Looking back it was probably a mistake to visit both of these on the same day, or was it better to get them both over with in one go?

The killing fields is a mass grave just outside Phnom Penh, one of the uncovered sites where The Khmer Rouge undertook their atrocities. A purpose-built tower encasing a mass of skulls greets you on the way in and an audio tour takes you through the site and provides background detail on the dark story. I have been to Auschwitz in Poland, which was harrowing and a lot closer to home, but nothing can prepare you for the killing tree - a tree in the middle of the site, now completely covered in ribbons and bracelets left by visitors as a sign of respect for the dead. The tree was used by Khmer Rouge soldiers to kill babies, grabbing them by the legs and smashing their skulls on the tree. The human capacity for cruelty astounds me.

Later that day, we visited S-21, a former school which was transformed into a torture complex by the Khmer Rouge. In one section of the complex the rooms are eerily empty except from an empty hospital bed and an enlarged black and white photograph on the wall showing the bodies that were found in the room when S-21 was uncovered. Even more disturbing were the head shots of every person who passed through S-21, enlarged and mounted on the walls of one of the blocks. Probably aware of their coming fate, the faces in the pictures stare out with a mixture of fear, resentment, and resistance, and stay with me. The prison cells consisted of basic brick and cement cells about 1.5m squared that look like were slapped together in a day. The cells have no doors but just an open wall on one side; prisoners were chained up so there was no need to worry about escape.

If you are interested in learning more about The Khmer Rouge and what happened in Cambodian in the 70's, I would suggest reading 'First They Killed My Father', a personal account of a young child growing up during this period of Cambodian history.