Why you should visit Phnom Penh prison and killing fields

We travelled the world visiting 15 countries in 10 months but nothing could have prepared us for the horror we found during our visits to the security prison and the killings fields, that day in Phnom Penh.

Pol Pot established Kampuchea, the Khmer Rouge controlled state, and took over the Tuol Svay Prey High School in the capital of Cambodia, Phnom Penh. He transformed it into Tuol Sleng the notorious security prison called S.21 a torture and interrogation centre run by the Khmer Rouge.

My first impression was surprise that this torture centre, or Genocide Museum as it is now known, was right in the middle of the city. It looks like any other high school; five three storey buildings, about the size of a UK junior school, face on to a play area with gym apparatus, courtyard and green lawns. We were to find out later that this play area and apparatus was adapted to torture prisoners.

Surprisingly, it is not in ruins, far from it, it is in near…