Day 23 - 17.08.15 - "what is the most Cambodian thing we can have?"

We met two girls, one called Hannah and one called Diana, yesterday and we went with them to the Genocide Museum or Killing Fields and S-21. We hired a tuk tuk for the day, costing $5 each. 

These are the memorials for the almost 4 year communist revolution in Cambodia, from 1975-1979 in which millions of Cambodians were murdered. The communist republicans were overthrown by the Khmer Rouge who believed in a proletariat revolution. Thousands of city dwellers were forced to work in farming. Many were arrested for fabricated crimes such as working with the CIA. They were taken to the prison called S-21, where they were tortured until they admitted the crime, whether they were guilty or not. They were then sent to the Killing Fields to be executed. Even women and children were executed, with babies being thrown against this tree before being shoved in a pit with their mothers.

The majority of the original infrastructure is no longer there and in its place is a massive stupor filled with the remains of those who were excavated after the revolution. 

There were 17 shelves in total, 7 of which filled with skulls. As you walked around the site, you could still see and would walk on bone fragments and items of clothing left behind. 

It was very harrowing, but very interesting. It amazed me how I had never heard of such a huge genocide and had never been taught about it. We were all fascinated. 

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Our tuk tuk driver (called Peter), stopped at a restaurant so that we could have some lunch. The restaurant was right next to the prison, so Peter left us so he could go to the cinema, whilst we are and looked around. I ordered some sort of soup with beef balls. It was very nice, apart from the beef balls which had a very weird texture and were cold. 

We then looked around S-21 and saw the torture chambers and prison cells. 

There were many rooms with a metal bed. The prisoners were shacked to the metal bed, and tortured with sticks, ropes, fire, etc. There were several gruesome pictures of the bodies that were left after the torturing in each of the rooms. It was quite disgusting.

After a difficult day, we headed back to the hostel to relax before heading out for food. 

We found a little restaurant around the corner. We sat down and asked to see the menu. "No menu, just order what you'd like". Sophie and I asked for the most 'Cambodian' dish that they had. The name escapes me but we were bought a whole fish, in a broth, served with rice and fresh vegetables. It was delicious and the fish fell off the bone.! 

The locals had a great time watching us try to eat it and laughed at us the whole meal!!