Today we had an all day tour booked with the hostel. We started early by going to a coffee shop for a morning drink. I had a peach iced tea and Robin had her classic iced black americano. The coffee shop was very modern and we saw our first Halloween decorations. It is so odd to see friends dressing up and going out for Halloween whilst we are dealing with 36°C heat and high humidity. Today hit our temperature record so far!

After coffee we got picked up by a tuk tuk and taken to Samrong Knong Killing Field. During the Cold War, the Khmer Rouge (Communist) took advantage of the precarious political situation in Cambodia. They despised capitalism and saw communism as the identity of Cambodia. Within a few days they took control with a powerful military and charismatic leader; Pol Pot. Without going too far into their rise to power, the Khmer Rouge took control of Cambodia in 1975.

To avoid capitalism returning, the Khmer Rouge implemented a repressive regime of a one party system. They oppressed the local people and destroyed societies. Any academic or educated individual such as doctors were killed. Individuals were tortured for names of other ‘capitalist sympathizers’. The torture would not stop until they had a list of names, most of which were just people they knew to stop the abuse. Methods included: suffocation, drowning, removal of tongue. With the list of names the cycle continued.

The Khmer Rouge had a saying ‘the best way to control weeds is to cut the root’. They murdered and displaced approximately 1/3 of the Cambodian population over 4 years. Killing fields emerged shadowed by the name ‘security center’. After torture, the prisoners would be gruesomely murdered by blow to the head, slit throats, and even disemboweled and cannibalized.

After the visit to the killing field we went to see how rice paper was made. A real change of pace. The rice mixture is spread onto a bamboo frame and left to dry. Once ready the sheet pops off and is a hard plastic texture until rehydrated or fried.

Next we saw another older ‘Angkorian’ style temple before we stopped back at the hostel for an hour lunch. Robin and I had a Cambodian tapas of starters from a restaurant.

The afternoon started with a ride on a bamboo train. The railways have adapted carts of 2 axel bamboo platforms. Once used to move materials and food around the country, the trains now provide entertainment for tourists. We had fun zooming through the countryside seeing locals jumping and playing in the rivers supplying to rice fields.

When it comes to rice Cambodia is the biggest producer compared to land size. One province in Cambodia produced enough rice for the whole country with the rest going to export.

From the bamboo train rice we took another somber turn. We visited the killing cave. Another site of genocide. The Khmer Rouge would shackle prisoners to each other and with a blow to the head, send them tumbling into a huge cave. Memorials all across Cambodia formed of human remains serve as a reminder for tourists and young Cambodian people to not let the atrocities be committed again. We finished this section with a walk to the top of the cave to see the sunset. Such a contrast to the locations history.

Pol Pot, the leader of the Khmer Rouge, died of a heart attack in 1998 whilst hiding from prosecution in Northern Cambodia. Some disagree with this.

Our final stop was the bat cave. At 5:30pm swarms of bats began to flood out of the crack in the cliff. The bats set off for food at dusk and return before the sun rises. We watched them for 20 minutes before deciding to tuk tuk back to the hostel. The stream of bats Carrie’s on for 45 minutes to an hour!

We had ramen for dinner before going to bed after an exhausting day.

-M