After landing in Phnom Penh, we meet our driver Veasna, who takes us to our hotel. Dazed by the long flight, I feel assaulted by the stifling heat, the noise, and the motorcycles whizzing by in all directions… But my excitement starts to grow as we drive by beautiful ornate temples, small vendors, Buddhist monks, and tuk-tuks.
  
We first check in at the hotel to freshen up. Our first stop is Choeung Ek – the Killing Fields - about 15 kilometres from Phnom Penh. At first glance, Choeung Ek looks like a nice park, with palm trees scattered around a well-trimmed lawn –the kind of place families would go to for a Sunday picnic. We approach a small pagoda, or stupa. Behind the glass window, rows and rows of human skulls are neatly lined up.

During the Khmer Rouge regime, between 1975-1979, 20,000 people were brought to Choeung Ek, to be tortured and executed. 1.7 million Cambodians—21% of the population –lost their lives during this period.

“Most Cambodians have relatives or friends who have died here,” Veasna tells me. Even though he didn’t know any of the victims personally, he still comes here twice a year. “We bring food and flowers as presents, and we pray.”

An older, elegant man listens to our conversation intently, and smiles sadly. He tells us that he too, had been brought here and tortured. “They kick you here,” he says pointing to his neck, “at first with bare feet, and then, with their shoes on. They beat me for eight hours. At that moment, I was hoping to die.”

I ask the man whether he would like to share his story on camera. He refuses. “There is nothing special about my story. All Cambodians who have lived during this period have similar experiences and have suffered greatly–most, a lot more than me.”

Our next stop is Tuol Sleng Museum, the genocide museum. This building used to be an ordinary French high school. In 1975, it was taken over by Khmer Rouge security forces and turned into a prison known as S-21. This soon became the largest centre of detention and torture in the country.

We walk inside a large room filled with pictures. At their arrival, prisoners were dragged into this room to have their pictures taken. The portraits stare at me right in the eye with expressions of fear, terror, sadness or just plain resignation. They look at me in the same way they looked at their tormentors just before being tortured and executed.

When I wake up the following morning, it feels like I’ve woken up from a nightmare. It takes me a while to realise where I am, and still have trouble processing the events of yesterday. On my way to breakfast, a number of motortaxi and tuk tuk drivers race up to me: “Want to visit the Killing Fields? The genocide museum?”

I soon find out that Cambodia’s genocide has become a major tourist attraction. According to National Geographic, nearly all tourists will visit the temples of Angkor Wat. Over 30% will visit the Killing Fields.

Since 1998, the country’s economy has slowly started to heal, and the number of tourists has increased every year. This benefits the local people, and according to some, the tourists’ morbid fascination with the genocide helps certain Cambodians come to terms with their past.

But as Jan, one of my SNV colleagues points out, there are never any school buses with Cambodian kids coming to the museum. Apparently, the Khmer Rouge period is politically sensitive in Cambodia, partly because of the connections the current leadership has with the communist movement. According to the Documentation Centre of Cambodia, the genocide is not currently taught in schools, or is very much downplayed.  For this reason, Jan refuses to visit the museum or the Killing Fields.
 
Later on we leave for Kratie with Dany, another SNV colleague who works as a tourism advisor. Her goal is to convince the tourists coming to Cambodia that there is a lot more to her country than the Angkor Wat Temples and the Killing Fields. Kratie and the Mekong River are magnificent destinations that could appeal to many tourists, if only they knew about it.

In collaboration with UNWTO (UN World Tourism Organisation) and the Cambodian Ministry of Tourism, SNV promotes the Mekong Trail, and tries to convince the private sector and tour operators to include this destination in their tour packages.