Monday March 21st 2011-Phnom Penh Second Day

So I learned a lot today.  I know it’s a shame but I can’t remember what I did this morning.  Ate breakfast and then went somewhere…not very important clearly.  After we did that though we were able to do what I came to Cambodia for, to experience the killing fields and learn about the history of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge rule over Cambodia.  We started by going to Tuol Sleng which was the former high school turned prison where over 20,000 Cambodians were killed by torturing and execution.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuol_Sleng_Genocide_Museum is the link for people who want to read about it.  I was able to go into the cells and see the beds where the people were actually chained to.  It was a very sobering experience to walk around the prison and see not only the tiny cells where they were forced to live but the specific items and ways they were used to kill and torture people.  Much of the museum was just filled with pictures of faces simply to get a feel of truly how many people were killed in the little courtyard right outside.  The Khmer Rouge trained young boys to abandon their families and in some cases they even had to capture and torture their own families.  Our tour guide was completely emotionless throughout the tour and even spoke of how his mother was killed at this very prison.  He told us how the Khmer Rouge ripped off all of her finger and toe nails to drain her blood and then injected her with water to kill her.  He told us that she still was not completely dead when they buried her alive.  The thing that is amazing about this whole genocide is how recent it was.  Only 30 years ago arguably 2.5-3 million Cambodians were killed in the genocide.  It seems as though everybody in the town had connections to the killings as well.  Our bartender the night before at the hotel told us how he was able to flee and 36 of his family members were killed by the Khmer Rouge.  Truly amazing.
After this we had the opportunity to go over to the Killing fields which were used simply as execution sites and large graveyards.  It is amazing that this whole area was kept as a secret from people living so close.  They would bring people here to kill them in a variety of different ways.  Children were killed by smashing their heads against a specific tree to prevent them from growing up and taking revenge for their parent’s deaths.  People were forced to dig their own graves and then buried alive.  The Khmer Rouge would poor chemicals over the bodies to both eliminate the stench of hundreds of bodies as well as kill off the people who were still living in the piles.  A sign read about where something called “the detention” was located.  Since the killing fields were used simply as a place to kill people, nobody actually lived there, but there was a point during the genocide where too many people were being shipped in to even kill in a day.  They were kept in a detention overnight until the Khmer Rouge got to them.  They were killing over 300 people a day…so many that they could not even keep up with killing them all.  How terrible is that, and to think it was not that long ago.  It was really bizarre being somewhere where something like this happened because as you are walking through you can literally see bone and clothing still sticking out of the ground.  Almost like it is untouched.  They had a memorial in the middle which consisted of over 600 skulls and loads of clothing from people recovered in the mass graves.  It was weird that it was wide open, if I had wanted I could have picked up one of the skulls.  The story of Pol Pot(which literally stands for Political Potential) is fascinating and one which you should read about it if you don’t know already.  What is shocking to me is the fact that we are not taught about this in school.  It may have been mentioned but not like we talked about the Holocaust.  Nearly 3 million people were killed and in American schooling you don’t even realize this happened just 30 years ago.
After we were finished we ate lunch at a similar place in which we ate dinner the night before…it was delicious and afterwards we were able to walk around this market in the center of town.  Before we went in our trip leader who had been to Cambodia many times told us that it was one of the best markets he had been in around the world.  Hailey and I rushed through lunch and ran over to it.  He was so right.  To date, and I have already been to China, Cambodia had the cheapest items I have seen in the entire world.  Shirts, shorts, knick knacks, crappy souvenirs, North Face’s, fruit and other food….anything you wanted for very cheap.  I got 3 t-shirts and a pair of shorts for $5 at one place.  I loved that market and would love to go back to go Halloween shopping.  They had some pretty terrible looking stuff. 
Oh I remember what we did that morning.  Went to the king’s old palace.  It was huge and pretty spectacular but again, I have realized I much more like spending time learning about and being immersed in the culture than seeing the typical tourist stuff.  I have pictures for that.