Cambodia Today and Yesteryear

Our time in Phnom Phen has been an educational, exciting and yet somber experience. While in the capital city of we took on some of the historical sites. The Royal Palace with its Silver Pagoda and the National Museum provided an interesting look at the checkered past of this great country. Unfortunately the recent history usually takes center stage when one thinks of Cambodia. Besides these two sites we went to the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek and the Tuol Sieng Museum. Both of these became famous because of the brutality experienced by the Cambodian people during Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge government.

Cambodia's past is filled with a genocide in which over two million Cambodians died via starvation, murder, and torture. Today the Killing Fields of Choeun Ek is a memorial and tourist attraction which aims to educate people about the atrocities that happened during the Khmer Rouge regime. More than 17,000 men, women and children where sent to this field of mass graves for execution. The people selected for this fate included all educated civilians and their families and anyone that was thought to oppose the current regime. It was pretty somber to walk through the excavated field that still contained forty plus untouched graves. The excavations that took place in the 90's exposed the world to the horrible truths of the Khmer Rouge. As one enters the field they are greeted by a eight story tower filled with 8,000 human skulls that were found among the 60 plus mass graves. This field was contained so many mass graves that after the years of weather and foot traffic actual clothing and human bones are visible on the walk path.

We next headed to the Tuol Sieng Museum that was another relic from the Pol Pot era. This former high school turned into a prison and torture site called S-21. Within the former classroom walls lies individual brick cells no bigger than 2 ft. X 8ft. These cells were filled with anyone that was thought by the regime to need interrogation or torture before they went to the killing fields. Pictures on the walls depicted torture techniques used and the many victims of this once secret prison. It was very reminiscent of the Nazi processing centers for the death camps during World War II.

So! After a packed history lesson on war and the horrible things that happen during it we are heading to Siem Reap for some more history. This time it will be visiting the famous Temples of Angkor.