kez & hay travels 06

After a day crossing into Cambodia by boat we arrived at the capital and quickly found a hostel around the lakeside, which is the "backpaker" area - the main road in this area says it all (see photo)! 

The next day we visited the Toul Sleng Genocide Museum which recounts the horrific true story of the imprisonment and barbaric torture and slaughter of thousands and thousands of Cambodians during the Khmer Rouge Regime.  The classrooms used as torture rooms still retain the metal bed and chains used and the tiled floors don't seemed to have been touched since.  Each prisoner, whom all but 12 out of 17,000 met their death, were photographed by Pol Pot's men, I say men but so many were children who had been brainwashed into following the orders of the Khmer Rouge.  Many of these victim's photos were on display, and to see into someone's eyes moments before they were carted off to the Killing Fields was numbing.
On leaving the school/interrogation camp, we were met by many victims of land mines.  It seemed everywhere we turned there was evidence of the suffering that this country has entailed and still does. As a tourist you feel guilty for enjoying your $4 meal when you see so much poverty around...but saying this everyone smiles and laughs, they don't want our pity. 
That evening we saw a documentary explaining the events before, during and after the Khmer Rouge Regime - another sobering experience. 
The next day we took a trip to the Killing fields, where the inmates of Toul Sleng were taken for a final beating.  An estimated 20,000 bodies lie here, with only half of the mass graves excavated.  A tall building stands in the middle of one field containing thousands upon thousands of retrieved skulls.  A final blow to the victims of the Pol Pot genocide is that according to Khmer belief, the human body must be cremated to allow the spirit to travel on to the after life.  So not only were nearly 2 million Cambodians killed, but they have been deprived their right to pass onto the afterlife. 

Later on that day we joined up with a newly organised volunteer program which brought around 40 street kids together, where we played games and helped them with art projects.