Stray - Koh Tunsay to Phnom Penh

The gentle warmth of yesterday was long gone as we left our bungalow. The wind blustered off the sea, chopping the surf and rattling the palms, whilst a dark gloom descended and rain steadily pattered onto the sands. As we questioned our return journey to the mainland the brewing storm suddenly dissipated, as if sensing our trepidation. The wet jungle pathway glistened in the morning sun as we walked down to a calm turquoise cove. Knee high in the warm water, we loaded our bags and climbed aboard our boat. Out in the open channel we were tossed side to side by the swell and surf sprayed down from the bow but we came through unscathed.

Back on the bus we headed toward our final stop in Cambodia, the capital Phnom Penh. Before arriving in the city we stopped at the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek, a memorial to the millions that were murdered by Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge regime in the late 1970s. At Choeung Ek and many other sites tens of thousands were brought by truck to be bludgeoned to death (bullets were too costly) whilst hundreds of thousands more perished across the country under forced labour, starvation and disease in a state-sponsored genocide. Women were raped and children had their skulls smashed against trees whilst speakers blared out patriotic anthems to mask the screams of the butchered.

It was an utterly sobering experience that is difficult to convey in words. Rows of skulls, scarred and shattered by murder weapons were encased within the memorial stupa, surrounded by an undulating landscape of craters where the mass graves of thousands were excavated in 1980. Bone and clothing are still thrown up from soil during heavy rains.

Within 4 years over 2 million people died, ¼ of Cambodia’s population, before the country was liberated by its Vietnamese neighbours. Yet incredulously due to Cold War political blindness, Pol Pot and his cronies continued to hold a seat at the UN and were viewed as the legitimate government of Cambodia. Pol Pot was not put under house arrest until 1997, continuing to enjoy a family life until he died in 1998. We are reading a book about this dark chapter in history by a woman, Loung Ung, a child survivor of the carnage. The book is titled ‘First They Killed My Father’.Read more