Visit to Toul Sleng Genocide Museum and Central Market

General information

DestinationCategory
Phnom Penh, CambodiaSightseeing Tours

Program details

Every nation has dark chapters in its past but Cambodia has provided one of the most harrowing in recent memory as this visit to the Toul Sleng Genocide Museum will reveal. The tour then takes you to the colourful Phnom Penh Central Market, the vibrancy of which will show how the city and country have recovered their vibrancy.

The complex now known as the Toul Sleng Genocide Museum was a high school located by the a train station when it was chosen as a detention by the fanatical communists of the Khmer Rouge when they came after their triumph at the end of the Cambodian Civil War in 1975. The school became the S-21 prison and interrogation facility. The overwhelming majority of those who passed through here were murdered. It now serves as a museum, a memorial and a testament to the tragic past of the Khmer Rouge regime. Much has been left in the state it was when the Khmer Rouge abandoned it in January 1979. The prison kept extensive records, leaving thousands of photos of the victims, many of which are on display.

See how life has regained a semblance of normality following the tyranny of the Khmer Rouge with a visit Psah Thmei, the Central Market. Its distinctive art deco design has made long made it stand out from the rest of the city but inside it is pure Phnom Penh: bustling, loud, chaotic and captivating. Hundreds of stalls sell everything under the sun from flowers to electrical goods.

Meeting/pick-up point: Hotels in central Phnom Penh.
Duration: Three hours.
Start/opening time: 9am and 2pm.
Languages: English.