February 21, 2018
Today ay 1200 we loose our Cambodian guide SoKun who has been so helpful and such a nice man. We tipped him well.
This morning we departed the Mekong Navigator at 0830 for the “Killing Fields” Choung Ek memorial Stupta. Its hard to imaging the brutality that unfolder here when wandering through the peaceful, shady former longaorchard. The killing fields of Choung Ek was the scene of one of the most disturbing act of violence in contemporary history. The memorial stupa brings it home, displaying more than 8,000 skullaand their ragged clothes. In 1988 the memorial stupa was erected, and the museum in the corner of the grounds offers detailed background information on the Khmer rouge leaders, as well as victims. Of the 120 communal graves at Choung Ek, 49 49 have been left intact
Next stop Tuol Sleng Genocide museum or S-21. Originally a school built by the French Tuol Sleng was turned into the Khmer Rouge’s largest detention and torture headquarters. More than 17,000 men, women and children mmoved through S-21 on there way to the Choung Ek killing fields. The prison has been converted into a museum with thousands of photographs of the Khmer Rough victums, as well as diaries amd poems. It sadening to learn that out of the thousdand that lived here only 7 survived.
We departed Phnom Penh dock at 1430 and are headed down the Mekong River to Vietnam.
Were enjoying some down time as we cruise the river, we have been very busy and the weather hot!