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Phnom Penh is ok but we're glad to leave. It lacks the buzz of other cities and the food isn't great and our room last night was so feral we had to move this morning. The water was seeping through the walls and all over the floor and the bathroom was foul. The room was musty and smelt exactly like stewed cabbage!!!! I wish I could bottle the smell to show you it was the worst thing ever. It was also up about 8 flights of stairs. So anyway we moved rooms to one without a bathroom which is a lot nicer and on the second floor. The shared bathroom is 10 times nicer and cleaner than the one in the cabbage room. Plus its only $6 a night which is a whole dollar cheaper than the cabbage room!
This afternoon we went to Tuol Sleng (S-21) the high school that was used as a torture jail in the Pol Pot Khmer Rouge genocide. It was very eerie. They still have all the torture weapons and photos of all the people killed. 20 000 people were tortured there and then taken to the killing field to be killed. Only 7 people survived and 2 are still alive. It only ended in 1979 and the trial is on in Phnom Penh at the moment but Pol Pot died in 1999 so its only his high ranking party members that are on trial. It is very sad. About 2-3 million people all over the country were killed. The guide that showed us around was 13 when it started and her brother and father were killed. They targeted all the educated people like doctors, lawyers, teachers etc because they wanted to suppress and control the uneducated. They killed men, women, children and even babies because they said that they didn't want the children to grow up and seek revenge for their parents death. They documented everything, took photos of them as they were taken to the jail and also photos of them dead. The images are horrific.
After S-21 we went to the killing fields which is about 15km from the prison. They would bring them to the field after they had been tortured for a few weeks or months and slaughter them and throw their bodies into big pits. 89 out of about 150 mass graves have been dug up there. There is a big temple that has since been built in the middle where all the skulls have been placed for people to pay their respects. The biggest mass grave had 450 bodies in it. One had 160 bodies with no head because they used to cut their heads off and let them fall into the pit. There was even one with 100 women and children. It is so terrible. The babies were killed by having their heads smashed against this massive tree that is still there. As you walk around you can see clothes coming to the surface of the sand. So it was a pretty sad afternoon but it was very interesting to learn about what happened. Its a very different experience seeing it first hand than what I'd heard about it at home.
Tomorrow we are off to Koh Kong in the southern coast to stay at an eco lodge in the Tatai region. We are so very excited. If it is even half as beautiful as the photos on the website we are going to be happy little backpackers!
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