Choeung Ek Killing Field

Location: 15km southwest of the city, Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Opening time: 7:00am - 5:30pm.

Tickets: US$2.

How to get there: You need to hire a private car or motorbike. It takes about 30 minuets.

From the middle of 1975 to the December of 1978, around 17 000 people (including men, women, and kids) were detained and tortured at s-21 prison (Tuol Sleng Museum), and then killed by the Khmer Rouge. Many of the dead people were killed by sticks to avoid wasting precious bullets in that time.

Among the 129 huge tombs of the killing fields, there is the tall Memorial Stupa built in 1988 to commemorate the dead. Inside the stupa, around 9 000 skulls are placed there. There are 43 of the 129 stayed untouched.

Listening to the laughter of the playing kids, wandering at the exposed bones and clothes of the dead, tourists get to know more about the contradictions of history in Cambodia. According to the sound recording, we get to know that many of the dead thought they could go back home soon. But they are sentenced to death and their crying was of no help as the revolutionary songs were played out there at the courtyard.