Day 39

Toul Sleng Genocide Museum

Today was a very somber day (on purpose) because we headed to one of the main sites of Phnom Penh. After grabbing some breakfast we got a TukTuk over and paid 10 dollars for entry and an audio guide which was worth every single penny. The Toul Sleng Genocide Museum was formerly a high school before being used as Security Prison 21 (S21) during the Khmer Rouge regime from 1975 to 1979. It was one of hundreds of security prisons across Cambodia that was responsible for the genocide of an estimated 2 million - or 25% - of Cambodians. After the downfall of the regime, it was turned into a museum to remember the atrocities.

Obviously I didn't take any pictures and I'm not gonna go into alot of detail about what I saw, but we ended up spending about 5 hours following the audio guide, reading the information and seeing the artefacts. This prison was responsible for the torture and death of an estimated 20,000 people where citizens were forced to confess against their "espionage" against the Khmer Rouge. After their confession they'd be sent to the Choeung Ek Killing Fields to be executed. As you walk around the grounds and buildings, you see photos of victims, evidence of torture devices, clothing, cells, and alot of information about everything. To say it was a heavy day would be an understatement.

Originally we had planned to go to the killing fields in the same day, but we spent longer than expected here and didn't want to rush around the killing fields, so we planned to come back in a few days after heading South to the islands. After leaving we were very hungry and thirsty so we head to a restaurant for some food and drink.

With the rest of the day we don't do alot, we mainly focused on finding somewhere for laundry and then back to the night market for some dinner.Read more