Large chicken and strange menu choices

Probably the best way to get to Phnom Penh is by bus from the centre of Siem Reap. It takes a few hours, but it avoids the hassle of flight and the inevitable long journey from the airport to the city. We arrived at the Giant Ibis coach station at the respectable time of 0945 and arrived in the centre of Phnom Penh exactly 6 hours later. That included a stop for lunch at a place with a rather large chicken, which seem to be very popular in Cambodia for some reason.

Big Chicken

Our hotel was a bit of an odd one. Brand new, tall, and sandwiched between a row of small and scruffy restaurants, it looked very out of place. But it did have a pool and a clear view of Phnom Penh’s skyline.

View from the pool

And the restaurant next door had a variety of of exotic offerings:

Lost in translation

Lost in spelling

S-21 Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum

Warning… This makes for grizzly reading.

In 1976, while the UK was wrapped up in the Cod Wars with Iceland, high levels of inflation, a bailout from the IMF and arguments over whether Levi’s or Wrangler bell-bottom jeans were best, the Khmer Rouge were continuing their reign of terror by transforming a high school in Phnom Penh into an interrogation and torture centre. That ex-school is now known as the Tuol Sleng genocide museum. Its alternative name of S-21 relates to the radio channel the prison chief used.

Between 15,000 and 20,000 people were taken here. Between 12 and 15 people survived. Most were killed at the Choeung Ek killing field. More on that later.

Nationality did not matter. Foreigners were regarded as likely spies and therefore treated the same as everyone else at S-21. The torture consisted of four main methods: stick beatings, electric shocks, plastic bag suffocation and waterboarding. Additional tortures included fingernail extraction, burning, cutting, rape, sleep deprivation, and forced ingestion of bodily waste.

Some might think that the people doing the torturing were evil individuals naturally inclined to inflict pain and suffering on other people. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case. Mostly, they were ordinary kids in their 20s, from rural surroundings, poorly educated, vulnerable and in fear of disobeying their masters. Any dissent meant they too became prisoners at S-21. So, they did as they were told.

One of the beds in S-21

Some of the prisoners

An image of torture

Choeung Ek

Choeung Ek is one of the largest killing fields in Cambodia. Although exact numbers aren’t known, somewhere between 17,000 and 20,000 bodies have been exhumed, coinciding with the number of people interred at S-21. Skulls of 8,000 people are displayed in the stupa here. More bones and bone fragments appear each year in the burial pits after the rains, but it has been decided to leave them where they are.

I’m feeling a bit nauseous writing this, so please skip the rest if you feel the same – it’s only going to get worse.

History of the site

Area for killing tool storage

Burial pits

Most of the killing was done under both the cover of darkness and loud music. Approximately 300 people each night were killed by bludgeoning them to death with pickaxes, cartwheel spokes, bamboo sticks or anything else that could inflict mortal wounds. They didn’t use bullets – too expensive. One of the most disturbing sights at Choeung Ek is this tree. It was used to kill children by swinging them and hitting their heads against it.

Killing tree

Executioners office

The stupa

Layers of skulls exhumed from the fields

Maria laying flowers

Monument never to forget

A brief history

So, what happened next? Vietnam launched a full-scale offensive in December 1978, which led to the capture of Phnom Penh in January 1979. Pol Pot was later held under house arrest until he died in 1998, never answering for his crimes.

But what about the torturers and executioners? Most of them integrated back into society. Some publicly expressed remorse – most lived their lives anonymously. Only a few senior figures were put on trial decades later.

Streets of Phnom Penh

Back on a lighter footing… we got a car back to the city and got a glimpse of motoring Phnom Penh style.

Motorbike truck

The ubiquitous Grab food delivery bike

Family out shopping

Mega bike truck

Phnom Penh at night

After taking some nighttime photos, we spent our last night in Phnom Penh dining at a restaurant that didn’t sell cow penis with ants. We are flying to Bangkok in the morning so that we can get a train to Kanchanaburi, made famous by the film, The Bridge over the River Kwai.

Phnom Penh skyline at night

And another view