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Saz and Dave's travels
Today we left the hotel at 8am to go on a tour of The Killing Fields (Choeung Ek) and the S21 prison and genocide museum in the outskirts of Phnom Penh. It was a bit of a depressing morning really. The killing fields are where in 1980 the bodies of 8985 people were found, victims of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge who had been found in 86 mass graves (a further 43 graves have been left untouched). Many of the people buried here had suffered much pain and torture at the S21 prison before being killed at Choeung Ek (the killing fields) - beaten, shot, beheaded or even tied up and buried alive. The guy that showed us round had been made an orphan when both his parents had been killed by the regime when he was a child. In the centre of the killing fields was a huge hollow stupa displaying thousands of the victims' skulls and clothing.
After lunch we got back in the mni-bus and travelled for 2 hours to the homestay in Takeo where we would be spending the night. It was very basic - a bit of a farm with dogs and chickens running around and cows sleeping under the house. The house was like a wooden barn on stilts with mattresses and mosquito nets for beds. When we got there I had a bad headache so went for a sleep while Dave played football with all the guys from our group and the local kids. He got so so sweaty it was gross but had a kind of shower using a bucket and tank of water!
We had a nice tea with baked fish, stir fried veg, rice and chicken and potato soup washed down with beer and 'mekong bucket' = rice whiskey, red bull and coke. Later we lounged in hammocks, chatted to the family, played cards and listened to music. People finally went to bed about 1am and we slept quite well until the cows woke us up in the morning!!
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