After finding our guest house on the lake and a well needed rest, the day started out by making our way out on motorbikes again to a firing range. Now Sab and I had shot AK-47's in Vietnam and a Russian made Margo rifle in Laos so we thought lets finish the IndoChina trilogy by firing more bullets at a target. Don't worry we aren't going to come back to Australia and suddenly take up Roo Shooting but if you have had to come to this part of the world to experience the mindset we were in.
After a good 40 minute ride on smooth roads, we found our way to the shooting range whereby a "menu" of guns was avaliable from a Colt Revolver up to firing a Rocket Launcher for $200 US and for a few dollars more you could go out to the countryside and fire a rocket launcher at a cow...i swear to God. Even that was a major turnoff but Sab and i decided on a good ol' fashioned American hangun that i only know as the one Mel Gibson used in the "Lethal Weapon" films. Gees that gun packs a punch but in about 10 seconds it was all over and we were on our way to the first of the two major "must sees" of the capital...the Killing Fields of Cheong Ek.
After watching the movie of the very same name the night before i had a little idea of what to expect but nothing could prepare anyone for this place. The sheer brutality of this place overwhelms you especially when you see signs that tell you events that happened here such as a tree being used to throw babies against it to kill them, a mass grave where women and children were thrown into, a grave where all the heads of the bodies were severed. Add to the fact that there was a tree made out to look like a plam tree that actually was a saw that was used to slit throats and the Khmer Rouge often used blunt instruments to smash peoples heads in to save bullets and you get a small idea of the extent of the madness this regime created during its reign.
Over 5,000 skeletons are in the commemorative stupa and you can clearly see where instuments were used to kill the "traitors."The sign next to the tree says it all.
During our walk around we wer guided by a local man who saw first hand the torture here. He was 15 at the time the Khmer Rouge took over the country and was able to tell us in detail how the soldiers would kill anyone and these soldiers were mainly young kids. Under the Khmer Rouge you had to work in the fields and thats it. If you were an intellectual of any kind you were sent here to meet your destiny. Even one Australian was executed here which really hit home. Our guide told us that one day while he was working in the fields he found a snail which he ate and was caught. Another soldier got a piece of sharp bamboo and stabed him though the leg. He managed to escape to northern Cambodia wher on his return his whole family was never to be seen again.
After the Killing Fields the second half of our trip took us to what loked like an old high school. In fact we were heading towards the infamous S-21 Prison which was the epicentre for Pol Pot's touture of "intellectuals." Walking around the gardens and past the double razor wire fence you have no idea of what you are about to see. This former high school was transformed into a ruthless complex of tourture ranging from water tourture, electric shock, nails being pulled out with pliers, getting whipped, beaten and forced not to talk at all..i mean at all. There was one interrogation room where you could clearly see a pair of blood stained hand prints on the wall and the moment i saw them i felt so helpless and shocked that i nearly cried. Here was someones pain right in front of me and whilst the War Museum in Saigon gave you an impression of what it was like during the war...at S-21 you felt what it was like in this room.
An old high school now the S-21 Prison where you were "re-educated"
The feelings i had leaving this place was that it was much a raw emotional experience that it is a compulsory experience to visit this place as everyone neds to know that even though we are capable of great things as a people we are capable of such horrible deeds that as Sab and I agreed that if we have kids (thats not together mind you) and we have the ability to travel they must know that places like S-21 and the Killing Fields existed. Every age group from babies to grandparents were held here and the hundreds of mug shots you can see all show one feeling..fear. Seriously, even thinking about it as i'm typing this makes me feel uneasy.
I've never felt so sad in my life until today. It affected me greatly and i'm glad that Cambodia hasn't tried to hide its history from anyone. They know they made mistakes and they admit them and they are open for people to see. Unlike Vietnam, Laos or China; Cambodia wants you to learn from its mistakes and tell the world events like this can happen and it didn't happen defending from a foreign invader...
It happened to their fellow countrymen .
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