For many travellers, the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum (also known as S-21 prison) and the Killing Fields are a must-see destination when you visit Cambodia, yet for others it’s a place they would prefer to avoid. Some call these destinations ‘dark tourism’ as they say it exploits the tragedy of the country. You have to make up your own mind on this.

We, like many tourists chose to visit and in preparation, watched the film called ‘The Killing Fields’ (1984) the night before. This film is based on the real experiences of two journalists, Dinh Pran (a Cambodian) and Sydney Schanberg (an American).

S-21 prison (the codename used by the Khmer Rouge) is located 15 mins from Phnom Penh and you can hire a tuk tuk for $15 to take you here and to the Killing Fields, officially known as Choeung Ek Genocidal Center. We visited S-21 first which is a good place to start to learn about the genocide that took place here. In August 1975, three months after the Khmer Rouge took over the school it was turned into a prison.

For $6 you get entry and an audio guide, with an easy-to-follow map to guide you around and what numbers to listen to. The audio guide provides warning on when an account is graphic so you have the option to skip should you wish.

My first impressions on arriving was how peaceful the courtyard was, with plumeria and coconut palm trees swaying in the sunshine. However, within the walls of the former school, the true horrors start to unfold of the torturing and interrogation that happened here.

We saw iron beds, torture chambers, floors that still showed the stain of blood and around 6,000 mugshots of the victims faces ranging from young children, women and men of all ages. Even some women hold babies in their arms.

Once a victim confessed to being a traitor to the regime, they unwittingly signed their own death warrant and they were taken to a new location, the Killing Fields.

Thirty minutes south from S-21, over bumpy roads you reach the Killing Fields. For another $6 which includes another audio guide you can walk around and see the large mass graves. One was discovered to contain headless remains of Khmer Rouge officers. Another haunting location used in the murder of infants and babies was the killing tree. The reason for killing innocent children, was so no one would seek revenge later in life against the regime. We also learnt that to save bullets, they used various weapons from spades to axes to kill, before throwing the victims into the mass graves. At least one-fourth of the country’s population was killed during the Khmer Rouge regime, approximately 2 million people.

This continued for 4 years until 1979, when the Vietnamese Army stormed Cambodia to end the rule of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. It was only then that they discovered the genocide and mass graves here.

These locations stand as a chilling reminder of what darkness and atrocities humans are capable of. We can only hope that this never happens again.