Dark tourism destinations in Cambodia

A recent talk with @PaulPavlinovich about general dark tourism sites, just reminds me about few essential sites of dark tourism in Cambodia. I feel sorrow just to go and visit these places, sometimes even sick coming back. But like Paul mentioned, we must treasure these places for a collective memory of why war is horrible and such mistakes should never be repeated.

Some painting left from Tamok' s leadership time

Long time ago, when I met westerners, I was surprised they don’t know about Cambodia unless I told them you heard of the Killing Fields? They nodded and said yes. So, this where I came from. But I don’t want people to know Cambodia from that perspective. I want people to know Cambodia as for more beautiful things like:

• The most beautiful beaches such as ‘Koh Rong’,
• The country that has beautiful temples such as ‘Angkor Wat’ or ‘Koh Ker’,
• The country of ‘Tom Raiders’,
• The country of marvelous ‘Royal Ballet Dance’ or
• The country that has a vibrant ‘Phare Circus performance’, or
• The best ‘rice country’ or
• The 'most friendly country' in the world,
• The best ‘pepper country’ or
• The best ‘silk product country’..

Of course, we had suffered the dark side of the history – about 40 years ago. However, people that lost their beloved ones can never forget it. They cannot even bring themselves to talk about how horrible it was.

Just for the information, the so-called Khmer Rouge (who used Red Scarf all the time with black suits) is an auto genocidal era from 1975-1979.

The major dark tourism sites are located majority in the capital Phnom Penh, where people were more educated and civilized, then were evacuated from the city, to rural areas, tortured to death in the prison. Those destinations (categorized by province) include:

• Phnom Penh: Tuol Sleng – S-21 prison memorial museum, The Killing Fields of Choeung Ek (very sad - must not visit them together)
• Siem Reap: Landmine Museum  - showcase of guns made into statues
• Oddar Meanchey: Pol Pot's cremation site in Anlong Veng & Ta Mok’s house (the last place where the KR leaders escaped to)
• Takeo: Kraing Tachan Security Center located at Kraing Tachan temple.
• Preah Vihear: Choam Te area along the border of Preah Vihear and Thailand – still landmines

The lake around Tamok House (for safety from the enemyInformation board at Tamok House

A series of events during the civil war

Victims from the war sought for forgiveness through Dhamma to rest at easeThe 'stupa' that is used to keep urns and bones of ancestors - during Pjum Ben and Khmer New Year where all descendants came forward to pay respect.

Notes: all these places are accessible by the people with disabilities - as they are parts of their losing. Many of Cambodian people with disabilities are the result of wars.