I still had a pretty bad headache today but I had to get out and do something, both because I was leaving tomorrow and because I was feeling restless and claustrophobic in the guesthouse. I decided I could at least go see the Killing Fields (Choeung Ek Genocidal Center) and the Russian Market since they were the farthest out. I hired a tuk tuk to take me out and started wandering around the fields. They're actually very peaceful, not just a decent memorial, but truly calming. Butterflies flitted over the mass graves and birds chirped on the boughs of the Killing Tree.
The main shrine was filled with skulls and other bones and what was interesting (in an admittedly very morbid way,) was how in some cases you could tell what they died from (gunshot wound, beaten, etc.)
The Russian Market was okay, interesting but not as cool as the guidebook had made it sound (mostly by saying that this was where the clothes from nearby factories like Hurley or Abercrombie & Fitch ended up) so I just wandered a bit, got a pair of pants mended and then walked back to the guesthouse.
Actually, I did buy a korma (a traditional, and still in constant use, Cambodian scarf) simply because of part of the history I'd read. Several of the guidebooks had recommended getting one, just generally, but I'd been able to resist until I read about the group of Northeastern Cambodians who had really, seriously, resisted the Khmer Rouge, and who were branded by being forced to wear blue scarves. My guidebook didn't clarify if these were korma or not, and I doubt it has any meaning to anyone anymore, but I just loved the idea; of fighting for something you truly believe in and never giving up, even when there's no sliver of hope, and of fighting just to fight, because you have to, because there's nothing else to do.
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