Killing Fields and Royal Palace

We could not visit Phnom Pehn without a trip to the Killing Fields. Alyssa wasn't particularly thrilled to go since she found it a bit morbid, but Jessica and I both felt that it was a part of history that deserved to be remembered and the people who died there should be honored. We hired our own tuk tuk to take us out there for the day which ended up being cheaper than the tours run by the hostel and we could leave whenever we were ready to go.
The Killing Fields are made up of a number of sites in Cambodia where large numbers of people were killed and buried by the Khmer Rouge regime, during its rule of the country from 1975 to 1979, immediately following the end of the Cambodian Civil War (1970–1975). Analysis of 20,000 mass grave sites show roughly 1,400,000 victims of execution. Estimates of the total number of deaths resulting from Khmer Rouge policies (including disease and starvation) indicate up to 2.5 million out of a 1975 population of roughly 8 million people in Cambodia were killed. In 1979, communist Vietnam invaded and toppled the Khmer Rouge regime.
The leader of the Khmer Rouge regime, Pol Pot, is sometimes described as "the Hitler of Cambodia" due to his genocidal beliefs. The regime arrested and eventually executed almost everyone suspected of connections with the former government or with foreign governments. They also targeted anyone who had an education or worked within the city. Pol Pot's dream was to "purify" Cambodian society of capitalism, Western culture, religion and all foreign influences. He wanted to turn Cambodia into an isolated and totally self-sufficient communist state.
The country's entire population was forced to relocate to the agricultural labor camps, the so-called "killing fields". Inmates lived in primitive conditions and former city residents were subjected to unending political indoctrination and brainwashing. Children were encouraged to spy on adults, including their parents. Crimes punishable by death include not working hard enough, complaining about living conditions, collecting or stealing food for personal consumption, wearing jewelry, engaging in sexual relations, grieving over the loss of relatives or friends and expressing religious sentiments.
We each had an audio guide to listen to, so as we walked through the grounds we were able to follow a guided tour about each spot. All of the buildings that used to be at the site had been destroyed once the camp was liberated so there were signs describing what each of the buildings that had been there was used for.
They would bring people in trucks to the site to be exectuted. Most of them were killed right away but as the numbers of people increased, they kept a storage shed to hold people in over night until they could be killed. They would use what ever tools they had at their disposal to kill people including shovels and hatchets- they did not use bullets because that would have been too costly. Often, they even use branches of the palm trees which had razor sharp edges to slit people's throats.

The tree shown below was a particularly disturbing site. They used to beat babies against the tree in order to kill them, often with their mothers watching. When the site was discovered, they found tons of blood and brain matter covering the tree next to a mass grave full of babies.

As I walked around the site and listened to the personal accounts of people who had been tortured and survived, I couldn't help but cry. It was so sad to see and hear the horrible things that people can do to each other. It is crazy to think that this happened just 40 years ago and that it could so easily happen again.

The last stop on the tour was a Buddhist stupa monument that the Cambodian government had built to house the bones of the people that were removed from the mass graves. There were 13 floors of bones, that had been separated tagged and preserved. It was a very sad thing to go and see but I was glad that we did because it really helped me understand the Cambodian people and culture much better.

Once we got back into town, we headed to a restaurant called "Karma" for lunch. Jessica had turned me on to jasmine tea and so I had an iced jasmine tea that was unbelievably refreshing. Jessica wanted to tour the royal palace which was right next door, but it was closed for lunch until 2:00pm, so we hung out wasting time until then.

On our walk to the Royal Palace, we stopped at Ouna Lom Pagoda which was a nice, small pagoda nearby. It seems there are always beautiful temples and pagodas around, you just need to look to find them.

We have been to many temples by now, so we knew you needed to have your shoulders and knees covered to be able to enter. What was new was that the palace would not allow you to enter if you were wearing a scarf or shawl to cover your shoulders. Unfortunately, Alyssa had brought her scarf as a covering so she couldn't go in since she was wearing a tank top underneath. Jessica and I went in anyways since Jessica really wanted to see it and we were properly dressed. The buildings and grounds were all really beautiful. There was a temple filled with gold (you're not allowed to take pictures in there) and tons of rooms holding the jewels and sacred artifacts of the royal family. We walked through the grounds for about an hour before meeting up with Alyssa back outside. She said that many other people had been turned away from entering, even people who had paid for a tour.

We decided to head back to the street along the river to have a beer before returning to the hostel. I ordered us a pitcher to split and we sat chatting with some other travelers who were sitting at the tables near us. We were sad that it was our last night with our sister.

We headed back to the hostel so that we could order a taxi to take Jessica to the airport and wait for our ride to pick us up and take us to the bus station for our night bus. We had dinner at the restaurant downstairs which had some great local dishes for us to try. As we waited, a cat decided to curl up next to Alyssa which was funny to Jessica and I because Alyssa hates cats.

It was very sad to say goodbye to Jessica and I couldn't help but cry. Her time with us had gone by way too fast and I wished she was going with us to Thailand. We hired her a reliable tuk tuk to drive her the 45 minutes to the airport and said our goodbyes. About five minutes later, our tuk tuk arrived for us. As we drove through town, I tried to take pictures of the beautifully illuminated buildings but we were never quite still enough to get a picture that would do them justice.

When we arrived at the bus station, it was very confusing what bus we were supposed to take. We finally understood that our bus had not yet arrived and we were to wait on the curb for it to show up. As we waited, we made friends with another traveller whose tuk tuk pickup had never come to get him so he had missed his bus and was waiting for a later one. We talked to him about his travels as we wondered where our bus was as it was way behind schedule. Finally, it arrived and we piled in with our bags.
This bus was entirely different than any other bus we'd ever been on. It was a sleeper bus, which meant instead of seats, there was a flat bed with a 45 degree incline part for your upper back. This might have been an ok seat for someone who was 5'3" but for someone who is almost 6' tall, it was a nightmare. We were in the very front, bottom row so I thought our saving grace was going to be the fact that there was a small storage space in front of us where we could keep our purses and small bags and that I could extend my legs up into. But unfortunately, once the bus was full they decided to sell the storage space as additional beds. To our disbelief, they put some from mats down (that part of the floor was two levels so those people slept on uneven ground) and squeezed three women in the space. There was no way for them to sit up and them being there meant that the people in the top bunk couldn't get down. We were in shock by all of this and were now crammed into our small space with all of our bags. We resolved to just deal with it since we really had no other option.

We left the station over an hour late and after a few hours of travel, we had to use the bathroom but we couldn't quite figure out where the bathroom was located. We looked in the back and couldn't find it, so Alyssa went to the front to ask the bus attendant. He couldn't seem to understand what she was saying but finally said something to the driver in Cambodian and the bus pulled over. That's when I understood...THERE WAS NO BATHROOM ON THE BUS! We had pulled over and they expected us to pee on the side of the road next to the bus. Alyssa was horrified. To be honest, at this point nothing phases me so I coaxed her into it, knowing that there were no other options and we hadn't way of knowing how long we'd be trapped in there. A few other women got off and did the same, which made us feel a little better. But the snickering of the men in the front of the bus who could clearly see our naked asses since we were basked in the light of the bus, I could have done without.
Back on the bus, I tried my best not to be horrified by our situation. I watched one of my tv shows on my ipad and then listened to music to distract me. There would be no sleep since I was incredibly uncomfortable and basically smashed into a tiny space. The most annoying thing was that our ride was increased by a few hours because the driver kept stopping every ten minutes to conduct secret, shady business. They were clearly hauling things for other people and would pick up other local passengers as we drove. We left the freeway and were taking country back roads to meet up with their business associates. At one point, two men got onto the bus and sat in the aisle right next to me. I already had no space, but this guy was basically falling on top of me. That's when I realized that the constant touching was part of their plan to rob us. I had tucked all of our bags underneath us and covered them with a blanket but he was still pretending to sleep and letting his arm fall so that he could try to get it under the blanket. We told him to get off of me and he reluctantly moved forward a little. There was no way he could get into our stuff since it was all locked up but I still watched him like a hawk. Next, I saw him pretending to fall asleep on top of the back pack of one of the girls who was sleeping in the storage space. Her bag did not have a lock and as soon as I saw him unzipping the pocket, I turned my flashlight on him. He shot me a look of hatred but backed off when he saw the look of hatred reflected in my face. They got off at the next stop, probably because they realized they weren't going to be able to steal anything on that journey.
We suffered the rest of the night in relative silence. We made a few stops for people to pee on the side of the road and thankfully one legitimate stop with an actual bathroom when the driver needed to eat. I was happy in some ways that they were conducting so much business because it kept our driver awake. I had read any reviews about the night buses in Cambodia and they are notoriously dangerous because of the driver falling asleep at the wheel.

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