Phnom Penh, Cambodia

12th June – 15th June 2018

After getting on the bus in Ho Chi Minh city, we had a few hours on the bus until we arrived at the Cambodian border. We were spoken to in another language (maybe Vietnamese) so we had no idea what we were supposed to do, but we just followed the crowds, got our bags off the bus and went inside. I’m not sure why we took our bags in though, as we put them through a scanner that no one was even watching! We got our Vietnamese exit stamps and piled back onto the bus.

We must have driven about 100 metres, before we were told (I think) to get off the bus again. This time we were at the entrance border to Cambodia and we were all told to get into a queue. We obviously chose the slowest one, which we got to the front of eventually, to be told we were in the wrong queue because we had an evisa. We were pointed in the direction of the right queue, where the man had no idea what he was doing.

After about five minutes, and three different people, the computer was finally logged on! I’m not sure why it was so difficult when they recommended we got it sorted beforehand (unlike everyone else on the bus who just bought theirs at the border). Once the computer was on, we were accepted into the country, before going back to passport control and getting back on the bus (which was waiting just for us)!

The bus journey seemed to take a lot longer than it should have done. We had a few toilet stops (presumably) and a few naps, before we arrived in Phnom Penh at around 5pm. We got off the bus and were pleasantly surprised that it was less humid. We checked out where our hostel was in relation to where we were and deliberated whether to walk or get a taxi. As it wasn’t too humid, the traffic was pretty bad, and a taxi was expensive (by South East Asian standards), we decided to walk – plus we had no cash yet.

As it got hot, walking with our bags, I needed a break half way through, but we made it to the hostel in about forty minutes. It was a long walk with our bags but after sitting on a bus for six hours, it felt good to have a big walk. During our break, Joe figured out (after almost eight months of travelling), that he could move the straps on his bag to make it easier to carry! At least the second half of the journey was easier for him.

When we finally arrived at the hostel, we checked in but still had no cash, as it was a new currency, so I ran down to the ATM. The ATM was being a bit dodgy for the man in front of me, so I decided to leave it, and the hostel said we could pay later which was handy, as the card machine wasn’t working either.

We went up to our room, where there were three double bunk beds all squeezed in next to each other – it was an interesting set up, but the beds looked comfier than the plank of wood we slept on in Ho Chi Minh. We put our things away, as there was barely any floor space for our bags, so they had to go in lockers. After doing some research for dinner and ATMs, we head out.

As it was already going dark, and we didn’t know the area very well yet, we decided to stay local. We found an ATM and then wandered to the restaurants which I had pinned on the map. We didn’t want to just head into the first place we came across, so wandered the street. We met the owner of the first place though, who was lovely. He was a French man who chatted to us about the menu and what kind of food he offered. He wasn’t pushy though and left us to look at the menu alone and was understanding when we walked off to check other places.

After wandering the street and checking the menus out, we ended up back a Rustic, where the French man was. He educated us on Cambodian foods (called Khmer), as we told him that we had only just arrived. I ended up ordering beef lok lak, which was a traditional dish of shaved beef in a sweet and sour type sauce with fresh salad, rice and a fried egg. Joe ordered the very untraditional dish of pizza, because he was drawn in by the free beer (which would have only set him back 75cents anyway). Both dinners were really tasty and we didn’t have any regrets, except I think Joe liked mine a little more than his own.

When it came to paying, the bill came with two currency options – US dollars and Cambodian realis. We paid in dollars, as that was the currency we got out at the ATM and seems to be the currency that most things are advertised in. The owner gave us a little lesson in how the money works though, as they deal in both currencies at the same time – it’s very confusing. There were 4000 realis in $1, so 1000 realis is 25 cents. They do this, as they only have US notes and no coins, so the small change is given in realis – it makes no sense why they don’t just use realis all the time.

Once we had paid up, we made our way back to the hostel, where we paid for our room and got a second lesson in the currency, which Joe still couldn’t get his head around. We went up to the room where we researched the area and drew all over a proper map of what we wanted to do the next day. We restarted the laptop for updates, which took all night, which meant there was no chance of an episode, before we ended up falling asleep at about 11.

The next morning, we were woken by alarms at 8am. Annoyingly, my phone alarm still goes off but there’s nothing I can do to stop it until the battery dies. We chilled out for a little bit, before we finally got up and ready for the day.

Just after 9, we made our way downstairs, where we looked at the tours that they offer to the killing fields. We booked a tuk tuk tour for the next day, before heading out. It was back to me to be the guide for the day, but I didn’t try to be as informative as Joe was – Joe’s Toes will be a hard act to follow.

It wasn’t the best start to my tour, as we set off in the wrong direction! It wasn’t exactly wrong, as we had things to see whichever way we went, but it wasn’t the way that I intended for us to go first, but that didn’t matter. Our first stop was to Central Market. From looking at the map, Phnom Penh has a range of different markets to offer, but I wasn’t going to drag Joe around them all. We had a look around the market, which was huge, before we carried on our journey.

From the market we carried on going further north, towards Freedom Park. The park was a long one, that lead up to the river front. We walked alongside the park, looking for some cafés, to grab brunch, as we were getting hungry.

Before finding a café, we found a wat. Wats are like pagodas, we think, just with a different name. We walked up to the wat – Wat Phnom – to find that there was a barrier surrounding it, as there was an entry charge. As it wasn’t on our list of things to do, and we just stumbled on it by chance, we took some photos from the barrier, before carrying on.

We made it to the river front, where we wandered along, looking for somewhere to eat. We priced up some menus but it was quite expensive (probably because we were on the front). Eventually, we found a place that was less expensive, so sat ourselves down. We both ordered banana pancakes to eat, but our drinks differed – I ordered a typical breakfast drink of a chocolate milkshake, while Joe had a beer (his excuse was that he was money saving as it was so cheap). When the pancakes arrived, they were the thickest pancakes ever, but they were tasty. We took our time eating and drinking, as we had no rush or set plans and before we knew it, it was after 12.

Just as we were about to pay up and leave, the sky turned black. We thought we would set off before the rain started, to see how far we would get, but we didn’t even get out of the café before it started pouring. We made it as far as the end of the street, before we stopped under a shelter and waited for the rain to pass.

After about ten minutes, it had eased considerably, and brightened up a little, so we decided to carry on our walk, all kitted up for the rain, for once. We weren’t really sure where we were heading next, we just walked towards the Royal Palace. Along the way, we saw another wat, but it was closed for a ceremony.

We also stumbled across some sort of event. We went into the area and had a walk around but all of the stalls were shut (presumably because of the rain), and there weren’t many people around. We looped the area, before carrying on our journey.

When we arrived outside the Royal Palace, that was closed too (but that closes every day for lunch, between 11 and 2). We took some photos outside, while deciding what to do next. Luckily, the rain had mostly stopped now, so that made it a little better (although my map was very soggy).

During my research of Phnom Penh, I found an article that had a list of lots of free things to do in the city. One of these things, was to join in with a meditation session at one of the wats, with the monks. As the article was written in 2016, we weren’t sure if it was still happening, so we walked down to Wat Langka (the one named in the article) to see if we could see any signs indicating if it still possible to meditate with the monks.

On the way to the wat, we diverted to Bee Vintage and Crafts, which was another place I read about on the article of things to do in Phnom Penh. Apparently in the shop, you can take in unwanted clothes and swap them, but the clothes were far too nice for what I was carrying around in my backpack, so I didn’t bother. We also passed the Independence Monument, where we stopped for a little rest. Our legs were very tired at this point and we didn’t know why – probably from all of the sitting on buses.

After a little break, we made it to the wat (which was only across the road) to find a sign about the meditation sessions – one of which, was on a day we were there for! We took some photos of the wat and smiled nicely at the monks working there, before starting our walk back towards the centre.

As it was after 2, we went back to the Royal Palace to have a look around. Unfortunately, as we weren’t dressed appropriately, we couldn’t go in, which was a little disappointing because it was the only specific thing we had planned for the day. It was our own fault though, so we carried on walking. We got some photos of the guards, who weren’t quite acting like Queen Elizabeth’s guards, as they watched things on their phones.

Walking back up towards the hostel, we noticed that the event we had a little look at earlier, was open properly again. We went in and enquired, as I thought it was where we could watch traditional dance. It wasn’t, but it was the place where they are weaving the world’s longest Krama scarf and we could have a go! We registered our names and were taught how to use the weaving equipment. It really wasn’t as easy as it looked, and it took me a while to get the hang of it – the hardest part was passing the thread through to the other side.

After both getting signed off on our practice run, we were given a stamp and could go and have a go at adding to the real deal! This was very exciting for us. We got up there and waited our turn, before sitting at the weaver machine thing. The excitement was short-lived though, as we only got two goes each before we were kicked off, and there wasn’t even anyone waiting behind us! I guess that was okay though, as we still added to it, and learnt how to weave, and it was a different experience and all for free!

Once we had both had our turns, we had a little look in the handicraft market on the site, before heading out, and finding a café. We were both very thirsty because of the humidity, which the rain only seems to clear for a few minutes. We sat and had a drink and planned the rest of our day into evening.

Another thing to do, on the list I read in the article, was to walk up street 13 and take in the architecture and enjoy the markets. From the café, we head here, but the markets weren’t quite what I had in mind – they were all food stalls. Street 13 lead up to the Night Market, which we wanted to have a look at. On the way, we looked at some restaurant prices and tried to take in the architecture, but again, it wasn’t what we imagined.

When we arrived at the market, we were a little early, and some stalls were only just opening. We had a walk around and looked at what it had to offer. A Phnom Penh patch was proving very difficult to find and I still wasn’t having much luck. The food stalls didn’t look appealing to us, so after searching the one and only souvenir stall there was, we gave up and left.

On Street 13, we had spotted a restaurant that we both liked the look of, so we had pretty much decided that we were going there. To get there though, we walked along the river front to change our scenery.

It was beautiful along the river front too. The sun was setting behind the buildings and there was lots going on. We did some walking and stopping, and walking and stopping, watching people play football, and do exercise classes (with the most unenthusiastic teacher) and enjoying each other’s company – it was really lovely to witness.

We eventually made it to Kabbas Restaurant, where we double checked the menu, before sitting down. We both had traditional meals this time: I had a Khmer curry and Joe ordered lok lak, he loved mine that much! Joe was able to get a beer for 50 cents, while a sprite would have cost me $1, so I thought I may as well add gin for an extra 50 cents – I just wish I liked beer, it’s so much cheaper, but my gin was tasty and strong!

After paying up, we made our way back to the hostel. We started to think about breakfast (as always) as we had a 9am start with our tuk tuk driver. We checked with the hostel café upstairs to see what they had to offer, before going back to our room. We did a little bit of blog work before giving up and watching an episode, finally falling asleep just after 11.

The next morning, we got up with the alarm at 8am. We got ready for the day and set out for breakfast. We decided that a bakery would have been cheaper than something at the hostel, and we managed to find the same bakery chain as one we visited in Ho Chi Minh, where we got a great sandwich. Unfortunately, they didn’t do the sandwiches, so we both ended up with a croissant instead.

As we weren’t hungry just yet, we got them to take out and went back to the hostel, where our tuk tuk driver was waiting for us. We grabbed our bag and set off to S21 (Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum). It took us about ten minutes to get there, arriving just after 9, and the driver told us we had until 11, and then we should meet him back in the same spot. We thought that this sounded like a long time, but we agreed, paid our entry, collected our audio guide, and went in.

*Some of the information we learned on the tours throughout the day is distressing, so feel free to skip this section*

Our audio guide was a Cambodian, who was around during the Khmer Rouge reign. He and his family fled and were split up over Cambodia, during the reign from 1975 – 1979, and he never saw his two brothers and or three sisters again.

In 1975, the Khmer Rouge gained the countries admiration, when they defeated the US backed leadership, taking lead of the country themselves. However, within as little as two days, cities all over Cambodia were being emptied of citizens and arrests were made by order of Angkar, which was the regime that ran the country.

The regime was trying to create a communist country, to wipe out all of the social classes, and start again at year 0. At the time, no one knew why they were being arrested, most of the reasons were fictitious, but they were tortured and tortured, over and over, until they confessed to whatever it was that they were arrested for. Their arrest was proof of guilt, that Angkar was always right. Once they confessed, they were then executed.

During the time of the Khmer Rouge reign, the borders were very tight, meaning that no one could get in or out of the country, especially by land. However, over time, refugees managed to slowly leak stories into Thailand and Vietnam about what was happening. It did take a long time for the stories to be believed though by other countries, so help wasn’t available right away.

In S21, there were between 12000 and 20000 prisoners brought there and tortured, with only 7 confirmed survivors. S21 was the most secret of all 196 prisons. No one knew it existed and prisoners were brought in trucks, blindfolded, so they had no idea where in Phnom Penh they were. Although the city was almost empty, a second corrugated fence was built around the prison, a few streets away, to keep its secrecy. It was known to those in Phnom Penh as: The place that people enter but never leave. The prison was reopened, as a museum in 2008.

Throughout the tour, as we learned more fascinating but heart-breaking information, we walked around the prison, which is still kept almost as it was found in 1979. S21 was originally a high school, but on 17^th April 1975, the Khmer Rouge marched in, taking over. When it was discovered (a few days after the Khmer Rouge were driven out), there were fourteen bodies found in the prison, which were the bodies of the last fourteen people to die.

When the Khmer Rouge were driven out by the Vietnamese in January 1979, the staff fled S21, destroying photos, negatives, records and killing the last of the prisoners who were still being interrogated. However, they had to flee before they finished, leaving lots behind, but photos and records became separated, making it impossible to identify bodies. Any remaining records found are now registered under UNESCO to prevent something like this happening again. The bodies of the last fourteen, are laid to rest in the grounds of the prison, in front of building A, so that they didn’t have to be disturbed anymore.

Although the courtyard is now pretty and peaceful, it is unlike the buildings, inside. Building A was where the important people were kept. The regime was trying to wipe their identity completely, as it was erased from records. The Khmer Rouge boarded up air vents in the classroom walls and put iron bars across the windows. There are ten rooms on the ground floor, each room contains a bed, with leg irons and a box for waste. One of the rooms had a desk, which is believed to be where the prisoners were forced to write their confessions – if they didn’t confess, they were tortured more, until they did. The prisoners were forbidden to cry out, but of course they did, and were heard by others.

Also, on the walls of the rooms, are photos of the last fourteen, who were found in those rooms when S21 was discovered. The photos were difficult to look at, as the bodies were strewn across the beds with cut throats. The staff did not shoot the prisoners, as they did not want to be heard, before they could escape.

During interrogation, there were rules to obey by the prisoners. These included answering accordingly to questions, answering questions immediately without wasting time, and receiving lashes or electric wires if the rules are not obeyed, as well as others. People that were arrested were those who supported the General who was in charge previously, the one whose corrupt regime was swept away by the Khmer Rouge. The Khmer Rouge said that their regime was ‘smashing the enemy’.

Leaving building A, behind the graves, we saw the equipment that was once used by the children during gym class. Although the children used it for climbing and exercise, the Khmer Rouge used the same frame for torture. It was called the gallows, although no executions took place here, instead, prisoners were blindfolded, had their hands tied behind their backs and were raised to the top of the frame, by their wrists, until they passed out. Once they passed out, they were lowered and had their heads pushed into a jar, filled with human waste and water. Most of the torture that happened was kept secret, like the work of Angkar, but other prisoners occasionally caught glimpses of what others were going through.

Pol Pots was the leader of the whole regime and was known as brother number one. A man known as Duch was another big name as part of the regime. He wasn’t a leader, but he was the man who ordered executions and oversaw the torture.

As Angkar’s plan was to set out to remake society, by removing classes and restarting at year 0, this lead to over three million people being killed. All of the intellectuals and anyone with an education were first to go. If a person wore glasses, they were thought to be intellectual too, so were also more than likely going to be killed. They were all likely to be enemies of the revolution, as the former general favoured higher social classes. However, as Angkar became more paranoid over time, they started to turn on each other and lots of the members of the Khmer Rouge group, were dead within three years.

In Phnom Penh in April 1975, there were many refugees from earlier battles in Cambodia. In the United States, in years prior to 1975, the bombs that were being dropped on Cambodia were all kept secret; it was known as the secret war. However, for Cambodians, it wasn’t a secret, as there were more bombs dropped on Cambodia in 1973, than were dropped in all of World War 2. The Cambodians were left homeless, without work, and angry, so it wasn’t a surprise that they were happy and welcomed the revolution, with smiles.

However, this happiness was short-lived, as the same day, soldiers started moving people out of Phnom Penh. They were told that it was for ‘protection’ as more bombs were coming, and that they could move back in three days. This didn’t happen, as people were moved to the countryside, and never allowed back. Thousands of people died on the journey, and those who refused to make the journey, were executed. After a few years in one area, they were there then forced to move to other rural areas.

The refugees, or the poorer people, were known as ‘old’ people, and were more favoured by the Khmer Rouge. This didn’t mean that they were spared from the tasks though, and they still had to work. Anybody who spoke another language (which indicated intelligence), had soft hands (which indicated they hadn’t ‘worked hard’), or wore glasses (also a sign of intelligence) were thought to be potential enemies. These were ‘new people’ or April 17^th people. They were automatically traitors, even though most had done nothing wrong.

None of the Cambodians could make any food for themselves. Those who weren’t arrested, were made into slaves and forced to work on farms. This was a problem for those who came from cities, as they didn’t know how to grow rice, and neither did Angkar, but that was Pol Pot’s plan. They were on a diet of small bowls of porridge, once or twice a day, if they were lucky. No one was allowed to make any food for themselves, and even picking a mango from a tree was considered stealing from Angkar. Young children, from the age of three were also made to labour, to help out with the plan.

Arriving at S21, prisoners were stripped of their clothing, as a way to remove any last dignity they might have had. The Khmer Rouge recruited young people from across the country, including children, who hadn’t even reached their teenage years. They were taught to chant and intimidate prisoners. We heard one story of a boy who said there was no choice to join the Khmer Rouge, they would just turn up to the village and call names and if your name was called, you went with them, or you were seen as a traitor of the revolution, and were executed. Young men were promised prosperity and a positive future when they joined the Khmer Rouge. Women were mostly hired as cooks and cleaners, but there was one who made it as an interrogator. In the end, when the Khmer Rouge were arrested, they then had their clothes taken away.

Early victims were brought into the prison and weren’t given any tags. After some time, some prisoners were given a placard with their date of arrest, and then some even had their name on them. However, once the paperwork was complete, the prisoners had no name. They were known by either their cell number or their order in the line.

When they arrived, their height was taken and so was their history. Precise records were taken by Duch, to prove that he was clearing the country of the traitors. Duch claims that during this time, his only job was to oversee everything and others were responsible for the torture and killing and photo taking.

Cambodians were not the only ones to be murdered; foreigners were too arrested. On April 17^th 1975, Kerry Hamill (from New Zealand) wasn’t even in Phnom Penh. He and two friends (one being British) were sailing around the world, when they sailed into Cambodian waters and were arrested, where one friend was killed straight away. On August 13^th 1978, Hamill was taken to S21, where he was forced to confess. He was accused of being in contact with Vietnamese spies.

During his confession, Hamill gave names of those who he was ‘involved with’, however, he gave name of other known people, unknown to the Khmer Rouge. At the trial against Duch from the Khmer Rouge, Hamill’s brother testified, using the confession as evidence. He said how his brother named Colonel Sanders of KFC was his superior officer; he wrote that his CIA operative number was his home number in New Zealand, and used the names of family and friends as his CIA workers. The final piece to the confession, was saying his public speaker was S. Tar, which his brother strongly believes was his last message to his mother, Esther. Hamill’s brother believes that, at the end of the day, Hamill wanted the last say, whatever the outcome.

Despite killing thousands of their own nation, in their own country, the Khmer Rouge still weren’t happy, so sent letters to Cambodians who had already left Cambodia before 1975, to live overseas. The letters were asking if they wanted to return to help save their country. As the rest of the world had no idea what was going on in Cambodia, one man, who had married a French lady, happily obeyed. Unfortunately, he was never seen by his family again, but his daughter did testify at Duch’s trial after trolling through the photos and documents left behind.

In building B, we saw, in the upstairs rooms, the remaining pins on the floors, where the shackles were. There were paintings on the walls to show how prisoners were tied together in shackles and forced to lie down in rows. They were forbidden to speak to one another and even needed permission to sit up.

In one room, there were sculptures of Pol Pots head. As the regime was starting to fall apart in 1978, they decided to make sculptures and images for propaganda purposes, to try and rebuild Angkar. Sculptures that broke, were buried, not destroyed and artists who weren’t good enough, were killed. The images never got distributed though, as the regime collapsed. Those who reigned Angkar were kept top secret up until 1978 and most didn’t know Pol Pot’s name or face until years later.

As Duch was in charge of torture and executions, no one was allowed to die until he ordered it. However, some prisoners died by mistake, during torture. Every prisoner had to confess and get signed off by Duch, before being executed by the rules. Mistakes were not taken well, staff who killed accidentally became prisoners themselves.

Those prisoners who were close to death, were sent to ‘medics’ to keep them alive, so that torture could carry on until they confessed. The medics were members of the Khmer Rouge, who had had training for only four months, as all the real doctors were killed in the beginning, as they were intelligent. The medics didn’t help though, it was like added torture. Some of the ‘training’ that the ‘doctors’ underwent involved anatomy, which included cutting open live prisoners.

As we made our way around to building C, we learned that it was still preserved pretty much as it was found. The barbed wired in front of the balconies was added by the Khmer Rouge, when one prisoner committed suicide and jumped from the top floor. Suicide was not liked by the Khmer Rouge, as their confession had not been signed, so their case wasn’t complete, and the paperwork didn’t match up. The torture made the prisoners want to die quickly though, so they would look for ways to kill themselves or escape, although it was difficult. One man managed to stab himself in the neck with his pen, during his confession, while another poured a kerosene lamp over his head.

Duch stated that the torture wasn’t for fun. It was a way to find information only and the prisoner mustn’t die, as if he dies, the documents are lost.

Along the bottom floor of building C, were single cells, which is where prisoners stayed during their interrogation period. This made it easier for the staff to access the prisoners to take them to be tortured. The classrooms were split into eleven cells, which were built quite roughly with unstable bricks. Sometimes, there would be two men to a cell which must have been incredibly uncomfortable, as I could barely fit through the door.

Throughout the tour, we heard from a few survivors who told their stories. One man, an artist, survived after a year and a half in the prison. When he was arrested, he was told he would be taken to teach in a school of fine arts. When he asked what he had done wrong, he was separated from his wife in S21 and never saw her again. Most of the survivors were people who had skills or talents that Angkar needed, such as engineers, mechanics, artists, etc, but they were kept separate from all other prisoners.

Another story we heard, was a woman’s story, Bopana, who was not a survivor, as she was doomed by love. Her confession is one of the longest in the records, reaching around five hundred pages! Before the Khmer Rouge, she fell in love with her cousin and all was set for them to marry. However, she was then forced to flee, where she was raped, fell pregnant and then tried to commit suicide. She fled again to Phnom Penh, where she got a job, before the Khmer Rouge took over. No one knows what happened to her baby but she was kidnapped. She found her love, who was then part of the Khmer Rouge. He looked after her and got her to live with his mother.

While she lived with his mother, he had to move but they wrote letters to each other. She was eventually taken from his mother and forced to work even harder, meaning she miscarried their baby. She wrote to him, asking him to rescue her, so he asked if she could be moved to Phnom Penh with him. This was a mistake, as she was investigated instead and taken to S21, where she wrote her long confession, which included misleading a Khmer Rouge worker. On 18^th March 1977, she was executed on the same day as her husband, who she didn’t know was also in S21 with her.

The whole idea of Angkar was to make people believe only in that. The Khmer Rouge were trying to sweep away all that had sustained the Cambodian Culture up until this point. Once the torture was complete and the prisoner’s execution had been set, they were then blindfolded and put into a truck during the night. The secrecy was kept and the prisoners were told that they were going to a new home. This was to try and stop the prisoners from shouting out, whilst the trucks drove through the streets, as they were on their way to the killing fields.

Our final stop in S21 was to see the memorial site, which contained panels of the 20,000 people who lost their lives after being in that one prison. On our way out, we passed two men who are survivors of S21, they were just sat there, in the grounds, I just couldn’t imagine what they must still feel today, almost forty years on. We didn’t stop and talk to them, as they didn’t speak English and there were lots of tour groups around, but it was very sad to see them there.

From S21, we met with our tuk tuk driver again, who then took us to see the killing fields. Our driver had told us to meet him at 11 but we were so engrossed and interested by what we were learning, we didn’t end up leaving until 11.40, but he was still there. We had another audio tour at the killing fields, where we learned more terrifying facts about what happened all over the country of Cambodia in what I can only imagine was the worst four years.

One of the most horrifying facts for me, was that it was Cambodians killing Cambodians, to make a ‘better’ Cambodia. More than one in four Cambodians were murdered, and we saw just one (Choeung Ek) in over three hundred killing fields.

Angkar means the organisation, and anything or anyone that got in its way, needed to be destroyed. Although city people were top of the list, and peasants were heroes, they still suffered too and even Pol Pot’s family members were killed if they undermined his plan.

Pol Pots was a teacher and organised other teachers to help with his regime. However, when he gained power, he condemned teachers to death. He would say that 17^th April people are like parasitic plants and “to keep you is no gain and to lose you is no loss”.

In the beginning (1975), Choeung Ek received two or three trucks of people every few weeks, with fifty to sixty people in. Before they were caught, in the end, there were trucks arriving every day with three hundred people per truck. Prisoners were usually killed the night that they arrived, one by one, but by the end, there were too many to kill in one night, so they were kept overnight, in a shed.

Loud music would be played, from the speaker that hung on one of the trees in the grounds. The music and noise was used to create the impression that the Khmer Rouge were having nightly meetings, however the noise was really to cover up the screams of those being killed. The victims weren’t shot, as this was expensive and loud, instead they were hit over the head, using various agriculture tools and pushed into mass graves. Sometime, the branches of palm trees were used to slit the throats of prisoners, as the branches had rough, sharp edges.

As some victims weren’t actually dead when they entered the grave, D.D.T. was poured over them to finish them off, but also to cover the smell.

Structures at the killing field, didn’t last long, after the Khmer Rouge were driven out. Those who lived nearby were angry and tore everything apart, looking for food or resources.

Before the Khmer Rouge turned it into one of the biggest killing fields, Choeung Ek was originally a Chinese graveyard, and there is still some evidence of this today. However, most of the graves in Choeung Ek now, were created by the Khmer Rouge.

Right by the boundary of the actual killing field, was a mass grave of around 450 people. This is one of the larger graves and has had a shelter built over it, to try and preserve it. The graves are now a very different view, to what was found in 1979, as there are a range of different mounds and hills which have changed over the years, with the weather, but are still graves for many people. During rainy season, bones and teeth are still found today, when the rain washes the dirt away, so every few months the rags, bones and teeth are collected.

One of the graves in Choeung Ek was for the Khmer Rouge soldiers. These bodies were found with ID tags and still in their uniforms. Pol Pot became incredibly paranoid at the end and killed people to make himself feel better: “better to kill an innocent by mistake then spare an enemy by mistake”. The soldiers had been decapitated, maybe as an example to others.

A tragically sad tree to look at, was the ‘killing tree’, which was used for killing babies. Once one family member had been killed, the rest were also killed, to prevent any revenge being taken later down the line: “to dig up grass, one must remove even the roots”.

While the senior leaders of the Khmer Rouge went to trial in 2011, Pol Pot himself managed to live a happy life after his reign was over. He fled to the Thai border with the remains of the Khmer Rouge. Around the rest of the world, in first world countries, the Khmer Rouge was still widely recognised as being the leaders of Cambodia. They received financial aide and Pol Pot remained the leader for another twenty years. Eventually, he was put under house arrest, where he died almost a year later, at the age of 73. He had a good life though and married for a second time and saw his grandchildren.

Our final stop in Choeung Ek, was to the memorial stupa, which was build in 1988. By 2011, over three hundred killing fields had been discovered. Not all of them are accessible, as some are in jungles and unsafe to access, but most have a memorial stupa for the victims. There are seventeen levels of skulls and bones in the stupa in Choeung Ek. The first ten levels contain almost 9000 skulls, which are arranged into scientific categories.

The structure of the stupa is the shape of a dome. It is taller than most others, and is decorated with Hindu and Buddhist symbols. There are garuda birds on each corner, which are the birds the God, Vishnu rides, and above them are naggas, which are magical serpents/ sea dragons. Their gold tails trail up the beams and spiral at the top. Naggas are often represented outside temples, with seven heads. Garuda and nagga together, are a symbol of peace, which seems relevant after the awful things that the victims who lie inside, must have been through.

*Our day continued*

Just before finding our tuk tuk driver again, we nipped into the souvenir shop for another attempt at finding a patch. We had a look around and asked the lady who pointed to a flag I had never seen before. She told me it was the Phnom Penh flag, and as we were in a rush, I thought ‘great’ and bought it (only to learn it is actually the Buddhist flag, but oh well). Just after 2, we set off back towards our hostel. The traffic was quite bad on the way back so it took us a while, and with the sun beating down on us, it was intense, but we got back at around 3pm.

When we got back, we had a little sit in the hostel to decide where to go next. As we had to catch the bus early next morning, we decided it would be a good idea to go and find the bus office, even though it was only close by. From the bus office, we walked to a charity organised shop to have a look at what they had, and check the menu out for their restaurant.

In the shop ‘Friends’n’Stuff’ I became a little obsessed with all the cool, handmade stuff that they had to offer. We wandered around and I spoke a little bit with the workers in there, before I caved and ended up buying a bracelet made from recycled magazines.

From the shops, we wandered back to the hostel, where we chilled out in the room for a bit and cooled off. We had about an hour to relax and get changed, before heading out for a meditation class (the one at the wat we went to look at).

We arrived at Wat Langka just after 5.30, and as the session didn’t start until 6, we were one of the first there. We had a look around, before going in and finding ourselves a cushion on the floor. We sat down and there was already a woman there, who was very focused. We sat and tried to settle like her, although we were a bit fidgety at the beginning, whereas she just didn’t flinch at all. We sat and waited and more people arrived.

After waiting for quite a while, we started to realise that it wasn’t really a class, but more of an open session, where people could just go and meditate by themselves. While it was really relaxing and nice to sit and not have any distractions, listening to the birds sing and the insects chirp, some guidance would have been nice. There were monks around but they were just meditating too, there was no one to recommend how to sit or breathing techniques, or what to think about, which was a little disappointing.

After sitting in peace for about an hour, we got up and started to make our way towards some restaurants for dinner. As I realised I was tricked into buying a non-Phnom Penh patch, I decided to try one last time to find a genuine one. We tried a few shops but I wasn’t successful, so we went to find food instead.

For food, we found ourselves back on street 13. We checked out the menu for a few different places, but as the place we liked the look of most, was noodles, we decided that we would go back to Kabbas. The staff in there were just as lovely as the night before and even remembered us, which was nice. We both tried something different: I had amok and Joe had sweet and sour chicken, which were both great again.

Once the bill had been paid, we made our way back to the hostel to get ourselves ready for leaving the next day. When we got back, we showered and packed our bags for the next day. We got settled and had an early night, ready to leave.

When the alarm went off at 6 the next morning, we got ourselves up and ready. We checked out and set off towards the bus stop just after 6.30, arriving there about ten minutes later. When we got there, we waited for a while before setting off at 7 towards Battambang.

With the tragic Khmer Rouge reign not being that long ago, I found myself looking at Cambodians over forty, wondering what they and their families went through: Do they remember anything? Did they have to move? Did they have to work? What family members did they lose? (as I am convinced that every Cambodian must have lost someone). Phnom Penh has been an eye-opening and fascinating start to our Cambodia time, giving us both a great first impression, as they are such happy people considering their devastating recent history.

To travel is to live, Katie