Visit the land of temples and pagodas during Cambodia tour, perhaps tourists everywhere can hardly forget to visit a place in Cambodia leaving a lot of emotion, that is the Choeung Ek Killing Fields – where buried bodies of Cambodian killed during the civil war (1969- 1975) and under the murderous regime of Khmer Rouge (1975- 1979).
Travel to Cambodia, it seems that every traveler visits Choeung Ek Killing Fields. Although the tourist attraction where travelers visit is only a part of the killing fields, it is enough to feel the misery Cambodians had to go through in history. Located approximately 15 km from the capital – Phnom Penh and it takes about 30 minutes by car, Choeung Ek killing field is a historic destination attracting the largest number of tourists in Cambodia. It is a famous place where Pol Pot used to massacre a huge number of Cambodians named Choeung Ek. Later, the site was renamed The Killing Fields.
Despite just a story of the past, as visiting this place, it is still somewhere in the heart of tourists the thrill or little obsessive when they saw horrified scenes on the path with the skulls, the mass graves scattered human bones. In the killing fields, there are countless mass graves with names that any visitor listening to also feel scared such as Grave of 100 infants and mothers, Tomb with the largest number of bodies with 450 bodies, Tomb of the 166 no-head people, Tomb of 87 people who have lost hands, feet and so on. In the middle of the field, there is a monument of about 8,000 skulls inside, some of which still also recorded the traces of torture because when you look carefully, you will see the dashed lines, the grooves running along interrupted on the skull. That such cracks are recounting that Pol Pot instructed the brutal and inhumane acts by the hits by an ax, knife, stick on the head of the victim.
Walking through the gate into the memorial area, visitors will be equipped with a radio system with different languages to be able to understand thoroughly the points at Choeung Ek Killing Fields. There is also a gallery of instruments of murder and chemicals, a testament to the crimes of Pol Pot regime. Perhaps everyone has heard through his crimes, however, only visiting this place, listening thorough description of many things took place, visitors can be able to feel all the pain that Cambodians had to bear. Showing the compassion for human destiny, the wreaths of people who visit the Killing Fields are hung on fences the memorial area as a way to relieve somewhat ill-fated victims.
Discovering Cambodia, tourists should visit the Choeung Ek Killing Fields in order to learn and understand more about the lives of the people in this place. Learn to share and alleviate painful memories of the people of this land, understand to respect the equal and peaceful life we have, a life in which all individuals in a community can both be respected and treated fairly.
