Back on the road, we follow our same “short cut” path back through the little villages and the dirt then concrete roads. Back across the sheet metal bridge and onto the main road back into town. We had noticed on the drive in that there were lots of big, new expensive looking housing being built behind what would basically be considered slums.
We spent the ride back, amusing ourselves by snapping photos of these incongruous structures.
We quizzed Chaina as we drove, who are buying these places? Cambodians? Or other wealthy foreigners? He said both – that the cost to be in the city was so expensive, that people were building out here. Ah, the real estate bubble. Live and well in Phnom Penh.
Chaina delivers us to S-21 and tells us where he will be parked, then we enter the museum.
We forgo the audio guide in S-21 because, quite frankly, we've heard enough. We just want to walk around and see the place. This might have been a mistake, but there are enough signs and placards around that we can figure out what is what. Tuol Sleng was originally a high school that was used as "Security Prison 21" (thus S-21). The words Tuol Sleng mean Hill of the Poisonous trees, and over 17,000 prisoners were said to be incarcerated here from 1975 to 1979.
The five school house buildings were converted into prison cells and torture rooms. Including adding the gallows where the prisoners were hung.
Once brought here, prisoners were photographed and forced to give a detailed biography when they arrived, then they were stripped of all their possessions, down to their underwear and taken to either the mass cells or smaller cells where they were shackled to the walls or the concrete floor. Then they were tortured in order to extract confessions of their espionage against the Khmer Rouge. They were also asked to list other people they knew to be conspiring against the Khmer Rouge, which typically ended up with these people being arrested and interrogated at S-21.
The first set of buildings had empty mass cell rooms and torture rooms - all with what looked like old batteries next to beds or shackles.
There were also thousands and thousands of pictures of the prisoners. Their faces were stark reminders of the tragedy their own people did to them. Most looked frightened, some were bruised and beaten already, some had huge smiles, but some had this look of defiance. Those defiant looks truly took your breath away - that someone, knowing what was to come, could still muster the anger and passion to be defiant in his/her S-21 photo, it was inspiring.
The last set of buildings we visited had the remains of the small cells, built with either brick or wood. You could see the shackles and where the prisoners were forced to stand or sit for hours. There were also the mass cells where the shackle holders still remain on the floor. Prisoners where shackled to alternating rods and had to sleep on the floor with no mats, nets or blankets, and with heads in the opposite direction just to fit into the room. This building was also the one with the razor wire all along the outside. The wire was placed there so that prisoners could not try to kill themselves by jumping off the outside landings.
It was creepy and awful and, interspersed with the photos, terribly emotional. But the most emotional was the fact that there were only 12 known survivors of S-21, and TWO of them were there on the property as we exited. That really, really made an impact. While we didn't interact with them at all, the fact that they were there - one selling a book about him and the other, an artist selling his book and video as well as I think drawings - gave me goose bumps. You can look at all the museums and read all the literature you want, but to see these 2 men at the place that caused them so much pain - well that was mind blowing.
That ended our tour (as it was designed to…placing the men on the path out of the school yard), and we went back out on the street to find Chaina. He was right where promised, so we hopped in the tuk tuk and headed to the Russian market.
On the way we snapped pictures of the tuk tuks and motos with all the goods and wares on them. Bags of onions, baskets, stuff, you name it!
It's a quick jaunt over to the market and we dive in - trying to remember what is around the entrance we use, so we can find Chaina again. The market is like an market - jam packed with stuff. Down this aisle, the souvenirs, down this one - the clothes, the next the shoes, then onto the hardware section, the moto section, the food market and flower section. Crazy and tight spaced and incredibly close and hot. Almost to point of claustrophobic suffocation. We make it all the way through the place to the other side and pop out into the blazing sun to get some fresh air - albeit 95 degree air. But still. Enough - we don't really need or want anything (except a wallet for Ed and that may prove to be a quest because the wallets aren't really designed for westerners) - so we head back to where we think we entered. Of course we get turned around, but not by much, and end up on the street a block away from Chaina. We make it back unscathed (he's a little surprised we didn't stay longer) and we're back out into the tuk tuk traffic madness!
We pass the Independence memorial and get a couple of good snaps. Chaina notices I am taking pictures, so he stops as we are passing the statues in the park for me to get out and take a few more. So nice! He and Ed chat away while I'm out there snapping away.
We're back to the hotel in minutes from here. Great day, and totally worth the $25 fee to Chaina. That's what a shared bus would have cost for Killing Fields and S-21 alone. Much more fun this way.
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