We did some fun activities when we were Phnom Penh, Cambodia but we also visited two places that were unsettling and upsetting. If you don’t wish to read or hear about prisons and executions, perhaps stop here and read my next post.
S21 Tuol Sleng and The Killing Fields were the two places. S21 Tuol Sleng was the most notorious of the 189 known interrogation centers in Cambodia. It was a former school and housed (detained) between 14,000 and 17,000 prisoners, including a few Americans. Only 12 prisoners are believed to have survived and we met one of them. This happened during the reign of the Khmer Rouge who were so paranoid about hidden agents so that a lot of the prisoners were members of the Khmer Rouge as well as Vietnamese people and CIA. It was stopped in 1978 when Vietnam invaded and ending the Khmer Rouge era. There are only two survivors still alive as of March 2024.
The school/prison 
Part of the grounds of the school/prison 
Jail cells, they were extremely tiny 
Faces of the prisoners 
Americans who were prisoners 
Some of the survivors 
One of the survivors selling his book
And as I mentioned, we went to The Killing Fields. I’m sure most, or all of you, have heard of the Killing Fields. It is a 1984 movie which I remember watching years and years ago. It’s a very emotional place to visit and if you don’t know about it………From April 1975 to January 1979 the Khmer Rouge (a Communist Party) overtook the government and murdered surrendering officials of the former government. They went on to kill nearly 2 million (some reports say 3 million) people under this Communist movement. Mass executions were the norm along with forced labour (digging canals, tending crops) . Religion, popular culture, and all forms of self-expression were forbidden. Ethnic minorities and even members of the Khmer Rouge were executed. Our guide told us that if you wore glasses, for example, you were considered “smart” and therefore you were a threat. How insane is that?
One of the walkways through the site 
This is the tree where they killed babies and small children by smashing them against this tree 
Monument 
The spot where trucks would bring people and drop them off to be executed 
Mass grave 
The chemical depot where they held the chemicals that they would put on the mass graves to eliminate the smell and also fully kill anyone who was still alive 
The building where all the skulls are kept 
Some of the skulls 
The skulls were sorted by age, these were all skulls from people under the age of 20
It was not the best day we have had, we were all pretty emotional after visiting these 2 spots but I personally feel we need to read about, see locations and talk about events that have happened in our past in order to be better informed on how the future should go. We need to learn from our mistakes and make things better by acknowledging things that have happened and ensuring we won’t let history repeat itself. Covering up history, in any country and of any kind, does not do any of us any favours.
I would love to hear anyone else’s thoughts.
Trums Travels 