Cambodia Killing Caves

We made our way into the killing caves in Cambodia, taking our shoes off at the entrance. The smell of incense burned in the air. I gazed up at a hole high above my head and knew that thousands of Cambodians had fallen to their deaths through that hole; not even bullets were to be wasted on their deaths just a push down a hole. Some may have had their throats cut. We stood barefoot in the dust and I hung my head for a minute or two as I tried to imagine the horror of what had happened. I felt sadness for the people who had died and disgust for the people who had committed these atrocities. 

My emotions were very strong and slightly overwhelming; they gave me a large sense of feeling lucky for the life I had. Not everyone experiences dark tourism locations in the same way, however, when I discussed my feelings with my friend, her reaction to the cave mirrored my own. I walked to a place where hundreds of skulls were kept in a shrine with reclining Buddha just meters away. Sunlight poured in a surreal glow around the whole cave and it was silent in there. I delved further into the cave, a strange feeling with no shoes on my feet. It felt natural that we were there even though people had died on this earth. Into the darkest parts of the caves we wandered, bats flapping around when aware of our presence. A peaceful silence gave me time to reflect on the terrible things the Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot had done and the heartbreaking genocide that had happened in the 1970s. 

Using Format