Today is going to be awesome.
We leave the teamhouse at 8:30 a.m. sharp, and take the forty-five minute journey via tuk-tuk to a place called Choeung Ke, or “The Killing Fields”.
The Killing Fields is a place where tens of thousands of Cambodians were killed between 1976 and 1979, during the reign of Pol Pot. They were all buried in mass graves. Men, women, and even young children were all brutally murdered here, for no good reason. Thousands of human skulls are stacked for all to see the atrocity that occurred here. One out of every four people in Cambodia were killed during this time. Everyone here over the age of 40 knows at least a few people that were killed here in the late 70’s. Because of this, basically everyone in this country suffers from post traumatic stress disorder.
Ok, so that story is kind of a downer. Sorry. But it is a huge part of Cambodia’s history.
Bones people have found around the fields:
All of these holes represent mass graves that have been dug up:
We see all these teeth on the ground:
This is a leaf from a big palm tree-looking plant. The leaves are razor sharp. They used to slit the throats of the people to kill them with these leaves:
Pile of skulls:
Clothes of the bodies in the graves are rising up to the surface:
Today is day nine out of twelve of our trip. This trip is wrapping up and coming to an end. It will be over before we know it. Thinking about this makes me sad, because I love this place and the people in it. I want to just love and take care of all of the children here that don’t have a family. But I know that this is just not possible to do.
Our next adventure is the Russian Market. It is a big, indoor market with hundreds of shops in it. There are clothes, shoes, scares, jewelry, food, purses, souvenirs, etc. – basically everything you could ever need. We go our separate ways and track down our kill. I find some awesome souvenirs and we meet up after a few hours. Everyone walks away with at least a couple of souvenirs – success!
Now we’re thirsty and hot. We round the corner and hit up Sophea, a cheap restaurant that has incredible smoothies. If you ever get the chance to try an Orange-Banana-Passion Fruit-Pineapple Juice smoothie…do it.
And now, it is time for the moment we’ve all been waiting for. It is four p.m. The sun is poised low in the sky, getting ready to set in a couple of hours. The time lapse shot: it is happening now.
Landon, Abraham, and I pile into the tuk-tuk. The rest of the group stays behind (their loss). We have already picked out the location. It looks like this:
Yeah, you know you’re jealous.
The time lapse turns out AMAZING. Better than I ever thought possible. While the camera is running, a group of kids come over and start playing close to where the camera is shooting. I do what has to be done, to prevent them from ruining my precious shot. Instinctively, my iPhone comes out of my pocket. I motion for the kids to come over. All I can think of is it’s a good thing I have Angry Birds on here.
This distracts the kids for a good, long while. Although there is countless Angry Birds merchandise all over Cambodia, I doubt these kids have ever actually played the game. I show them how to play and then let them take over. One boy takes it in his hands, and the others watch as he plays. At first, he doesn’t understand how to work the catapult, but he catches on quickly. By the time we leave, he’s already beaten like 13 levels.
Once we get back the rest of the group piles back into our tuk-tuk and we are taken to Mike’s Burgers, which we have been told serves the best burgers in the world.
They’re really good. In-N-Out is still better though.
Landon has to spit out four of five pieces of hamburger, because they “weren’t chewable”. I guess it’s probably hard for restaurants to find good quality meat here in Cambodia, since they pretty much always keep the tendons and fat in the hamburger meat when they prepare it.
When we return to the teamhouse, we pack up all our stuff and get it all ready to be out of here early tomorrow morning. We have a LONG bus ride to Bangkok tomorrow…
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