Holiday in Cambodia

Our motorbike was delivered to the hotel at about 8am. It was a 110cc 4 stroke Honda Wave in royal blue. Sweet.

We had a good breakfast and got on our way for our self guided motorbike tour. We first went to Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. This is the site of the Khmer Rouge prison called S-21. The Khmer Rouge turn this High School into a prison where they tortured and executed approximately 10,500 prisoners plus an estimated 2000 children. Prisoners were civilians, intellectuals, farmers, and even Khmer Rouge members. Today the museum is basically how it was when the Khmer Rouge fell. The first building we entered had a series of rooms on the ground level that were used as interrogation rooms. They are the size of a small bedroom with a single bed in the room. There are photos on the walls showing the tortured bodies that were found in each particular room. The beds in the rooms are the actual beds in the photos which makes it all the more shocking. At 10am we went to a video room to watch an informative video. Well it was meant to be an informative video, but we left 10 minutes into it as the sound was so distorted we couldn't hear anything. We entered a room of phots of people that were members of the Khmer Rouge. They were not leaders but army members that were carrying out orders. There are recent photos of people living their current lives, and their record photos at the time they joined. Another series of rooms have photos of some of the victims. It was overwhelming seeing face after face of people who were killed here. Alsao along the walls are some paintings reflecting the various torture techniques used in the prison. They were painted by one of only 7 survivors of S-21. The next building contained all of the classrooms converted into 0.8 by 2 metre cells using dodgy brickwork. Prisoners were taken from here to the killing fields at Choeung Ek, at up to 100 people per night.

Our next stop was to go to the killing fields themselves. It is about 15 kms out of Phnom Penh but we managed to add about 10kms to that distance. Once you leave PP the roads are 90% dirt, and the bit of bitumen is full of pot holes. The dirt road is like a black diamond ski run, Kel was nearly launched off the seat a few times. After asking directions a couple of times we found a sign and we knew we were on the right track. The string of whities in Tuk Tuks also gave it away. We arrived covered in dirt, as red as Australia's outback. There is a monument type building, containing only the skulls of over 8,000 people who have been exhumed here, stacked up in a wooden tower and diveded by estimated age. This is only one of many such sites scattered around the country. Less than 50 of the more than 150 mass graves have been exhumed, the others still untouched. It was almost numbing to walk around these holes in the ground, less than 6 feet deep, knowing how many bodies were thrown in and carelessly barely covered with soil. Walking on the dirt separating each grave there are bits of clothing, human bones and even teeth protruding from the ground, partially unearthed by weather (and tourists walking around). We literally dug one of the Khmer Rouge victims' molars out of the ground and quietly placed it on a stack of bones collected by others. We also found a few bones just lying around and retrieved those as well. It was heartbreaking to see the site in an unpreserved way, but it also has a much bigger impact as well. And all this happened in OUR lifetime, which makes it even more sickening to us.

Holding back some tears, Kel needed a bit of humour, so she tried her skills at driving the motorbike, which was more like motocross on the bumpy dirt roads. Nige gave her a quick run through on the controls, and we were off (slightly faster than a turtle). It was fun, and our concentration got our mind off of the horrific place we'd just been to. There were no incidents to report as Kel did pretty well.

We had lunch at a cafe, Jars of Clay, that supports disadvantaged Cambodian girls, where we had an awesome shake and great sandwiches. We did a bit of shopping at the Psar Tuol Tom Pong markets, a huge building full of stall after stall after stall of anything you can think of (just like most of the other markets we've been to). Kel bought some 'Gap' T-shirts and some pants (her clothes are proving to be a bit too warm for this weather). We could have easily bought heaps more 'designer' clothing but no room in the packs.

We had dinner at our favourite Phnom Penh restaurant, Frizz, for some more traditional Cambodian cuisine. A delicious meal yet again to end another day in Phnom Penh.