a history lesson in phnom penh.

sorry, no inspirational music on this post. actually, its depressing to the max. cambodia is a country that has been plagued with hardship after hardship. speaking with the people on a daily basis, it is easy to forget this as they are absolutely one of the friendliest people around, but our one full day spent in phnom penh brought the facts of their history back to us, very clearly.

our first stop was choeung ek, one of the most famous of the killing fields in the entire country. basically, these places are sites of mass executions and consequently, many many mass graves of people who were killed by the khmer rouge, a group with a communist mindset run by pol pot, who were charged with killing millions of cambodians who threatened their power and their most brutal time period being between 1975 and 1978.

upon entering the site, it first comes off as quiet and rather peaceful. however, that impression soon vanishes when you come upon the tall, white, stupa which was built to commemorate the victims who were killed at the camp. shelves upon shelves of human skulls are the dominating feature here, and its surreal to see all of these together in one place. it really drives home the facts of how many people were not just killed, but tortured and brutally murdered, by the regime.

a walk around the fields showed us some of the mass graves that had been discovered and exhumed in 1980. a look through the museum gave a concise but decent explanation about who the khmer rouge was and what they wanted. many of the leaders have been, or are in the process, of being tried for their crimes.

from choeung ek, we headed to s21, the most famous of the security prisons that the khmer rouge ran and where prisoners were kept and interrogated before being sent to a killing field. the museum was once a high school, which was taken over an transformed by the khmer rouge and housed over 20,000 victims from 1975-1979. there was an eerie feeling throughout the entire place, which included 4 buildings which had been used as cells and torture rooms and a small graveyard for the last 14 victims killed here and discovered by the liberating forces. the buildings now house testimonies of the few survivors and former khmer rouge members, pictures of the victims, and some of the instruments used for torture.

its so grim, that meghan had to leave before the 3:00 showing of the video, and so i finished the day out on my own.

by the time i got back to the hostel, i was quite depressed. the most haunting thing is how recently in the past this had happened. its crazy to think that it was capable then, and then you start thinking about how similar things are still happening around the world in different areas today.

to get me out of the sad state, i played with these guys for a bit, because, as everyone knows, puppies never EVER fail to make me happy.