Yesterday I got my camera back from the repair shop. 85 dollars, who cares if the part is not original. At least it's working again. So today was the first part of touristy stuff on my trip. A visit to the Killing Fields and S-21. That was some rough shit.
First off the Killing Fields. When walking through there listening to the audio tour of the place you start to realize the volume of things happened there. 300 Cambodians killed every night with machetes, bull axels and farm tools because bullets were too expensive. And to cover all the screams some loudspeakers blaring out propaganda music. Add to that a constant thud of diesel engine for power, confined to a windowless wooden room and knowing u had only a few days to live. Good night, sleep tight.
Now all the buildings are long gone, stripped away by people needing the material after Khmer Rouge had fallen. But the holes of the mass graves are still there. And they are everywhere. And then there is this 17 storey pagoda full of skulls and bones exhumed from the site.
The pagoda
And its inhabitants. This section is only the skulls of young women, age 15-25
One of the many. A grave for 450 victims. The colourfull stuff on the poles are bracelets apparently to honour the memory of the victims.
Even his own men were not safe from Pol Pot's wrath. This one is only for his soldiers, all without a head and in full Khmer Rouge outfit
Even one of the regimes main men, "Dutch" broke down when visiting this site after the regime had fallen. On the front: mass grave of 100+ victims, all women and children, most women naked and raped. And in the background: The Killing Tree, which the soldiers used to kill small kids by swinging them by their legs and smashing their heads against the trunk.
Clothes box feat. Rachel in audiotour gear
More disturbing stuff along the route. Bones washed up during seasonal flooding over the years after the 1980 big exhume of the mass graves
To save the "best" for last. This is the stem of a leaf from the sugar palm tree. Its edge is hard and sharp enough that it can cut flesh... Yes! You guessed it. In Choeung Ek they used it to cut the throats of the captives if there was nothing else at hand.
As if this wasn't depressing enough. Next off is Security Prison 21.
This is where it really hits you in the face. In the killing fields you only see bones and info boards and holes in the ground. A factory basically. Here is room after room full of pictures of the captives. During the time of operations the jail took in 17000 person in total, 1000-1500 at a time. And all of 7 survivors.
If its not that, then its a bed with few bits and pieces on them. And on the wall a shaded picture of its last inhabitant, usually lying on the bed with a pool of blood under it.
The posessings of a prisoner. One of them is a leg iron to chain yourself safely to the wall to prevent sleep walking. Or moving. Because in general jails u were chained to the wall most of the time. Lot of the time you were not chained to the wall you were interrogated for serious crimes against the regime (read: tortured for false confessions).
Few simple rules on how to conduct your daily life in the prison
It is amazingly horrible what people can do to other people.
To end this post on a lighter note, Cambodia is treating me really good. The people are nice, the food is good and beer is cheap. Speaking of which, I seem to have run out. Better go get a new one before I start to suffer from dehydration. :)
This week in Top Banana doing nothing has done wonders to me. But being lazy all day is a full time job! One day I was going to take a short nap after breakfast and woke up 7 pm. That was the day Jetlag got me. After that things started rolling more smooth not feeling so tired all the time. If I had rushed off after few days I would prolly still be tired. Tomorrow I'm thinking of going to Siem Reap and get ready to do the other backpacker must in Cambodia: Angkor Wat. After that I can focus on the main thing, Looking for the real culture beyond the beaten path and see what delicious stuff this country has to offer. I haven't yet found the fried tarantula stand... But for tonight I think I will chill out and enjoy my beer.
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