Day 106 – Phnom Penh
Today we woke up early and left to find some breakfast. We ended up at a Restaurant which is opened 24 hours, called Mekong River Restaurant. We had the breakfast menu here, and I would not recommend it. The majority of the staff didn’t seem to want to be there. But even worse, I had ordered jam and toast. The toast was horrible and stale. J had fried eggs with toast and the toast had mould on it. Not recommended at all!
As soon as we left the restaurant, a smiling remork moto driver approached us and offered to take us on a tour. We negotiated the price from $25 USD / $34.56 AUD down to $15 USD / $20.74 AUD.
Killing Fields
We drove an hour towards the Killing Fields offically known as the Choeung Ek Genocidal Center. The ticket includes an audio guide, which takes around 60 minutes. The tour mentions refers to buildings that were destroyed by understandably angry locals after the downfall of the Khmer Rouge.
There is a museum here, that also has a short movie that summarises the entire site. The history is depressing, and it really didn’t happen that long ago. Something I learnt was that the Khmer Rouge only ruled Cambodia for 4 years, but they were recognised by the United Nations for 12 years! Something they don’t teach us in history class.
“Better to kill an innocent by mistake than spare an enemy by mistake.” – Khmer Rouge propaganda
Faith in humanity was shattered.
S21
The next stop was Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, commonly called S21. For an extra $3 USD we were able to get audio guides, which adds an extra dimension to the experience. S21 was a former school that was converted into a prison and then essentially a death camp. To me S21 was worse than the Killing Fields and the impact of what happened to the people here seemed so much more real. Despite being an awful and depressing day, I was glad to see memorials made for the people that suffered here.
After the tour
After getting dropped off by the driver we had a late lunch (Happy Phnom Penh Pizza) and then an early dinner (next door to the hostel at Viva Restaurant, as it was cocktail happy hour!!!). We needed a boost to get us out of our depressed mindset.
Lunch @ Happy Phnom Penh Pizza Dinner @ Viva Restaurant
If anyone wants to fully experience the Killing Fields and S21, I recommend getting your own driver instead of the tours, as you will be limited to 90 minutes at each site. We ended up staying around 2 hours at the killing field and 2.5 hours at S21 (and we didn’t listen to all the audio)