Travelingbug.org

Choeung Ek Genocidal Center - The Killing Fields

During the end of the 1970's there was a cruel communist party that took over Cambodia called the Khmer Rouge Regime.  From 1975-1975 they murdered and tortured over 3 million people.  I have to be honest, during my time in high school and even college I had never even heard about this happening.  I started to hear about "The Killing Fields" while I was traveling through South America from other travelers who had just arrived from SE Asia.  I didn't fully understand what happened during this time period until I arrived in Phnom Phen, and actually read and experienced The Killing Fields and Tuol Sleng (former Khmer Rouge S-21 Prison...blog to come).

At this point of my world trip I was traveling with my friend Howard from Brighton, England.  When we arrived in Phnom Phen, the first thing we did was hire a tuk tuk to drive us around the city the next day.  We rented a driver for $10 US Dollars for the whole day.  We couldn't believe it was that cheap.  Hiring a tuk tuk driver is the best way to see the city, because the drivers where everything is and how to get there!

 

One of the first places that we visited was the Choeung Ek Genocidal Center.  This memorial center is a site where they found around 130 mass graves of bodies.  The Khmer Rouge Regime would take prisoners from the S-21 Prison (where they tortured them) to "The Killing Field" where they would execute their prisoners.  It is a place where you experience first hand how terrible things were during the Khmer Regime.    

There were already other tuk tuk's there with visitors that had already entered the grounds.  The admission price was $3 Us Dollars.  Once you pay the first thing you notice is this huge Memorial Charnel that you can see in the first picture above.  It was huge.  The closer and closer that I got I noticed that there was something unique about this memorial.  I finally realized that the whole Memorial is filled with SKULLS that they found while they were digging up these massive graves.  I had never seen anything like this in my life.  After walking up to the memorial and just taking a look around the grounds I then realized what actually took place at "The Killing Fields."

Climb Wayna Picchu - Video of the Week

I took this video of the week from the top of Wayna Picchu in Peru.  I explored Machu Picchu ("old peak") and Wayna Picchu ("young peak") with Liem from Ireland, and Daniel from Sweden, who I'd met in Cuzco, Peru two days earlier.  After getting a tour of Machu Picchu from a local guide (which takes about 1-2 hours) we were able to hang out and explore other parts of the World Heritage Site.  One thing that only 400 people a day are allowed to do is climb Wayna Picchu.  It is a hard climb up to the top of the mountain with skinny passages, and hard rocks to grab, but if you make it to the top it is well worth it.

The hike up the mountain took a little bit over an hour.  We had to take a couple of breaks since we were climbing almost straight up in some parts.  The altitude plays another factor in climbing Wayna Picchu is located about 2600 meters (almost 9000 feet) above sea level.  You run out of breath a lot quicker!  Once we made it to the top there was a lot of people that were just sitting on the rocks eating lunch and looking out over the mountains.  This video doesn't do the view any justice.  The Andes Mountains are so big and green that it felt surreal.  We hung out on top of the mountain for about 30 minutes before we came back down.  You should definitely climb Wayna Picchu if you ever get the chance to visit Machu Picchu, because it gives you a different view of one of the best sites to see in the world.  Peace

Running of the Bulls part II - Video of the week

Part two of the Running of the Bulls confirms that the most dangerous part of the run is actually in the ring.  The run (which you can see in Part 1) is only a couple of minutes long through the streets of Pamplona.  Once you reach the stadium they close the gates once the last bull gets in the ring.  So if you haven't made it in the stadium then you are locked out.  Once all of the bulls are out the ring the crowd goes crazy!  Then they start to release one bull at a time into the ring to run around for a couple of minutes. It is hard to get out of the bulls way, because there are so many people shoving and pushing that people get caught off guard and crushed by a bull!

In this video you will see all kinds of crazy stuff that happens inside the stadium!  Reed, who took the video, got a love tap from one of the bulls in the ring!  Enjoy the video that Reed put together!