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Published: August 9th 2012
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After our little 6 hour journey from Siem Reap, we arrived in driving rain but managed to get a tuk tuk to our hotel - the Okay Hostel. It took ages with cars and tuk tuks going the wrong way down the roads, on the pavements - you name it! Needless to say, road markings, zebra crossings and traffic lights mean absolutely nothing in Asia!! There were thousands of people on mopeds - it's the main form of transport here as parking is limited and they go out in all weathers and with as many as 5people on any one little bike. Babies, shopping and huge boxes are often spotted. Hilarious! One bloke had 8 massive boxes stacked high on the back of his bike - one wobble and it would have been a disaster. Anyway, our hostel was ok (hence the name) despite a horrible climb up hundreds of stairs to get to our room. We hunted around to see if we could find Murray's Wimbledon final match but we weren't anywhere near any tourist pubs or bars so We settled for the Internet.
The next day we headed to Tol Sleong museum or SL 21 which is an
old school that was used as a prison during the war to torture and kill any government officials, sympathizers or educated people. Each 'classroom' had just a single bed in it and a picture on the wall of the dead person pictured just after they were tortured and killed. Some of the injuries were horrible and the rooms were left pretty much as found minus the blood stains on the floor. Brutal. These people had done nothing more than get good jobs with the government or get an education and they were tortured to death because the pol pot regime thought they were spies for the KGB and were a threat to them.
The outside walls were covered in barbed wire to prevent prisoners killing themselves and they used the old sports climbing frame to hang and dunk prisoners. The torture devices were horrid. In another building, tiny individual cells were built with very little light and room. Many died of disease. It was here that some prisoners were 'taken away' to another place, thinking they might be saved but it was to the killing fields... The regime was very thorough and pictures and notes were made of every
prisoner which were shown at the museum and these all included women and children. It also detailed the pol pot regime and who was involved. It is sad to say that only a couple are alive to face trial for their war crimes... They should rot in hell.
After this happy adventure, we were recommended to go to the killing fields on the same day by Keasty so that we only feel like killing ourselves on the one day, rather than two!! So off we went on our tuk tuk to an area a few KM's out of the city. We collected our audio guides and set off on a set route around the area and at each point, we were told about the atrocities here. It was brilliantly done and a very peaceful place despite the horror. The area used to be an orchard and an old Chinese burial ground which was surrounded by farmland - perhaps why it was chosen. The regime would truck people here, register them and set about murdering them in mass graves. To save ammunition, they would use anything to kill or maim them including the leaves of the palm tree to slit
throats as it has a hard serrated edge. This particular palm tree is still there. They used hammers and knives to kill/fatally injure them and once in the mass grave, alive or dead, they would be covered in a white sulphuric powder which would slowly eat away at their flesh and kill them, whilst masking the smell of dead bodies so as not to arouse suspicion. they also played propaganda music to mask the noises of those being killed so that all prisoners still had no idea why they were here until it was too late.
The mass graves were separated into categories - one was for the headless soldiers (soldiers of the regime who tried to run) and another for men and boys accused of crimes they did not commit. The poor buggers had no idea they were here to be killed. One of the most disturbing parts of the walk was the fact that rags, clothes and bones are visible on the muddy pathway were the rain and weather brings them to the surface from the mass graves. We saw a tooth and several long bones sticking out along the way, under our feet with clothes everywhere,
stuck in the ground. They have keepers who collect them all in boxes as and when they appear. The next mass grave was the undoing of us both though- it was a mass grave for women and children. Not only that but there was a huge tree next to it which was named as the killing tree as the soldiers used to snatch kids and babies from their mothers, kill the mums and then hold the babies by their feet and slam their bodies/heads into the tree before flinging them in the grave, alive or dead. This was discovered when they found fragments of blood, bone and flesh all over the tree and it was at this tree, being told what had happened here that an accused member of pol pot broke down and confessed to the order to kill these people. These days, visitors have hung bracelets on the tree and it's a nice touch to such a horrid place. Nowadays they have built a huge temple which houses all of the skulls that they have discovered in the excavated mass graves. Many have severe fractures indicating how they died. It's a nice touch, if a little eerie.
After all of that, we headed back in need of a stiff drink!!!! We sat outside the hostel on a parked tuk tuk that night, and in revenge for all the times we are pestered "you want tuk tuk" we sat and said the same thing to every single Cambodian who walked by... We and they found it quite funny (if a little stupid!) We then got ourselves ready for our trip across the border to Vietnam!!! Loved Cambodia despite the atrocities and we were grateful that they remember their past as a reminder to us all.
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