Phnom Penh – Tuol Sleng and Choeung Ek Killing Fields

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After a long journey from Siem Riep we arrived into what felt like a very manic, claustrophobic city. First on our agenda was to make our way to the Vietnamese Embassy to hand in our passports for a visa. After this we were taken to what is described in our guide book as a romantic, peaceful area – and I’m sure if you can get past the smell of sewage it would be! Already we were not off on the right foot with Phnom Penh. On this note we decided we didn’t want to stay here for 3 days waiting for our visa to be processed. 40mins after handing our passports in we were back at the embassy to reclaim them. With no visa the ‘official’ tried to charge us $40 dollars to get them back!! Obviously this didn’t go down well and we were in the midst of quite a barney, with the threat of being blacklisted and not allowed entry to Vietnam! Finally we managed to barter down to $30 dollars and were soon looking to leave Phnom Penh as soon as!

However this was not before visiting Tuol Sleng (S.21) museum and Choeung Ek killing fields. Both of these sights were created as a result of the genocide ordered by Pol Pots of the Khmer Rouge regime from 1975-1979. It is estimated that over 20,000 Cambodian people were brutally tortured and killed during this time, all in an attempt to create an extreme communist society. What took place at both these sights was absolutely shocking and really disturbing. We found it quite difficult to process all that we had learned that day, even more so when realising that a generation before us would have been subject to this brutal regime.

Although Phnom Penh hasn’t been our favourite city thus far, it was well worth the trip in order to learn more of the Cambodian history. We would definitely recommend coming here for that. We actually became slightly more endeared to the city after seeing all that it had been through just 30 years previous, It definitely gave us a different perspective to that of our first impressions.

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Photos

Killing Fields
Remains of Victims