What a full on day.

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The Killing Fields
Disturbing images seen
Really makes you think.

Pretty heavy and full on morning today. We went to Toul Sleng Genocide Museum (formerly a school that served as the Khmer Rouge torture centre). This is where many were tortured and killed by Pol Pot's army (who btw many of whom were as young as 10 to 12 years old!) because they were suspected of being against Angkor. We walked through some of the interrogation rooms where some of the torture devices and very graphic pictures were on display. We also saw some of the individual isolation cells that were really small...can't remember the dimensions but would guess about 3 feet by 6 feet?? Then to top it off, they were chained at the feet to this little cell and would have to ask for permission to turn over because when the guards would hear the chains they would accuse the prisoner of trying to escape.

Some facts that Mr. Rarn our tour guide told us that stick out in my mind is that in 1970 to 75 the population of Cambodia was about 7 million. By 1975 to 1979 the population had dropped down to about 4 million. Of which about 2 million were killed and the other million died of starvation. All that in 3 years, 8 months and 20 days...
Mr. Rarn also shared some gory and graphic details about the prison that are too gruesome to repeat.

We also went to The Killing Fields...well, one of many Killing Fields. This particular mass grave had 8985 bodies that were discovered. They had a huge memorial (Choung EK Memorial) there that housed all of the skulls that were discovered. It was all pretty unsettling to see and I couldn’t believe there were so many people taking pictures! Sometimes you just have to draw the line and not take a picture of everything that you see…

We had lunch at Mith Samlanh "Friends" restaurant. Basically a teaching restaurant with really, really good food!

After resting up a bit we headed off at about 4PM to secure a good spot at one of the local hammock bars. It was really awesome and totally relaxing just swinging there and watching the sun set. There were a lot of kids shimmying up to our bungalows. At first I wasn't sure what it was the little girl wanted but then I figured out that she wanted my empty pop can. We also had kids asking us if we wanted shoe shines, durian, mango and dvd's.

So hanging out on the hammocks was a nice way to cap off such a heavy morning.

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Photos

Fun at the hammock bars
Rich and Penny..swinging action!