Phnom Penh- S 21- The Killing Fields

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Off to Cambodia...

We left the bustle of Saigon to join our new group heading to Phnom Penh. We took a local bus to get over the border which is quite interesting, a lot of "everyone off the bus" to show passports, then back on, back off, scan bags, back on, off, get visas etc.

My first impression was that Phnom Penh was a very rundown city, but after walking around you realize that the people are so happy and friendly, it is definitely slowly being rebuilt. There are parks everywhere, and new ones being built all over the place complete with monkeys and we saw a few elephants who give rides around.

We started our Cambodia adventure on a very low-note, visiting the S-21 Prison and the Killing Fields from the Khmer Rouge Reign. It was heartbreaking and terrifying, especially because it wasn't that long ago. The entire world turned a blind eye and I was amazed that i knew nothing about what actually happened.

The S-21 prison was a converted school filled with cells and interrogation rooms. They kept all the original cells and turned the place into a museum. Part of the museum has walls and walls of mug shots taken of each prisoner when they first arrived, each has a number tag pinned to their shirt collar, the numbers range from 1 to about 300 but as you walk through you see numbers repeated 3, 4 and 5 times. Our guide told us that only 7 people survived from the prison.

The last part of the museum has the photos of the Khmer Rouge soldiers, one was a child who looked about 3 or 4 years old. They have a section where they have the photos of the child soldiers next to a photo of them now and a write up by them or a family member about how they joined the khmer rouge and what happened.

We then got on the bus to the Phnom Penh Killing Fields, this is where the prisoners were taken when they 'confessed'. There were around 300 mass graves but they had only uncovered 127, the largest had 450 skulls. The most chilling part was the pathways through the graves, where there were bits of cloth and even bones sticking in the soil. The guide explained that as the rain washes the dirt back into the graves that they dug up, more and more bone and cloth is exposed along the pathways.

In the center of the field is a temple built in rememberance of those who died there. It is three stories high and has all the skulls they uncovered from the graves, there is a large alter in front full of insence and flowers.

The Khmer Rouge buried many of the body parts in different graves because in Buddisim if the body is not buried together the soul is doomed to wander the earth forever. We bought some insence to burn at the alter because the Buddhists belive it helps all the lost souls.

The most unbeliveable part of the whole experience is that former members and friends of Pot Pol and the leaders of the Khmer Rouge are still in the government today. The guide showed us a photo taken of Pot Pol and the other leaders, on the right you can see someones arm where the photo was cropped. The guide explained that the rest of the photo contains 4 people who are currently part of the goverment and has therefore been censored.

We all returned to the hotel feeling completely weighed down.

It was almost a relief to get on the bus the next day and head to Siem Reap and Angkor Wat, which we all knew would be a beautiful, uplifting experience.

Cambodia is an amazing country, everyone has a heartbreaking story and a bright smile all at the same time.

I'll write about Siem Reap and Angkor Wat soon, and hopefully I can get the photos of it online because you really can't explain it.
- Erin

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Comments

[eden]

pol pot
yeah. on this side of the ocean, you mostly hear about the holocaust and the soviets killing their own people but there is totally messed up stuff wherever you go. pol pot, mao, hirohito. people are jerks. in thailand now? you're way behind your updates

[mnd]

Phnom Penh
What a first impression of Cambodia. You are so right, people (at least those my age) know about the Vienam war, but relatively little is known about Cambodia. The name Pot Pol is familiar, the the killing fields are known, but the extend of the attrocities is not ccommon knowledge. It's amazing how resilient people are: all that tragedy, and people are friendly. We look forward to your next report.

[Jeff Ruehle]

wow
What an experience to learn about, its just bewildering to find out about some of the things elsewhere in the world that hasn't existed to us over here. Have fun in BKK

[J-J-Julia]

Basically was going to say everything that was said above! Yes, sadly I must admit I've never heard of Pot Pol either, it's so sad that that's the case over our way. On to the next entry!