On thursday we decided to visit the Killing fields and genocide museum. This meant another relatively early start which began with a breakfast of boiled egg & soldiers, best breakfast ever in my opinion (sorry Sharpley, if you read this!)
After breakfast, we took a tuk tuk to Choeung Ek genocidal centre (famously know as the killing fields). We paid the entrance fee and were given headsets in English to listen to as we walked around. We were told of the Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot's regime that meant that hundreds of thousands of Cambodia's were brutally exterminated from Jan 1975 until 1979 when the Vietnamese finally stepped in. Thousands of people were loaded onto trucks weekly, sent to the killing fields, murdered and slung into mass graves. Men, women, children & even small babies. It did not matter to the Khmer Rouge. As you walked around, the full horrors became apparent. Especially the killing tree, where babies and children would have been thrown against before being put into mass graves with other women and children. The tour ended with memorial which contained hundred of sculls and other bones of the victims as a constant reminder of these atrocities. For further insight into Cambodia during the khmer rouge, I recommend reading 'When broken glass floats: growing up under the khmer rouge - by Channrithy Him'
Our next stop was a little local place for lunch by the genocidal centre. I was approached by a cambodian guy working there who said to me "you were at the palace yesterday, I recognise you from the freckles. I have them too, see. In Cambodia people with freckles are thought to be diseased". So that might explain the looks I'm getting then!!
After lunch we continued our depressing day by visiting Toul Sleng Genocide museum (also know as S21). Before the Khmer Rouge took over, it used to be a high school in Phnom Pehn. However during 1975-1975 it was used as a prison where cambodians were detained, interrogated, tortured before being sent to the killing fields. Many often died beforehand because of the extreme conditions they were kept in. When we arrived at S21, a little girl came up to us and said "I know you", she'd been trying to sell us bracelets everyday since arriving in Phnom Pehn, with little success.
Since arriving in Bangkok on the 27th, Sam and Fran had developed iPad envy so in the evening we took a walk to the nearest apple store (housed in Lucky Burger of all places) so they could each purchase one. As a result the evening was spent attending geek club and not much else!!