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BEYOND THE KILLING FIELDS
We caught a bus from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam across the border to Phnom Penh, Cambodia where we were instantly greeted by a temperature-increase of about 10° and a burning hot sun like we haven't felt since Egypt! The average daily temperature sitting around the high 30s, combined with the intense sunshine made for some very hot and sticky days ahead of us!
With only a few days to explore the city, we decided to get the most emotionally challenging part over with first and went straight to Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, the site of the former secret Khmer Rouge prison, S21. From 1975 to 1979, it was here that an estimated 20,000 people were wrongfully imprisoned, viciously tortured and eventually exterminated. Of the 20,000 people incarcerated here, only seven made it out alive! It was a little eerie wandering through cells and torture chambers that have literally been left as they were since 1979 when the invading Vietnamese Army uncovered the prison.
From S21, we tuk-tuked out to Choeung Ek, the infamous killing fields of the Pol Pot regime. Here (while listening to an informative and very poignant audio-tour) we roamed around an incongruously beautiful field peppered with pits from which thousands of bodies have been exhumed and where fragments of human bones can still be seen today. It was a very sobering experience and seeing the notorious 'Killing Tree' (where babies and young children were bashed to death by Khmer Rouge soldiers) was completely overwhelming.
At the centre of theses mass graves is a Buddhist stupa containing more than 5000 human skulls which serves as a memorial to the 2.3 million victims of the Cambodian Genocide. We departed from Choeung Ek feeling emotionally drained and struggling to comprehend how humankind is capable of committing such atrocities. Having just left the gates of Choeung Ek, our tuk-tuk driver nonchalantly asked if we would now like to go to the nearby shooting gallery - needless to say we declined!
After a pretty gloomy first day in Phnom Penh we spent the next few days cheering ourselves up with all the sights the city has to offer including the Independence Monument, the opulent Royal Palace, Wat Phnom Temple, Central Market and the picturesque riverside promenade. We have fallen in love with traditional Khmer curries and a local dish called 'Amok' (a steam-cooked curry in banana leaves) - simply delicious!
Phnom Penh is a very easy city to navigate by foot but with the dazzling hot sun and temperatures in the high 30s you have to be prepared to have your clothes drenched in sweat within minutes. It truly has been some of the hottest weather we've experienced since we were in Egypt nine months ago! Amazingly, the locals still wander around in jeans, long shirts and hoodies; trying to avoid the sun's skin-darkening rays at all costs.
Despite the fact that most tourists come to Phnom Penh primarily to visit the Genocide Museum and Choeung Ek, the city itself has a lot of charm. With exceptionally friendly tuk-tuk drivers willing to take you around to see the best of the sights, it is important to look beyond the Killing Fields and see a city that has risen from the ashes, brimming with beautiful parks and monuments, delicious Khmer cuisine and smiling, hardworking people!
High: Ever since 5th form history class, I've always wanted to visit the Killing Fields of Cambodia. It was certainly not a 'high' (it is going down as my 'low') but being able to visit the place first-hand that I learnt about in school was a real privilege.
Low: Unfathomable, gut-wrenching, harrowing - words can never really descibe the wave of emotions you feel walking through a place like Choeung Ek!
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