Phnom Penh

The day after visiting Angkor I decided it was time to leave Siem Reap. I took a bus to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. Phnom Penh is a big city with lots of people, lots of tourists and lots of motorbikes, that said it was more what I was expecting Cambodia to be like. It was full of regular people going about their everyday lives, unlike Siem Reap (or at least that parts I saw) where everyones sole concern seemed to be tourists and getting money from them. Maybe I'm a bit harsh on Siem Reap but that was myimpression.

I watched the movie "The Killing Fields" in the guesthouse and the following day went on a tour organised by the guesthouse to Choeung Ek (the killing fields) and to the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum.

The Killing Fields

At the entrance to the killing fields there is a Buddhist memorial filled with more than 5,000 skulls of the victims. Throughout the site you can see the various mass graves that were uncovered and bones from the victims. In some areas as you are walking around you can see the fragments of bones on the ground mixed in with the soil. Many people took photos of this but I didn't feel it was something that I wanted to photograph. If you want to find out more you can see the Chonung Ek page on wikipedia.

Buddhist Memorial at Choeung Ek

The Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum was a high school that was used by the Khmer Rouge as a prison and interrogation center. Today the buildings are as they were left when the Khmer Rouge were driven out in 1979. Some of the rooms contain photos of victims and others contain a rusting iron bedframe and a photo of how the room was when it was found by the Vietnamese and other contain the instruments of torture that were used at the site.

Rusting bed frame in Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum