In 1975, used to be Toul Sleng is a high school that became a detention and interrogation center when the Khmer Rouge took over.  It became Security Prison 21 or S-21 where thousands of innocent Cambodian people, and several foreigners were tortured and killed.  Maybe not for the weak-hearted, a visit to Toul Sleng Genocide Museum is intensely a depressing experience. The school’s former classrooms were converted into tiny prison and torture chamber. Prisoners were photographed and forced to give an account of their autobiographies from childhood until they were arrested. The rooms display harrowing black and white pictures of its prisoners, some of which were taken after they were tortured.  Many will cringe as they learn the methods by which the prisoners were gruelingly tortured to death.

The peaceful stretch of green fields of Cheung Ek may not indicate what kinds of horrors have taken place there. Situated 17km from Phnom Penh town, Cheung Ek was made famous by the movie “The Killing Fields”. Nowadays, a large memorial has been built to commemorate the 17,000 victims who died here under the reign of Khmer Rouge leader, Pol Pot. The remnants inside the memorial and the mass graves that dot the area remind you of the suffering of the victims. This journey into Cambodia’s past will provide you with a background on the cruelty of the Khmer Rouge regime. It will also give you an appreciation of the struggle that Cambodian people have faced and their tremendous courage to move on and rebuild their nation.