DAY 15
Nothing much to say about today except that we caught a taxi to the airport and flew home.
That's all folks.
That's all folks.
Saturday, March 20, 2004
Friday, March 19, 2004
DAY 14
Friday we had breaky at ‘Mick and Craig’s’ before getting a public bus back to Phnom Pehn.
We got a tuk tuk to the Russian Markets where we bought some crafts.
We had drinks at Foreign Correspondence Club and dinner at Friends.
Went to ‘Heart of Darkness’ nightclub for a few drinks and a dance.
We got a tuk tuk to the Russian Markets where we bought some crafts.
We had drinks at Foreign Correspondence Club and dinner at Friends.
Went to ‘Heart of Darkness’ nightclub for a few drinks and a dance.
Thursday, March 18, 2004
ALVINA WAITING FOR BREAKY
ALVINA WAITING FOR BREAKY
On Serendipity Beach in front of 'Same, Same but Different' cafe.
DAY 13
We started Thursday with breakfast at the ‘Same Same but Different’ café. We had a quick tour of the port and were shown around a boat building yard. All made from timber.
Went had a look at some waterfall.
Lunch was at Ream National Park after which we took a boat out to Koh Ta Kiev island to snorkel and relax.
Watched Arsenal and Chelsea in Champions League over dinner & drinks at ‘Mick & Craig’s’ bar.
Went had a look at some waterfall.
Lunch was at Ream National Park after which we took a boat out to Koh Ta Kiev island to snorkel and relax.
Watched Arsenal and Chelsea in Champions League over dinner & drinks at ‘Mick & Craig’s’ bar.
Wednesday, March 17, 2004
DAY 12
On Wednesday (Paddy's Day) we took a mini bus to Sihanoukville.
Our hotel, the Mohachai hotel was nice and close to the beach. Spent the evening at the ‘Same Same but Different’ café (on the beach) drinking. Had a swim every now and then, water was gloriously warm.
Dinner at the ‘Sea Dragon’.
Our hotel, the Mohachai hotel was nice and close to the beach. Spent the evening at the ‘Same Same but Different’ café (on the beach) drinking. Had a swim every now and then, water was gloriously warm.
Dinner at the ‘Sea Dragon’.
Tuesday, March 16, 2004
THE HULK
THE HULK
Of course there's always some eijit that can't leave well enough alone. Boulders made from painted foam. I hope they look more realistic in the movie.
MOVIE SET
MOVIE SET
A Korean war movie was being shot when we were there, I'm surprised we were allowed to wander around.
LODGE
LODGE
Now abandoned, most of the buildings are still standing and the hotel in particular can still be explored. The strategic importance of the location is underlined by the fact that the Cambodian authorities maintain a Ranger Station on the site, and this doubles as a youth hostel with basic dorms and cooking facilities for those that make their way up here. The only other "inhabited" building on the site is a small temple. There is also a waterfall which tends to be dry in high season and in full flow during rainy season - hence few tourists ever see it in full flow, as travelling up the hill to Bokor is highly inadvisable in rainy season.
Reaching the top of Bokor Hill requires a 32km grind from sea-level to the top of the 3000ft peak up a broken road that is barely passable under optimum conditions and takes 3 hours to complete in either direction. Most travellers hire a local driver-guide and travel on the back of a motorbike or in a 4x4.
BOKOR HILL STATION
BOKOR HILL STATION
Bokor Hill Station is an abandoned French town built in 1922 high upon Bokor Hill. The town was built as a resort by the colonial French settlers to offer an escape from the humidity and general insanity of Phnom Penh. The centrepiece of the resort was the grand Bokor Palace Hotel & Casino, complemented by shops, a post office, a church and the Royal Apartments.
LOADS OF ROOM
LOADS OF ROOM
Spotted this fella driving ahead of us. The car was travelling at a decent speed and the road was very bumpy. No idea how he stayed on.
DAY 11
Tuesday we hopped into the back of a pick up truck and went to Bokor National Park.
Visited Bokor Hill Station which was a summer retreat, on top of a mountain, for the French when the temperatures got too high.
A Korean war movie was being made at the time we were there.
Later on we took a quick drive around town to take photos of the funny condom signs.
Had dinner at the Little Garden Bar.
Visited Bokor Hill Station which was a summer retreat, on top of a mountain, for the French when the temperatures got too high.
A Korean war movie was being made at the time we were there.
Later on we took a quick drive around town to take photos of the funny condom signs.
Had dinner at the Little Garden Bar.
Monday, March 15, 2004
DAY 10
Monday we took a bus to Kampot and the 'Senmonrom' Hotel.
The city is a quiet riverside town just a few kilometers from the Gulf of Thailand. It makes a good basecamp for exploring Bokor National Park and the Bokor Hill Station. Before the war, Kampot was best known for its famous pepper, which is still widely available in Cambodia.
Went to little seaside town of Kep on back of moto trailer, had an excellant seafood lunch and swim. Took a wander around some abandoned French colonial buildings.
Stopped at fishing village on way back to Kampot.
Went to Little Garden Bar for drinks.
The city is a quiet riverside town just a few kilometers from the Gulf of Thailand. It makes a good basecamp for exploring Bokor National Park and the Bokor Hill Station. Before the war, Kampot was best known for its famous pepper, which is still widely available in Cambodia.
Went to little seaside town of Kep on back of moto trailer, had an excellant seafood lunch and swim. Took a wander around some abandoned French colonial buildings.
Stopped at fishing village on way back to Kampot.
Went to Little Garden Bar for drinks.
Sunday, March 14, 2004
Choeung Ek
Choeung Ek, the site of a former orchard about 17km south of Phnom Penh, is the best-known of the sites known as The Killing Fields, where the Khmer Rouge regime executed about 17,000 people between 1975 and 1979. Mass graves containing more than 8,000 bodies were discovered at Choeung Ek after the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime. Many of the dead were former inmates in the Tuol Sleng prison.
Today, Choeung Ek is a memorial, marked by a Buddhist stupa. The stupa has plexiglass sides and is filled with more than 5,000 human skulls. Some of the lower levels are opened during the day so that the skulls can be seen directly. Many have been shattered by gunshots or smashed in with implements such as hoes.Tourists are encouraged by the current Cambodian government to visit Choeung Ek. Apart from the stupa, there are pits from which the bodies were exhumed. Human bones still litter the site.
Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum
The Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum is a former high school which was used as a prison and interrogation centre by the communist Khmer Rouge regime from its rise to power in 1975 to its fall in 1979. It was also known as S-21. Tuol Sleng is a Khmer name meaning "hill of the poisonous trees."
Formerly the Tuol Svay Prey High School, named after a Royal ancestor of King Sihanouk, the five buildings of the complex were converted in 1975 into a prison and interrogation centre. The Khmer Rouge renamed the complex "Security Prison 21" (S-21) and construction began to adapt the prison to the inmates: the buildings were enclosed in electrified barbed wire, the classrooms converted into tiny prison and torture cells and all the windows were covered with iron bars and barbed wire to prevent prisoner escapes.
From 1975 to 1979, an estimate of 14,000 to 16,000 people were imprisoned at Tuol Sleng (some estimates suggest a number as high as 20,000). The prisoners were selected from all around the country, and usually were former Khmer Rouge members and soldiers, accused of treason. Those arrested included some of highest ranking communist politicians such as Khoy Thoun, Vorn Vet and Hu Nim. Although the official reason for their arrest was "espionage," these men may have been viewed by Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot as potential leaders of a coup against him. Prisoners' families were often brought en masse to be interrogated and later exterminated at the Choeung Ek extermination centre.
Even though the vast majority of the victims were Cambodian, the prison population included members of other nationalities, including Vietnamese, Thai, Laotians and Pakistanis. Most non-Cambodians had been evacuated or expelled from the country and those who remained were seen as a security risk. A number of Western prisoners passed through S-21 between April 1976 and December 1978. Mostly these were picked up at sea by Khmer Rouge patrol boats. They included four Americans, three French, two Australians, a Briton and a New Zealander. One of the last prisoners to die was American Michael Scott Deeds who was captured with his friend Chris De Lance while sailing from Thailand to Hawaii.
In 1979, the prison's horrors were uncovered by the invading Vietnamese army. In 1980, the prison was reopened as a historical museum memorializing the genocide committed by the Khmer Rouge regime. The museum is open to the public, and receives an average of 50 visits every day.
Quality of life of the prisoners at Tuol Sleng was terribly harsh. Upon arrival at the prison, the prisoners were photographed and required to give complete biographical information. After that, they were forced to strip naked, and all their possessions were removed. The prisoners were then taken to their cells. Those taken to the smaller cells were shackled to the walls. Those who were held in the large mass cells were collectively shackled to long pieces of iron bar. The prisoners had to sleep on the cold floors, while still shackled.
The prison had very strict regulations, and severe beatings were inflicted upon any prisoner who tried to disobey. Almost every action had to be approved by one of the prison's guards. Likewise, health conditions were awful. The unhygienic living conditions caused skin diseases, lice, and other ailments, and few of the inmates ever received any kind of treatment.
The torture system at Tuol Sleng was designed to make prisoners confess to whatever crimes their captors charged them with. Prisoners were tortured with electric shocks, searing hot metal instruments and hanging, as well as through the use of various other devices. Although many prisoners died from this kind of abuse, killing them outright was discouraged, since the Khmer Rouge needed their confessions. The torture implements are on display in the museum. The vast majority of prisoners were innocent of the charges against them and their confessions produced by torture.
After the interrogation, the prisoner and his/her family were taken to the Choeung Ek extermination centre, fifteen kilometers from Phnom Penh. There, they were killed by being battered with iron bars, pickaxes, machetes and many other makeshift murder weapons. Victims of the Khmer Rouge were seldom shot as bullets were viewed as too precious for this purpose.
Out of the roughly 14,200 prisoners at the prison, there were only seven known survivors. Only three of them are thought to be still alive: Vann Nath, Chum Mey and Bou Meng. All three of these men were kept alive because they had skills judged to be useful. Vann Nath had trained as an artist and was put to work painting pictures of Pol Pot. Many of his paintings depicting events he witnessed in Tuol Sleng are on display in the museum to this day. Bou Meng, whose wife was killed in the prison, is also an artist.
The prison had a staff of 1,720 people. Of those, approximately 300 were office staff, internal workforce and interrogators. The other 1,400 were general workers. Several of these workers were children taken from the prisoner families. The chief of the prison was Khang Khek Leu (also known as Comrade Duch), a former mathematics teacher who worked closely with Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot. The interrogation teams were split into three separate groups: Krom Noyobai or political unit, Krom Kdao or 'hot' unit and Krom Angkiem or 'chewing' unit.
When prisoners were first brought to Tuol Sleng, they were made aware of ten rules that they were to follow during their incarceration. What follows is what is posted today at the Tuol Sleng Museum, the grammar is a result of the translation from the original Khmer:
1. You must answer accordingly to my questions. Don’t turn them away.
2. Don’t try to hide the facts by making pretexts this and that, you are strictly prohibited to contest me.
3. Don’t be a fool for you are a chap who dare to thwart the revolution.
4. You must immediately answer my questions without wasting time to reflect.
5. Don’t tell me either about your immoralities or the essence of the revolution.
6. While getting lashes or electrification you must not cry at all.
7. Do nothing, sit still and wait for my orders. If there is no order, keep quiet. When I ask you to do something, you must do it right away without protesting.
8. Don’t make pretexts about Kampuchea Krom in order to hide your jaw of traitor.
9. If you don’t follow all the above rules, you shall get many many lashes of electric wire.
10. If you disobey any point of my regulations you shall get either ten lashes or five shocks of electric discharge.
In 1979 Ho Van Tay, a Vietnamese combat photographer, was the first media person to document Tuol Sleng to the world. Van Tay and his colleagues followed the stench of rotting corpses to the gates of Tuol Sleng. The photos of Van Tay documenting what he saw when he entered the site is exhibited in Tuol Sleng today.The Khmer Rouge required the prison's staff to make a detailed dossier of all the prisoners. Included in the documentation was a photograph. Since the original negatives and photographs were separated from the dossiers in the 1979-1980 period, most of the photographs remain anonymous today.
Formerly the Tuol Svay Prey High School, named after a Royal ancestor of King Sihanouk, the five buildings of the complex were converted in 1975 into a prison and interrogation centre. The Khmer Rouge renamed the complex "Security Prison 21" (S-21) and construction began to adapt the prison to the inmates: the buildings were enclosed in electrified barbed wire, the classrooms converted into tiny prison and torture cells and all the windows were covered with iron bars and barbed wire to prevent prisoner escapes.
From 1975 to 1979, an estimate of 14,000 to 16,000 people were imprisoned at Tuol Sleng (some estimates suggest a number as high as 20,000). The prisoners were selected from all around the country, and usually were former Khmer Rouge members and soldiers, accused of treason. Those arrested included some of highest ranking communist politicians such as Khoy Thoun, Vorn Vet and Hu Nim. Although the official reason for their arrest was "espionage," these men may have been viewed by Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot as potential leaders of a coup against him. Prisoners' families were often brought en masse to be interrogated and later exterminated at the Choeung Ek extermination centre.
Even though the vast majority of the victims were Cambodian, the prison population included members of other nationalities, including Vietnamese, Thai, Laotians and Pakistanis. Most non-Cambodians had been evacuated or expelled from the country and those who remained were seen as a security risk. A number of Western prisoners passed through S-21 between April 1976 and December 1978. Mostly these were picked up at sea by Khmer Rouge patrol boats. They included four Americans, three French, two Australians, a Briton and a New Zealander. One of the last prisoners to die was American Michael Scott Deeds who was captured with his friend Chris De Lance while sailing from Thailand to Hawaii.
In 1979, the prison's horrors were uncovered by the invading Vietnamese army. In 1980, the prison was reopened as a historical museum memorializing the genocide committed by the Khmer Rouge regime. The museum is open to the public, and receives an average of 50 visits every day.
Quality of life of the prisoners at Tuol Sleng was terribly harsh. Upon arrival at the prison, the prisoners were photographed and required to give complete biographical information. After that, they were forced to strip naked, and all their possessions were removed. The prisoners were then taken to their cells. Those taken to the smaller cells were shackled to the walls. Those who were held in the large mass cells were collectively shackled to long pieces of iron bar. The prisoners had to sleep on the cold floors, while still shackled.
The prison had very strict regulations, and severe beatings were inflicted upon any prisoner who tried to disobey. Almost every action had to be approved by one of the prison's guards. Likewise, health conditions were awful. The unhygienic living conditions caused skin diseases, lice, and other ailments, and few of the inmates ever received any kind of treatment.
The torture system at Tuol Sleng was designed to make prisoners confess to whatever crimes their captors charged them with. Prisoners were tortured with electric shocks, searing hot metal instruments and hanging, as well as through the use of various other devices. Although many prisoners died from this kind of abuse, killing them outright was discouraged, since the Khmer Rouge needed their confessions. The torture implements are on display in the museum. The vast majority of prisoners were innocent of the charges against them and their confessions produced by torture.
After the interrogation, the prisoner and his/her family were taken to the Choeung Ek extermination centre, fifteen kilometers from Phnom Penh. There, they were killed by being battered with iron bars, pickaxes, machetes and many other makeshift murder weapons. Victims of the Khmer Rouge were seldom shot as bullets were viewed as too precious for this purpose.
Out of the roughly 14,200 prisoners at the prison, there were only seven known survivors. Only three of them are thought to be still alive: Vann Nath, Chum Mey and Bou Meng. All three of these men were kept alive because they had skills judged to be useful. Vann Nath had trained as an artist and was put to work painting pictures of Pol Pot. Many of his paintings depicting events he witnessed in Tuol Sleng are on display in the museum to this day. Bou Meng, whose wife was killed in the prison, is also an artist.
The prison had a staff of 1,720 people. Of those, approximately 300 were office staff, internal workforce and interrogators. The other 1,400 were general workers. Several of these workers were children taken from the prisoner families. The chief of the prison was Khang Khek Leu (also known as Comrade Duch), a former mathematics teacher who worked closely with Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot. The interrogation teams were split into three separate groups: Krom Noyobai or political unit, Krom Kdao or 'hot' unit and Krom Angkiem or 'chewing' unit.
When prisoners were first brought to Tuol Sleng, they were made aware of ten rules that they were to follow during their incarceration. What follows is what is posted today at the Tuol Sleng Museum, the grammar is a result of the translation from the original Khmer:
1. You must answer accordingly to my questions. Don’t turn them away.
2. Don’t try to hide the facts by making pretexts this and that, you are strictly prohibited to contest me.
3. Don’t be a fool for you are a chap who dare to thwart the revolution.
4. You must immediately answer my questions without wasting time to reflect.
5. Don’t tell me either about your immoralities or the essence of the revolution.
6. While getting lashes or electrification you must not cry at all.
7. Do nothing, sit still and wait for my orders. If there is no order, keep quiet. When I ask you to do something, you must do it right away without protesting.
8. Don’t make pretexts about Kampuchea Krom in order to hide your jaw of traitor.
9. If you don’t follow all the above rules, you shall get many many lashes of electric wire.
10. If you disobey any point of my regulations you shall get either ten lashes or five shocks of electric discharge.
In 1979 Ho Van Tay, a Vietnamese combat photographer, was the first media person to document Tuol Sleng to the world. Van Tay and his colleagues followed the stench of rotting corpses to the gates of Tuol Sleng. The photos of Van Tay documenting what he saw when he entered the site is exhibited in Tuol Sleng today.The Khmer Rouge required the prison's staff to make a detailed dossier of all the prisoners. Included in the documentation was a photograph. Since the original negatives and photographs were separated from the dossiers in the 1979-1980 period, most of the photographs remain anonymous today.
About Me
- Name: Shane Treacy
- Location: New South Wales, Australia
I've set up this site so that I don't have to e-mail bits and bobs to everyone. It's also a useful way to keep a record of events and such.
Contents
Archives
- Tuesday, March 02, 2004
- Saturday, March 06, 2004
- Sunday, March 07, 2004
- Monday, March 08, 2004
- Tuesday, March 09, 2004
- Wednesday, March 10, 2004
- Thursday, March 11, 2004
- Friday, March 12, 2004
- Saturday, March 13, 2004
- Sunday, March 14, 2004
- Monday, March 15, 2004
- Tuesday, March 16, 2004
- Wednesday, March 17, 2004
- Thursday, March 18, 2004
- Friday, March 19, 2004
- Saturday, March 20, 2004
