Most travellers visiting Phnom Penh feel the need to do
the tour that starts
at Tuol Sleng, the school used as the Khmer Rouge's S21 detention
centre,
and continues out to Choeung Ek, the notorious killing fields.
It is impossible to verbalise the power of these places. The ghosts
scream at you from
every wall and every pit. If anything, this makes the tragic tales
you will hear
from those that survived less harrowing. No element of
contemporary
Cambodia can be viewed in isolation from this recent history.
Impoverished and beaten down however, Cambodians, like their
land,
are uniquely beautiful and serene. This is a country most
travellers
never leave behind, where spending money is a joy, and you are
greeted
as an omen of stability and hope.
How many died? Maybe a quarter of a million.
Lest we forget, broken skulls bear testament at
the Genocide Monument.
