I have a love hate relationship with Phnom Penh. It’s a bit too much of a dirty city for me to truly love it. Still, the amount of history that you can find there is unreal. If you don’t know about the Cambodian genocide, visit Phnom Penh. You’ll learn first hand about all of the terrible things that happened in this country by the Khmer Rouge regime between 1975 and 1979. Your trip there will be filled with difficult information, but I believe it’s important to learn about it.
What To Do
There are two main things that you’ll do when you go to Phnom Penh. You’ll visit the Killing Field and S-21. I think you should visit S-21 before you go to the Killing Fields as you’ll be provided with a lot more background information. Do the audio tours at each place and listen to them all the way through. A tuk tuk to both places should cost you about $13USD for two people.
S-21- Toul Sleng Genocide Museum
Prepare yourself for a really emotional day before you head to this museum. It will be hot, you’ll feel several things while walking through this museum and you may have trouble absorbing all of the information given to you during the audio tour. Take your time. If you need to sit on one of the benches, go do that.
S-21 (security prison-21) was formerly a high school before the Khmer Rouge regime took it over and converted it to a prison. It was an execution center where several thousand Cambodians would be killed. Most of the victims were soldiers from the civil war, academics, doctors, monks, engineers and factory workers. There were high ranking government officials imprisoned there as well as their families.
Most prisoners were kept alive for torturing in the prison for 2-3 months before they were executed. A lot of terrible and gruesome things happened in the halls and you will experience that first hand when you walk through them. There were traces of blood left in some of the prison cells and the hundreds of photos hanging on the walls of the people who were imprisoned there will haunt you.
There are only seven known survivors from S-21.
(Admission into the museum: $2USD; Audioguide: $6USD)
Killing Field
After you visit S-21, take a tuk-tuk ride out to the Killing Field, Choeung Ek. This was the place that many of the prisoners from S-21 would be taken to to face their execution.
There are over 20,000 mass grave sites located throughout Cambodia. It is said that collectively over a million people were killed at the Killing Field during the five years of the Khmer Rouge regime.
People would be driven out to the Killing Fields in the middle of the night. There was always loud music playing on a speaker throughout the area so that the people waiting to be killed wouldn’t hear the screams of those facing their executions. The Chankiri Tree that children and infants were killed against still stands today. There are remnants of clothing and teeth in cases to show you how many people were executed. You can even see bones that haven’t been excavated yet that come to the surface of the ground during the rainy season.
There are several mass grave sites throughout Choeung Ek. They have been marked and thousands of bodies have been excavated and moved to the memorial that is in the center of the area. Inside you can see bones from victims who were executed there.
This place is incredibly chilling. You can feel the death there. The audio tour is very hard to listen to, but it tells you about the horror that happened. It’s important to hear those things to really understand what happened in Cambodia.
(Admission: $6USD including audio tour)
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It is truly important to remember these things. I think tragic events like these is where the quote “Those who do not study history are doomed to repeat it” has its strongest meaning. If more people absorbed what we can learn from such tragedy rather than overlook it or try to hide it(like some governments do, “oh it never happened”) and simply accept the past, I think the world could be a more peaceful place.
i totally agree with you CJ! It was a hard day during my trip to Cambodia, but I am so glad that I experienced it.
Seeing the pictures gives me goose bumps! People everywhere should know about this and learn from it.
i had goosebumps the entire time i was visiting. it was truly a remarkable experience.
I’m going to have to add to the list of cities I want to visit! Amazing shot of the bracelets by the way!
thanks emily! you really should visit if you have the chance.
Sites like these stir the emotions. They rise up and choke a part of your heart, but they are good lessons to learn. Sad, heartbreaking but good lessons for the future.
beautifully said Lian!
I’ve visited quite a few prison museums but S-21 sound terrifying and educational. The audio guides are so helpful and they help put you there back in time. I’m sure seeing the many faces added deeper context to the experience.
The experience would not have been the same without the audio guides! I’m so glad I went.
I’d love to go here and see it for myself! I visited Sihanoukville before and it only lfet me wanting to see more of this intriguing country.
yes you must! Also, Koh Rong is my favorite.
You are so right. We need to educate ourselves, learn and remember these tragedies so we don’t allow them to happen again. Thanks for sharing
Learning about other cultures is my favorite part of traveling, so this was a great experience.
This does sound like a very emotional day. I’ve been to the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin and that was really rough. But I think it’s important for people to learn the truth about terrible events like the Killing Fields or they could happen again.
I totally agree with you. It’s tough stuff, but its necessary to see.
Interesting experience! I love historic tours, especially when they have such a touching background. I think this is something that should be done at least once in a lifetime.
Yes absolutely. It was really hard to get through, but I’m so glad that I did.
Very emotional! My friend has been there last year and told me about this. Hard to believe 🙁
It is. But its definitely worth the visit!
I visited both these spots during my time in Cambodia, and found it so difficult. There were a group of older women leaving in tears as we were about to go in. Such a sad sad history but so important for us to visit and understand when touring the beautiful country of cambodia.
I almost cried while visiting so I totally understand that. Cambodia is such a gorgeous place that learning about the people and history makes it even better.