Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum

Bringing us back down to earth with a bang, we visited the notorious Security Prison 21 (S-21). I know the palm trees make this photo look quite pleasant, but the experience was anything but.

The site is a former school which was used by the Khmer Rouge regime from its rise to power in 1975 to its fall in 1979. Tuol Sleng means "Hill of the Poisonous Trees". Tuol Sleng was only one of at least 150 execution centers in the country. As many as 20,000 prisoners were tortured here, and if they survived, they were later sent to a near by killing field. Only 6 men managed to survive prison life, and we had the honour of meeting two of them.

The ground floor class rooms were torture rooms, which still contained several mechanisms which were used by the Khmer Rouge, and the second and third floor classrooms were divided into small crude cells used to contain the prisoners.

One very raw experience.