Still in Phnom Penh....

...but heading to the beach on Saturday! We've been hanging out waiting for our Burma visas, which should be ready on Friday. I'm totally recovered from Dengue, but Jason got bit by a monkey in the city so we're keeping an eye on that. It doesn't appear to have broken the skin, but we're still aware of the risks it could pose. We were visiting a Wat in the middle of the city that was surrounded by trees, and there were a bunch of monkeys all over! It was pretty crazy to be so close to them, they didn't seem too bothered by the people around. Jason was sitting taking some pictures and a very small one walked right up to him and bit his arm.

Today we visited the Killing Fields, which is one of the mass grave sites that the Khmer Rouge murdered and buried people. After being imprisoned at Tuol Sleng which we visited last week, truckloads of prisoners were taken out to this area about 15 km outside of the city. The centerpiece is a large memorial stupa, which is filled with skulls, clothing, and other bone fragments of victims that were found at the site. We could go inside of it and the skulls are actually out in the open, not behind glass. It got to me a bit being so close to over 5,000 human skulls. Outside of the stupa are markers indicating where mass graves were discovered. The largest had 450 bodies, another had 166 headless bodies, and another was 100 bodies of women and children. There are countless small pits in the ground that were smaller graves. Over 8,000 people were killed and buried at Choeung Ek, which is the site we visited, and the largest of the Killing Fields. When walking around the area there are still remnants of clothing sticking out of the ground, as well as bone fragments scattered in different places. A sign marked a tree that was used by executioners to beat children and babies against, and a pile of bone fragments laid beside it. The whole experience was really overwhelming, and I'm glad we didn't go on the same day we went to Tuol Sleng. It's just so hard to understand how something like this could happen, and has happened many times before, and continues to happen today. I always wonder about the Cambodians I see that are old enough to have been alive during the Khmer Rouge regime--did they work under the Khmer Rouge, were they forced into labor or tortured by them, were there families killed by them? Jason said it would make an interesting book to go into the city and talk to people about their experience and role during that time.

On a lighter note, on our ride back to the city from the Killing Fields we drove past a motorbike that had a whole pig sliced open draped across the back of it. It was so disgusting; its hooves were dragging the ground, and its insides were totally exposed. It looked like it was probably alive this morning! We got a picture of it so hopefully it will get posted soon.