Phnom Sampeau

Phnom Sampeau held both the Killing Cave and the Bat Cave. A ride of emotions really, I saw the killing cave first which was where the Khmer Rouge used to throw bodies from from the surface of the mountain, down the gaping hole. There was a display of the human bones left on site as a reminder of the horror that had occurred there. We were told that the hole above from which the people were thrown was artificially widened because, when people had first discovered them years after the Khmer Rouge were out of power, the bodies were still heaped and rotting as the sun had not been able to degrade the tissue. As you can imagine I left the cave feeling rather sombre. We made our way down the mountain on the back of mopeds driving as though they were about to be swallowed by oblivion to the bat cave for 5pm. Around this time every evening a natural phenomenon occurs during which approx 2-3 million bats flee a crag in the side of the mountain to feed for the night. A constant mass of black streaming, rising and falling as though being blown by the wind. A 45 minute murmuration of bats. Incredible. By the time we went back home I had been shocked, disgusted, sad, shocked again, amazed and covered in guano. A ride indeed!Read more