Choeung Ek (Khmer: ជើងឯក [cəəŋ aek]), the site of a former orchard and mass grave of victims of the Khmer Rouge - killed between 1975 and 1979 - about 17 km south of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, is the best-known of the sites known as The Killing Fields, where the Khmer Rouge regime executed over one million people between 1975 and 1979. Mass graves containing 8,895 bodies were discovered at Choeung Ek after the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime. Many of the dead were former political prisoners who were kept by the Khmer Rouge in their Tuol Sleng detention center.
Today, Choeung Ek is a memorial, marked by a Buddhist stupa. The stupa has acrylic glass sides and is filled with more than 5,000 human skulls. Some of the lower levels are opened during the day so that the skulls can be seen directly. Many have been shattered or smashed in.
Tourists are encouraged by the Cambodian government to visit Choeung Ek. Apart from the stupa, there are pits from which the bodies were exhumed. Human bones still litter the site. -taken from Wikipedia-
I have been there into the field. The situation is very dramatic yes, it even can reach out your emotion level.
The admission fee is USD.6 and include the self guide equipment tour, it is an audio equipment that is provided you information about the history of the field in 10 languages (as far as I remember), Indonesian may choose Malay language in this case. Tour makes me sad but so much interesting to educate myself of horrible history in this country and into the world history that make my eye open, I try to imagine the situation at the time when I was standing in the every spot of the tour there. Related with this situation, sometimes it can arise question for parents who has kids, do they do a right thing to bring their kids to this place ? It is a genocide field and must hard to explain to the kids on certain ages about it, I am aware about this as people talking about this issue in one of the travel forum. Yes it is good to have those concern but in Phnom Penh this is the major tourist attraction to be visited.
So again, for whoever like the world history, this is it, a must visit destination when you are in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
TIPS:
Take a tuk-tuk ride from the downtown (suggest to stay at Sisowath Quay) to the Killing Field, it will cost you at USD.23 return including around the city and other historical building such as the Palace, Russian Market,Pagoda, etc. At the time I was there the road still under construction so must get prepare of the mask and don't left the sun glasses too. <<Please be informed, this information I give based on my own experienceon July 2014)
