smell a bit fusty but for one night we didn't mind but it had wifi which was most important. So we took it for the princely sum of $10 for the night.



Once in and settled we went to find somewhere to eat which was quick and easy as there was only a small row of shops, guest houses and restaurants. We opted for pizza! Whilst eating there was a kerfuffle and it appeared there was a small fire in in one of the apartments above a shop further down, but it all seemed to be under control. We then crossed the road and walked along the beach paddling in the surf chatting and taking photos. There are two statues on the shore line, one of a lady waiting for her lost love to return and one a huge crab as the local area is famous for it's crabs. Makes sense lol.



We then wandered back to the room but were told that there was no leccy due to the fire so we decided to get a cold drink and chill out on the hammocks which were all under cover along the roadside just over from the beach. We stayed there most of the afternoon and later the leccy kicked in again and the wifi. Amazingly the wifi worked when we were sitting on the hammocks!



Later as the sun was setting I decided to walk up to the bend in the road to get some photos. As I was walking along some monkeys appeared which freaked me out a little lol. So I walked round the corner and saw the sunset and got some photos. There was a Cambodian couple who were sitting on some steps eating fruit enjoying the view. I walked to near where they were sitting and the guy asked me if I could speak English so inlaid yes. We got chatting about me and my travels and England and he and his family and his job as a teacher and they shared their fruit with me. And even offered me a life back to Kep as it had gotten dark but I politely declined and walked back of my own accord, no monkeys this time though.



I headed back to the hammocks and Phillipa and I stayed there until about ten and then headed to bed with the alarm set for 2pm so we could watch the England game and we all know how that ended!



Xx

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