Out of PP - Killing Fields, Phnom Penh

4 more images

I HAVE TO BE UP FRONT AND SAY THAT THIS IS A PACE THAT I REALLY HAD TO SEE ON MY TRIP TO PHNOM PENH, I KNOW THAT A LOT OF PEOPLE DONT GO HERE FOR ONE REASON OR ANOTHER BUT I FELT THAT NOT TO GO WOULD HELP COVER UP A PIECE OF CAMBODIAN HISTORY. THIS PIECE OF CAMBODIAN HISTORY IS A VERY DARK ONE INDEED..BETWEEN 1975 AND 1978 UPWARDS OF 17.000 MEN WOMEN AND CHILDREN WERE BROUGHT HERE FROM S21 TO BE PUT TO DEATH.. IN MOST CASES THEY WERE HIT OVER THE HEAD WITH A SPADE THEN HAD THEIR THROATS CUT, ALL THIS TO SAVE BULLETS !!
THIS ONE TIME ORCHARD IS NOW THE LAST RESTING PLACE FOR THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE..
43 OF THE 129 COMMUNAL GRAVES HAVE BEEN LEFT UNTOUCHED.
THERE IS EVEN A TREE THAT WAS USED TO BEAT AND KILL BABIES AGAINST.. THE KHMER ROUGE WOULD HANG SPEAKERS FROM TREES AND PLAY LOUD MUSIC TO DROWN OUT THE SCREAMS OF THE DYING.
EVEN TODAY AS YOU WALK AROUND THE BURIAL PITS IT IS STILL POSSIBLE TO SEE FRAGMENTS OF HUMAN BONE..SENDS A SHIVER DOWN THE SPINE.
THE MEMORIAL STUPA AT THE ENTRANCE HOLDS MORE THAN 8000 SKULLS, ARRANGED IN AGE AND BY SEX. THIS MONUMENT AND THIS PLACE AS A WHOLE SPEAKS FOR ITSELF.
WHAT REALLY STRUCK ME WAS THE FACT THAT WHILE ALL THIS HORROR WAS GOING ON I WAS AT HOME PLAYING, ENJOYING A NORMAL CAREFREE CHILDHOOD.. MAKES YOU THINK.
TODAY THE KILLING FIELDS AT CHOEUNG EK ARE AT PEACE.. BUT THE HOROR OF WHAT WENT ON HERE MUST NEVER EVER BE FORGOTTEN.

4 more images

Visit to Tuol Sleng is depressing enough but experience to killing field is profoundly awful and melancholy.
Choeung Ek was an orchard and chinese cemetary. it located 15km southeast of Phnom Pehn. Prisoners despite of age were forced to match to the extermination camp. in order to save bullets and limitted places to keep prisoners, many were exhumed in mass graves in 1976-1979.

the first monument which lay in front of my eyes was the glass tower which displayed more than 8 thousand skulls arranged by sex and age. the memorial stupa was eracted in 1988. i have paid my respect with jossticks/incense served infront of the tower.
43 of the 129 communal graves here have been left untouched. fragments of human bones and bits of cloth are scattered around the pits.

the route in the genocide centre as follow:-
memorial charnel house - truck stop - dark and gloomy prison - executioners' office - concrete hall since 1960s - poison (DDT) storeroom - torturing tools storeroom - normal mass graves - mass graves with 116 headless bodies - mass graves with over 100 children and women's bodies - killing tree (tools to kill children) - magic tree (where a loud speaker was hung to mute moaning) - general mass graves.

it's about 20 - 40 mins drive from the centre of the city. you can get there with motor taxi, cyclo, car or bus)

Entrance fee: USD3 (sponsor for the poor and talented students)
Open hour: 8am - 5pm everyday
**it's a little creepy to visit the killing field in the evening, in my humble opinion

1 more image

Located some distance from town, I took a motorcycle on a very bumpy and dusty ride.

Another tragic place where you can walk around to see the mass graves. There is a constructed glass tower to show the skulls and bones and clothes of the victims.

Amazing sad reminder of what horror what humans can do inhumane things to others.

Visiting Cambodja it worths going to the capital Phnom Penh, even if only to visit the "killing fields", and "national museum", which gives an impressive idea of their recent tragedy and an understanding of this suffered people.

4 more images

A trip to the Killing Fields is a remarkably sobering experience. There is an eerie uneasiness to the place even on a beautiful warm sunny day with many people around.
Much seems to have been left untouched, my assumption was for impact. There are bone fragments, teeth, pieces of clothing and other debris, embedded in some of the very trails you walk on touring the place. The stupa or monument displaying all the skulls has a very narrow walkway around the glass and sometimes open display, forcing you, especially as you walk around the corners, to almost touch it. Very grotesque to say the least, at first an eye opening shock, it gradually develops into a mind numbing experience.
The fact that the whole world, and especially the developed western world, could stand by and allow this to happen and, in some circles today actually deny or even ignore that it has happened, is a strong statement of the reality of just how enlightened mankind really is.Many of the free world intelligentsia openly applauded when Phnom Penh fell to the Khmer Rouge in the mid 70's. The fact that many of these same people to this day seem unable to acknowledge, much less accept the magnitude of the horror that followed speaks volumes of man's inability to learn from past experiences. Ignoring it will not make it go away. Ignoring it will ensure that it repeats.
A trip to the Killing Fields is a very sobering experience. I left the Killing Fields ashamed to be a member of the human race.

2 more images

The Killing Fields - the place where Pol Pot slaughtered his people without mercy in their thousands and buried them in mass graves.

After prisoners had been detained, starved, tortured and interrogated at S-21 they were trucked out to Choeung Ek to be killed by smashing their skulls with hoes or canes or to be stabbed with knives or swords to save using bullets which were deemed to be too expensive. Babies were killed by being tossed in the air toward the pit and lanced on the ends of rifles on the way through. They were also killed by being held by the feet and their heads smashed against a tree. Such vile acts are incomprehensible, particularly when you consider many of the killers were teenagers who killed their own family and friends.

The Killing Fields is such a sobering experience. There is a stupa at the fields which contains some of the skulls recovered from the graves to serve as a tribute and a reminder of such an evil era. It is doubly tragic when you look around and see maimed and limbless mine victims begging for money along with street children who are legacies of Pol Pot's regime.

You will also see the palm which is considered a symbol of Cambodia. Its fronds are very strong with large saw-like teeth along the stem. Pol Pot's guards used these sharp "saws" to torture their victims by sawing it back and forth to slowly cut their throats. It is the second national symbol that was used against the Cambodian people. The other is Angkor Wat which he blew up parts of to sell off, amongst other monuments. Pol Pot was consumed with starting back at zero. He wanted to erase every last vestige of the Cambodian culture, knowledge and history.

My advice is that if you intend to visit the Killing Fields, watch the movie or read about it before you go, I wished I did. It would have given a greater understanding.

3 more images

A bit outside of Phnom Penh are the killing fields. Mass graves for innocent victim, e.g they who spent time in Tuol Sleng. We thought Tuol Sleng was very impressive, but to see the Killing Fields, you are speechless how cruel human mankind can be. I feel sorry for the Cambodians, such a wonderful, loving nation.

2 more images

The former Chinese cemetery was turned into Khmer Rouge's killing fields. Prisoners were taken here and massacred. Today the site shows the barbaric activities. At the memorial house you'll find the sculls of 8000 victims.
On the site you can see the mass graves and murdering tools. It is one of the most popular attractions for tourists and you'll be done in 30 minutes or less unless you sit down to meditate to remember the victims.
Today there is a dyke around Choeung Ek to preserve the mass graves.
Admission is USD2 per person.
The trip here should be combined with the Tuol Sleng Prison, the main headquarters and detention center for the regime.