Exploring Phnom Phen - Part 2 - The Killing Fields

After a day of exploring Phnom Phen, it was time to visit The Killing Fields. The hotel I was staying at booked me a tuk-tuk for the day to take me to The Killing Fields and the Toul Sleng Genocide museum. I think a better idea might be to join a small tour group, there is normally a guide with loads of interesting bits of history to tell you, where as the tuk-tuk drops you off at your location and waits for you to return.

The first stop was to be Choeng Ek, the site of the mass graves of those killed by the Khmer Rouge from 1975 - 1979. This area is also known as The Killing Fields. Here nearly 9000 bodies were later discovered. It takes about hour to get there from Phnom Phen and one cannot but help noticing the pollution along the way. On arrival at Choeng Ek, you are given head sets and the story of the Killing Fields unfolds bit by bit. Once inside the gardens the first thing you notice is an elegant pagoda.

But on closer inspection, you see it is full of skulls, classified in age, gender and type of execution.

From here you walk around the mass graves. The graves were not very deep, so a lot of bone and cloth has come to the surface over the years. Lots of graves are marked and have stories to tell.

The saddest for me was to see a tree where they smashed the heads of babies against, known as the killing tree. In these graves the bodies of mothers and babies were found.

There was even a tree that had a radio with loud revolutionary music hanging from it. This was to drown out the cries of those being executed.

The hour ride back into town was spent, digesting and reflecting what I had just seen. The next stop was the Toul Sleng genocide Museum, a former school used as a security prison known as S-21. Here more than 20 000 people were tortured, convicted and executed between 1975 -1979.

Here everyone was found guilty, doctors, nurses, all deemed as intellectuals and were sentenced to death. If you wore glasses you were deemed an intellectual and executed. Torture was part of the daily existence, so metal bars and electric fences were put on windows and balconies so people could not escape or commit suicide.

Soon these mass grave became full, the were executing people faster than they could bury them. When this happened they started transferring them to Choeung Ek, promising them a better, but in reality they were sending them to The Killing Fields.

This has probably been one of the most sobering experiences for me. Mainly because this has happened in my life time. I was a child then living a happy free life in South Africa while there were kids my age experiencing this. I later went on to meet a tuk-tuk driver the same age as me, who had been through the whole thing in the north of Cambodia, but that is another story. Another interesting thing for me is, that only 10% of Cambodia's youth have visited The Killing Fields and cannot or won't believe it existed.

I took all these photos while visiting Cambodia in January with my Samsung Prime Core Mobile phone.

A big thanks to @travelfeed for creating #travelfeed, it has really inspired m e to write decent content of my travels.

If you missed part 1, exploring Phnom Phen, here it is:
https://steemit.com/goldenhourphotography/@nickyprescott/exploring-phnom-penh-part-1

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