Memorial and celebrations

Last day of 2016 (and day 127 of my trip). Today we went to Tuol Sleng genocide museum and the Killing Fields. Both are difficult places to visit. Tuol Sleng was a secondary school until the Khmer Rouge took over and turned it into a prison and torture centre called S-21. The audio guide is very well done. It’s disturbing to listen to but the narration takes you through the historical background and the international dimension as well as not shying away from describing what happened in the prison. There are personal stories of people who were held there as well as from the few people who survived being there and from some former guards.

I went to the museum when I first visited Phnom Penh in 1998 (and before they had the audio guide) but I found it so disturbing that I decided not to go to the Killing Fields. This time I went. It’s also very respectfully organised with another audio guide and quiet places where you can sit and listen to what happened. I only took two photos, both of just the top of the memorial to the victims at the site of the Killing Fields. It didn’t feel to me like a place for holiday snaps (neither did Auschwitz; when I visited there I took no photos at all). The building is full of skulls, displayed in tall glass cases and I wanted to make sure they were not visible in my photos. It’s still such recent history. The last few Khmer Rouge leaders were arrested in the jungle while I was in Cambodia in 1998 and the international criminal tribunal is still working on trials.


It was quite a contrast to come back to the city centre and see everyone gearing up to celebrate the new year. It’s a big deal in Phnom Penh. We heard there would be fireworks by the river after midnight and all evening the entire population of the city seemed to be trying to drive down the road next to the river causing traffic jams for hours (see extra. The road isn’t one way, the traffic going in one direction is using all of the road forcing the motorbikes going the other way onto the pavement).