Beauty and the Beast

Wednesday 3rd November

Wednesday saw us get a tuk tuk for most of the day. First stop laundry, then onto the Thai Embassy…another challenge to us is the not publicised official public holidays so rather than the predicted 2 days to get our visas we now cant get them til Monday afternoon next week. This has been a blow to both of us but also living in the present an unexpected bonus. We have re-planned and prioritised what we are going to do and the extra 3 days we have are now packed.

We then took a trip south from the Embassy to Choeung Ek or more commonly known as the Killing Fields where prisoners from Tuel Sleng (S21) were taken to be executed. It is less than 20 years since 8985 people have been exhumed from the 129 mass graves. It is an eerie place, it was an orchard and many fruit trees still grow on. There are rags, bones and teeth protruding from the bare earth as mother nature does her best to help those searching for lost loved ones. The centre piece to this reminder of what Pol Pot did is a massive tower, glass on all sides and stacked layer upon layer of skulls and bones. It is probably one of the most chilling places I have been in my life other than Alcatraz. The difference is in the US you have a sound recording of what went on voiced by actors and ex inmates. In Cambodia that is just not possible. No one survived the killing fields from babies through to grandparents. You could be killed for random acts of kindness to others that were observed and seen as out of keeping with the philosophy of the time, or for wearing glasses or having a degree.

This place deserves to be remembered but it is chilling, especially knowing that potentially over 10000 other bodies lay beneath our footsteps.

From here we headed back into the city and to the Kings Palace and Silver Pagoda. Beautiful, serene, calm and as far away from the horror we had seen as could be. Pictures tell a better story.

The only challenge on this visit was our hurried exit from one of the palace buildings as the Chinese were in town to follow the American’s from earlier in the week. Roads were shut, dudes with dark glasses loitered with purpose and we wandered off.