S-21

Tuesday, July 4
We walked to the Russian Market this morning with Ans and Avert.  The markets here are in large warehouse type buildings with narrow alleys and tons of things.  Not as overpowering as the Central Market, but the boys were happy to leave.  Everyone else grabbed a tuk tuk back to the hotel (the boys' first ride in the three wheel version), I headed to the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum.  We determined that this would be too extreme for the boys.  Coded S-21 by the Khmer Rouge, it is a former school that was converted into a prison where people were brought, interrogated and tortured, and then sent to the Killing Fields.  Between 17 000 and 20 000 people were imprisoned here.  There are only seven people know to have survived due to them having some skill deemed useful enough to keep them alive.  The museum is exceptionally well done, with visitors having personal audio devices and therefore being able to proceed at their own speed, and to avoid certain areas should they wish. 
Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge executed an estimated 3 million people, or about a quarter of the Cambodian population from 1975 to 1979.