The Killing Fields

We roused ourselves from bed at 5:45am in order to make our 6am minibus to our 7am boat. Lucky for all of us, the minibus was mildly late (and the boat wouldn't leave until the minibus arrived). Needless to say, minus one weak team member, the rest of us all made at least a quick appearance at Angkor What? so getting up and running so early this morning was painful.

The boat ride was phenomenal. Instead of flying this leg, we boarded a speed boat (of sorts) in Siem Reap that took us down the Ton Le Sap to Phnom Penh. It was a gorgeous sunny day and the ship -- probably due to the fact that we reversed the usual tourist route -- was not remotely full. I think I spent most of the voyage outside in the sun at the front of the boat rather than on the seats inside. Sadly, when our voyage ended, we had our worst run-in yet with the touts by the dock. Imagine about 20-30 Cambodians descending on you with flyers for various hotels or yelling to get in their tuk-tuk or moto. It's completely overwhelming.

Also overwhelming, but in a different way, was my trip to S-21 and the Killing Fields. I actually ditched the boys because they thought that I couldn't get to both in one afternoon (after doing the Royal Palace). In their place, I dragged along an extremely nice German couple that we first chatted up at the Angkor temples and ended up on our boat today. They were as doggedly determined as I, so I hopped in their tuk-tuk and off we went.

First we hit S-21. This former elementary school was turned into a prison/torture chamber during the reign of the Khmer Rouge. Political prisoners (and non-political, too -- many children were sent through S-21) were kept here and occasionally tortured in some extremely barbaric ways. The place hits you like a ton of bricks from the very beginning. I walked into the first torture room to find a rusty bed, some shackles, and a few other miscellaneous items. Then I turned to the photo on the wall. It was of the same items, but at the time they were discovered, with the person (or what was left of him) with which they were discovered.

And so it went. Protraits of the victims. Cell after cell. More searing photographs. I'd known a bit about the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge, but this was such a jarring reminder of the evil of humanity. We then followed the same route the prisoners at S-21 often took to Choeung Ek, better known as the "Killing Fields." It's the site of 129 mass graves holding the bodies of approximately 20,000 people murdered by the Khmer Rouge from 1975 to 1979. Other than a giant "charnel house" holding the stacked skulls of 8,000 victims, the site is just a wide field full of indentations (many filled with water on this rainy afternoon), each a mass grave.

So, yeah. It was a heavy day. But I suppose we must bear witness to things like this in order not to repeat them in the future.

But do we really? Or do we just sit, frustrated and powerless as this stuff repeats itself again and again?

I knew this was going to be depressing....