city - an incredibly scary place. The site of 86 mass graves, still in
evidence as they have not been filled in, and other chilling sights
like a tree that was used to sling babies against to kill them before
they were put in the graves with their mothers. Its impossible for me
to imagine how people can become so taken over and brainwashed into
performing atrocities like this. Along with the remnants of the
genocide is a monument filled with excavated sculls, bones and clothes
from over 8,000 bodies uncovered there.
Unlike the holocaust, however, this I'd pretty recent history,
occuring from 1975-78 or so, meaning most of the people here lived
through the time and can give first hand accounts of what it was like
here at the time. Additionally, the short life of the Pol Pot regime
in power mars the scale of the genocide that much more difficult to
comprehend. All of this horror occurred during about a 3 year period.
The road leading to the area is lined with trash and poverty but the
people seem to have enough to get by and as I've mentioned are
universally very pleasant to deal with. Polite, respectful, kind.
Plus the river areas outside the city are spectacular to see. If you
can't tell already, I like Cambodia a lot...
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