First thing everyone needs to know about Cambodia........the Cambodian People Party has the most money, therefore the most power. If they say  foreigners cannot rent motos (motorcycles) .......then don't (especially around Christmas time)!! The party is very corrupt and I got a few close ups......ha!! Just kidding. But one of our drivers on the way to our hotel got hit by a French diplomat and unlike everywhere else the police are not called to help (they just mess things up, really). Just when the two drivers figured out that the scratched paint cost  five dollars to repair and not worth a payment, the police found us and revoked our driver's license which he got back only after the French diplomat insisted.  Common sense tells us that in a case like this, it is more than likely the foreigner's fault........but hey, WELCOME TO CAMBODIA!!! Anything can happen and the rules change all the time.

Most of you heard of Pol Pot?? Seen the movie "The killing fields"? The guy who killed over half of the country (2 million people) in attempt to create a total socialist country (his term: 'The Revolution'). He started by telling all the people of Penom Phen (the capital and the biggest city)  to get out of the city because the Americans were going to bomb the city. (This is around the time of the Vietnam war). As soon as the people left, the city was burned along with all the currency (so that people would have to learn to depend on themselves and others to get food). Also, the clocks so people would have no sense of time.  However, he put those who had any education or political standing in jail because they would have the knowledge to organize and rebel. Oddly enough, he put these prisoners in this building which was an old high school (now called S-21). The barbed wire was to prevent prisoners from jumping to their death- which was better then living a tortured life (some tried committing suicide by slitting their wrists with their forks).

Just some of the ways that Pol Pot used to get "information or confessions" from those who where planning to rebel. The right painting shows how they handcuffed a prisoners' hands to a chain on the bottom of a barrel filled with water and then brought the prisoner up by a rope till they confessed or were dead. The left painting shows how the box on the bottom right was used. It was filled with water, and the prisoner was pushed in with the doors shut until they were ready to confess or till they are dead. He required one person to write a confession (false, of course) 100,000 times or they would be beaten. Other ways of torture included putting as wet rag on a prisoner's face and slowly dripping water on the wet rag till they suffocated and pulling out finger nails.

The living conditions of most prisoners. Those with higher status (such as teachers and political rivals) got their own rooms....mmmm.... that makes sense. Prisoner's feet were chained together and for one hour a day they would be allowed outside. Food was really sparse. On the black board behind the standing guy with the whip are the rules of the prison.  Some of the good rules are: 1. While getting lashes or electrification you must not cry at all. Do nothing. (RIGHT!!) 2. You must immediately answer my questions without wasting time to reflect. 3. Do not be a fool for you are a chap who dare to thwart the revolution. 20-60 lashes for not asking if you can relieve yourself. Only seven out of a thousand survived this place. WOW!! Sounds like SOMEONE should really be in the psyc. ward!!!

Just when you thought it could not get any worse!!! What was found in mass graves (next two photos) when Pol Pot was over thrown (1980-so pretty recent). This is just one level of seventeen. This field is one of the most popular of the killing fields because it is so well preserved.....there are 300 more around the country, but most look just like any other field. Often people were told they would be taken to another village to better fields, but really to a different field, not better. Here they would work till they were almost dead, and finish them off in one of the killing fields. Sad thing is you can touch these skulls. EWWW!!!

One of the many smaller mass graves. Most people were blind folded, forced to kneel in front of the grave and then were hit on the back of the neck with sticks. A blow to the neck did not kill everyone instantly, but after a few hours the yelling did stop (or they took the time to slit the throat- not typically). See that tree way up on the top of the photo? In order to not waste a bullet, babies were beat against trees or thrown up in the air to land on a knife. OK................will stop now.

One of the bigger mass graves. One lady ended up here for whistling an American song from the 60's as the next day Pol Pot's men brought in her bloody clothes to her village as a warning to everyone else. Why was she killed for whistling a 60's song from America? Our tour guide told us it wasn't a song of Pol Pot's and Pol Pot got all paranoid and assumed if it wasn't a 'revolution' song it was a song against him..

Duh!!! A cart. But it's the same design as the ones carved in the stone of the temples in Siem Reap (flippin old!).  Not much has changed in Cambodia technology-wise. When Pol Pot was in control he used people rather then oxen to pull these. The people would pull these carts all day with, at most, a half cup of rice. Call any humanitarian organization please. Sorry, the next photo isn't as gruesome, promise.

A school just outside the city (Phnom Phenh) funded by the Japanese, of course. I weaseled my way into getting a tour of a uni (college) in the city. Here they have no on-campus living as most still live at home.  There were about 18 computers in the library. All newspapers were in English (needed to improve students English skills I was told) and all textbooks and leisure reading books were donated by the Japanese. The reading books weren't at all about Cambodia, but about traveling Japan and it's history.....mmmmm.......how is this educational or useful to students? Anyway, the 'tour guide' - the student who could speak the best English , apologized many times because 'not all the books were sorted on the shelves yet'(translation: we are poor and are embarrassed). Might take another century for that to happen!

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O.K. I promise this country is not all gruesome....... but it was pretty wicked seeing history that was only twenty years old and still can be seen in the people today as my driver's (had to hire a moto driver as didn't want a ticket) parents died out here in the mass graves and some of the tour guides in the old high school/prison (s-21) escaped Pol Pot (You think it's hard going to your job everyday). Really brought history to life!!!

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