Saturday, March 17, 2012

Day 14 - Sunday

Tom left early doors this morning to head back to Bangkok to give himself time to get his tattoo done. 12 hours on a bus for him today I believe...

Myself and Tony took a more leisurely breakfast then took one last bike trip to see the Phnom Pehn Killing Fields. After we failed to find suncream we unhappily accepted our inevitable future burnt states and got on the road.

Without giving the whole background to the Khmer Rouge genocide it is hard to explain the Killing Field story, but in an area the size of maybe 2 football fields, 17,000 people were executed over a period of mainly 5 years. Lorries were bringing in up to 300 people a day to be tortured and killed, all without the locals knowing the use of the area. What really put it in perspective for me, is that the worst period was from '78 to '79, and the minibus we took to Siem Reap this afternoon had maybe 2/3rds local [passengers who would have lived through it, lost family or been taken away to work.

Anyone who may be a threat to the state was taken, anyone educated; teachers, doctors, engineers, and then their entire families, down to children and babies who in this location were killed by being swung against a large tree before being thrown into a mass grave.
Not many pictures here as it didn't appeal to me to take them, but I'll find a concise link to the history to share.


Phnom Pehn Killing Field - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choeung_Ek

S21, and old school in central Phnom Pehn taken over to use as an interogation and confession turture centre - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuol_Sleng_Genocide_Museum

Khmer Rouge - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khmer_Rouge




Anyway, 5 hours on a minibus, fake headphones from the market were rubbish (shock!) and now in Siem Reap to see Angkor Wat Temples tomorrow. It's like Ibiza here, neon lights, banging clubs. Each to their own...

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