Words wouldn't do it justice

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Geo: 11.5588, 104.917

The following day began with a problem. A phone call at 7am (so much for our much-anticipated lie-in) to tell us our bus was here. "Bus?" queried a very tired, grumpy and confused traveller.
"Bus to Siem Reap," explained the chirpy receptionist.
"We are booked on for tomorrow,"I sighed, the panic rising in me as I realised we must have booked the wrong dates. The line went dead. Leaping out of bed, I scrabbled around for the tickets. No mistake, we were booked on for tomorrow at 8.30. Relief was ours. Sleep however, was not.

We got ready and went downstairs to get breakfast before our tuk-tuk to S21. "Breakfast? We can't do breakfast,"explained the same chirpy receptionist. This was news to us, having been asked the previous evening if we wanted to pay for our room with breakfast or without, and we had agreed to pay the extra 5 dollars. Apparently, this was not possible, and so the money was refunded and we popped into the bakery next door and enjoyed freshly baked Danish pastries and Pain au chocolat. Feeling somewhat generous, we also bought one for our tuk-tuk driver and hopped aboard.

Our first destination was S21, the harrowing former-school-turned-prison used by the Khmer Rouge to imprison, interrogate and torture suspected revolutionaries, intellectuals, educated people and those of a high social standing. Even wearing glasses was enough to have you suspected. All this in their ruthless quest to create a peasant-led utopia to start Cambodia's history again. Coupled with the destruction of national monuments, educational institutions and public buildings, the aim was to create a communist regime in the extreme. The prison documented the torture methods, photographs of the inmates and testimonies of the 7 survivors when the prison was liberated by the Vietnamese in 1979. Blood stains marked the places where brutal torture was carried out; beds left in their original positions were accompanied by horrifying photographs of the last moments of those who had lost their lives there; cell doors were left hauntingly swinging to-and-fro, echoing the slamming of only 30 years ago.

Having been here before, and seen the pictures and read the stories, I did not expect to be as affected this time, having found myself numb by the final walk through the final room last time. However, I found myself crying at the same picture as last time, the terror in the eyes of one of the accused reaching out from the grainy black-and-white photograph displayed amongst hundreds of others. With all respect to the Cambodian people, the building has not been altered since it was removed from Khmer Rouge control in 1979. The sense of horror and despair echoes around each (thankfully empty) rudimentary cell and corridor.

Without going there, it is impossible to appreciate the true horror of the Pol Pot regime, and even having been there, I cannot even begin to imagine the terror felt by those whose lives were torn apart in the brutal 4-year period (and for even longer as the leaders escaped to the countryside with more victims). What is known, and can be understood, are the facts and figures relating to the regime: between 1 and 3 million men, women and children were executed by Pol Pot and his clique. Whole families were brought into S21, and over its 4-year life-span, the prison saw over 15,000 people pass through its barbed-wire fences. Wire covers the windows to prevent anyone from taking their own lives by leaping from one of the higher "balconies" and classrooms turned into mass cells often contained 20 - 50 people, shackled to one another and to the enclosing walls. Only 7 living people walked out of S21 and the final 14 victims found on the day of liberation are buried in the courtyard of the prison.

The next stop on our macabre tour was to Choeung Ek, or The Killing Fields, made famous by the film of the same name. This is the place that the inmates of S21 were brought to be executed. Each mass grave contained up to 166 bodies, one grave contained the headless corpses of 130 people, another the heads of babies buried alongside their mothers. Simple signs were placed above each of the grave sites, while rags of clothing and bone fragments were simply scattered along the pathways: too frequent and part of the earth to be removed. One of the most horrifying and shocking parts of the area was the tree used to execute babies and children; guards would hold them by the ankles and swing them into the tree trunk. Precious bullets were rarely used on children or adults; the favoured method of execution was to bludgeon prisoners with their own tools. Music was played from speakers adorning the "magic tree" in the centre of the site, to drown out the screams of the people as they lost their lives to the cruelty of the regime.

Overlooking the whole site, stands a Buddhist stupa, a 17-storey tower built to hold the remains of the 9000 bodies exhumed from the mass-graves (a further 8000 have been left in their final-resting places). The monument provides a haunting and harrowing picture of the sheer volume of victims of Pol Pot's reign of terror, an image which stuck with me 8 years ago, and will continue to do so.

To think that without having been to the country, I would not have known the horrific events of that time period is shocking. This history is within many people's living memory, and Pol Pot did not die until 1998, yet still much of the West remains oblivious to the scars left on Cambodia. 1/4 of the whole population was wiped out, and yet the people here are among the friendliest, most cheeful and accommodating people I have ever had the pleasure to meet. I recommend a visit to Cambodia for both its beauty and its tragic past to everyone.

The afternoon was spent fairly soberly, wandering along the riverfront and discovering some of the temples in Phnom Penh. The evening was spent at ""Friends Restaurant" a not-for-profit scheme which trains up local street children to serve and cook in the restaurant. An adjoining $3 million centre to help street children to gain other skills, such as mechanics, nail art and carpentry is being re-paid through charitable donations. The centre provides counselling, shelter, unites families and provides support for children to get them off the streets and into safe environments. GAP adventures bought 2 bricks while we were there, and this can be done online. If you are looking for a worthwhile cause to donate your money to, you could not go wrong with this institution. The food was incredible, one of the best meals I have ever had, and the staff were wonderful. A real highlight. One of the best parts for me was seeing black and white photographs of grinning children and teenagers beaming out from the walls, a far-cry from the black and white photos so ingrained on our minds from the morning.

Beer, goodbye to the group, and then to bed as our 8.30 bus to Siem Reap was calling by in the morning.

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