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Published: February 25th 2009
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Phnom Penh
Skulls of those murdered. Phnom Penh was a pretty cool city but there was really nothing to see if you stayed more than 1.5 days. So that is exactly what we did. We arrived in Phnom Penh late after a long bus ride from Saigon. We found accommodations for the night and ate dinner. Everyone we met told us to watch a movie called “The Killing Fields,” to get a better idea of what they were before we went, so we popped the movie in at the hostel and watched it before going to bed.
We woke fairly early and headed to the Killing Fields the next morning. It was pretty intense to hear what happened here and why. In the mid 70’s a man by the name of Pol Pot started an organization called Khmer Rouge and they were directly responsible for a mass genocide of the population that was directly responsible for wiping out 1/3 of Cambodia’s population. Pol Pot only murdered educated people and their families because he wanted Cambodia‘s history to be erased so it could start out as a farming country and slowly build it’s way out of the stone age. He wanted Cambodia to rebegin at year zero.
Phnom Penh
17 levels of the skulls & bones of those excavated are held in this building. He assumed the best way to do this was to kill everyone who was educated! Doesn’t seem to be the best method in my eyes!
At the entrance they built a pagoda that holds the skulls of the almost 9,000 victims discovered in the mass graves on site. It was open and as you can see in the pictures, you could literally touch the skulls if you wanted, I didn’t! From there the tour started and they showed us the mass graves. Every year during the rainy season, the river next to the site floods and removes a ton of dirt revealing more human bones and the clothing of the victims who died here. These clothes and bones were still there, some half in the ground and some half out. It was very eerie! I guess the process was as follows, they would bring there innocent people from the prison they were held at blindfolded with there hands tied behind there back. They would make them kneel at the edge of the grave and hit them in the head with a shovel, bat or some other farming tool and kick them in the grave on top of the others.
Phnom Penh
The mass graves. They used this method because bullets were too expensive and seen as a waste of money. A lucky portion of these people would die from the trauma to their skulls because the rest were buried alive. A large speaker was attached to a nearby three that blared loud music so the farmers who worked nearby could not hear the victims screams of agony. Another mass grave was located next to the “Killing Tree,” it contained all the tiny skulls. They would take babies and small children by their legs and bash their heads against this tree that had nails sticking out of it, then dispose of the body in the grave.
Our tour guide was able to explain everything to us on the tour and answer any questions we had. The part that really sticks out in my mind came at the end of the tour when our guide told us that his two older sisters died during Pol Pot’s regime. They were not murdered at the Killing Fields but they died while farming in the fields from starvation. He said he was lucky because his parents were not educated and he was too young to work in the fields
Phnom Penh
Clothes of the victims. so he was sent to live with his grandparents. All of this killing happened in the matter of 5 years, this is a direct result of Cambodia having such a young population. The other thing he said was that all the people at the forefront of the Khmer Rouge Regime that were still alive were put on trial for there crimes 2 days prior to our visit to the site. You could hear the happiness in his voice. The tour was only about an hour long but pretty intense!
On a lighter note, the following day we woke at 8am and headed to the National Museum to see some ancient sculptures and some other Cambodian history. We walked around and saw the Royal Palace and some other monuments then headed back to the hostel to shower up before the long bus ride on a dirt road to Siem Reap.
Lastly, I'd like to point out that you can legally shoot AK’s and Bazookas here. It’s about $30 US to fire off a round at targets and for a few extra bucks they’ll let some chickens loose to fire at. Same with the bazooka but it’s $250 US,
Phnom Penh
Graves of the 14 prisoners found murdered in their cells. you get one shot and for an extra $100 US they will tie a cow to a tree and you get one shot to blow it up. Where else in the world would this fly?
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Alan
non-member comment
Awww....Good ol' Pol Pot
Hey Cameron, Glad to see all is well. Just reading this blog. How amazing that must have been. I remember reading years and years ago about Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, and wondering why nobody in America really had any interest. As the years passed I realized that there really was nothing to gain...no oil...no natural resources..nothing to exploit, so Pol Pot made kill-kill and we just watched the Cosby Show. Anyway, great read man and I am glad you got to see what you did. I would have loved to be there for this part of the trip...macabre history like this interests me to no end. Along with so many of your travels, you'll never forget this. Enjoy and keep the blogs a comin.....Jess is getting in editor mode! Later man, Alan