Visit the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum

The small traffic jam is unusual for this suburban part of Phnom Penh. Tuk tuks jostle for space down a small road, trying to weave around each other and those parked on the side.

A larger tour bus blasts its horn and tries to impatiently push through. Motorbikes buzz amongst it all like little black flies.

And the reason for such traffic chaos? Tourists coming to visit the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum – an old school that was converted by the Khmer Rouge into a prison.

During the era of the Khmer Rouge, between 1975 and 1979, thousands of people were held captive here, many of them interrogated and tortured.

Almost all the prisoners were eventually executed, either here or at the Killing Fields on the outskirts of Phnom Penh.

These days, Cambodia is a beautiful country. It has one of the world’s most impressive heritage sites, Angkor Wat, as well as beautiful beaches and islands, and towns bursting with authentic culture.

Yet here at the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, crowds of international tourists – young and old – are buying tickets to see one of the main locations of the most horrific period in the country’s history.

I do understand why. I’ve also come out to see the museum, which includes many of the original prison rooms, as well as exhibitions about what went on here.

It’s an important part of the city (and the country’s) history and there’s no doubt it’s one of the best things to do in Phnom Penh, along with the Killing Fields on the outskirts of the city.

I definitely recommend you visit yourself, even though it’s quite an emotionally draining experience, and learn more about what the museum represents.

Yet, there is still something about the crowds of visitors that makes me feel a little bit uncomfortable.

It feels like… genocide tourism? Is that a thing?

Is it ethical to visit the S21 Prison?

If you’re anything like me, you’re going to cycle through a range of emotions when you visit the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum in Phnom Penh.

One of the things that strikes me quite early on is how morbid it feels to walk through the classrooms of the school that was here before it became the Khmer Rouge’s Security Prison 21 (S-21).

In some rooms there are still blackboards up on the wall. Blackboards… that were once used by children… in the rooms where prisoners were abused!

The prison here was for people accused of political crimes but most of the detainees had committed minor or no offences against the Khmer Rouge. Such was Pol Pot’s paranoia, he felt it better to kill an innocent than let a guilty person go free.

And so the more I see, the more the horrors of what happened here start to affect me.

And the more they affect me, the more I start to question whether I should even be here.

This is the scene of a war crime – a site used for the unimaginable torture and murder of innocent civilians – and I’m walking through it with my camera and water bottle as though it’s just another temple or museum.

But then I remember that, yes, it’s not a temple or a museum. It’s much more important than that.

And I’m not acting like it’s just any old tourist attraction. The fact I’m even thinking about this issue demonstrates that.

I can feel myself being more respectful than usual and there’s a different kind of contemplation to the way I look at and consider things.

In fact, I notice that all through the site there’s more silence than you might expect from a gathering of this many tourists. Even when there is conversation, it tends to be the kind of comments people make under their breath that gets caught in the throat at the first attempt.

But is politeness enough to justify opening up to the public a site of such evilness and brutality?

Is it disrespectful to those who were killed and tortured here?

Does the traffic jam of tuk tuks out front make it seem like a sideshow?

They’re the questions I continue to ask myself as I walk down a row of tiny cells that a classroom has been divided into.

What do you see at the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum

Many of the things you’ll see at the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum are just as they would’ve been in the late 1970s when the Khmer Rough was using these buildings as a prison.

Much of the exhibition, if you can call it that, is not a new manufactured display – but just a preservation of what was left here when the regime fell.

In many of the rooms, you’ll find small cells that have been installed along each side. Some are made from wood, with a small hatch in each door. Some are made roughly from bricks and don’t even go all the way to the ceiling.

It’s notable that there was no great care to the construction as long as they did the job.

Barbed wire still crosses the balconies of the building that holds many of the cells – although it seems unlikely a prisoner would be able to break the chains tying them to the ground in the cell to even get as far as the balcony.

In the rooms on the top floor (the third), there are no cells. Here the prisoners lay on the ground in two lines with their feet pointing to the centre, where their legs were locked into place. You can still see the numbers on the wall, marking each position.

Some of the rooms in the museum’s other buildings have on display a collection of the rudimentary items that were used here – chains, bars, metal beds.

There are black and white photos of the prison and some of the other sites associated with the Khmer Rouge regime and the genocide.

And then there is perhaps the most haunting part of the whole museum: row upon row of photos of people who were detained here… and ultimately killed.

And maybe that’s why somewhere like the S21 prison is open to the public – to see those little details.

Perhaps it is to put images to the stories, faces to the statistics, emotions to the crimes.

Because it is emotional and you can’t help but feel angry, sad, confused, and much more. It’s not until you see it for yourself that you really think about what happened here and what it meant.

On the surface, this can look like gratuitous genocide tourism. And, it’s true, you do hear some tourists talking about their plan to come here like they’re organising a trip to the cinema. But those people will be just as affected by the visit as anyone else.

In the mix of recent world history, I feel like the millions of deaths committed by the Khmer Rouge do not get the recognition they deserve – this was South East Asia’s Holocaust. So perhaps this is the best way to educate, to spread the horror stories, and to learn from the past.

There’s so much beauty in Cambodia and there’s a rich culture and heritage that goes back many centuries that the people here are very proud of.

That they are so willing to be open about a few dark and painful years in that history says a lot – and we can all learn something from that.

Visiting the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum

There is something a bit haunting about how normal the site seems from the outside. And, because it was originally just a suburban Phnom Penh high school, it’s fairly easy to reach from any part of the city.

Although there are buses that run nearby and it’s walkable from some areas, I would recommend getting a tuk tuk or Grab to the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, because it should only cost a dollar or two.

The content of the exhibitions is quite confronting and the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum itself suggests that visitors should be 14 years or older (although they won’t stop younger people from entering).

Most people will spend about an hour at the museum, although it can vary a bit depending on how much detail you want to go into.

There aren’t too many information signs, so you can just walk slowly through the different sections and take it in that way. Or, if you have a guide, it will probably take longer as you learn all about the history.

There are guides at the museum who can show you around, or you can organise a tour in advance.

I would actually suggest booking a tour that also includes visiting the Choeung Ek Killing Fields, because it can be a bit trickier to organise transport to get out to that site.

If you’re short of time and want to make the most of your stay in the city, I would recommend this day-long guided tour that takes you to the most important sights in Phnom Penh, including the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum.

Alternatively, there are a few great private tours that will lead you through the museum as well as the Killing Fields:

A few more bits of useful information for visiting the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum:

• You will need to be appropriately dressed to enter the museum. This usually means shoulders and midriffs covered. Shorts will generally be fine if they’re a respectful length, but short skirts or shorts will be considered inappropriate.
• The ground floors of all the buildings are accessible for wheelchairs, but the only access to upper floors is by stairs.
• Using mobile phones in the exhibition buildings is prohibited.

Also, watch out for any scams where people try to sell you tickets in the city or around the museum. Official tickets are only sold at the entrance booth, so make sure you buy yours from there.

For more information, see the official website of Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum.

If you’re looking for refreshments, there are a couple of places right across the road that I would recommend – noodle soup and similar dishes at a restaurant called Ven Kuy Teav Poipet, or a coffee shop called H2M Coffee Toul Sleng.

Because it’s in the centre of the city, you can easily combine a visit to the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum with some of the other main sights in Phnom Penh, like the Royal Palace and the National Museum.

And, as I’ve already mentioned, be sure to also visit the Killing Fields at Choeung Ek. Seeing both of these sites on the same day can be a bit overwhelming, but they definitely complement each other and will give you a full understanding of the horrors that occurred here almost 50 years ago.